Also, “Behold! I am standing at the door and knocking. If any hear my
voice and open the door, I will come in and will dine with them and they
with me” (Revelation 3 : 20 ).
In conclusion, as we prepare ourselves in an earthly way to receive the
Lord, the Lord comes in and makes all the earthly things in us spiritual
and therefore alive. On the other hand, however, the less we prepare our-
selves, the more we distance the Lord from ourselves and do everything
on our own; and what we do on our own has no life in it.
These points cannot be put in any clearer light before we come to the
chapters on goodwill [§§ 392 – 462 ] and free choice [§§ 463 – 508 ]. Similar
points will also appear later on in the chapter on reformation and regen-
eration [§§ 571 – 625 ].
In the preceding sections, I stated that our faith starts out as some- 360
thing earthly, but as we move toward the Lord it becomes spiritual; and
the same applies to our goodwill. No one yet knows the difference, how-
ever, between earthly and spiritual faith and goodwill. This great mystery
needs to be disclosed.
There are two worlds, the physical world and the spiritual world.
Each world has a sun. From each sun emanates heat and light. The heat
and light from the sun of the spiritual world have an intrinsic life in them
from the Lord, who is within that sun. The heat and light from the sun
of the physical world, on the other hand, have no intrinsic life in them.
Instead they serve as vessels for the two higher forms of heat and light (as
instrumental causes usually do for their principal causes) and serve to
convey that higher heat and light to people.
It is important to realize, therefore, that the heat and light from the
sun in the spiritual world are the source of all that is spiritual. That heat
and that light are themselves spiritual as well, because they have spirit
and life within them. The heat and light from the sun in the physical
world are the source of all physical things. Physical things in and of
themselves have no spirit or life.
[ 2 ] Now, since faith relates to light and goodwill to heat, clearly if we
are in the light and heat that emanate from the sun of the spiritual world,
we have a faith and a goodwill that are spiritual. If we are limited to the
heat and light that emanate from the sun of the physical world, we are
limited to a faith and a goodwill that are earthly.
As spiritual light lies within physical light as if it was in its own vessel
or container, and spiritual heat lies within physical heat in the same way, it
follows that spiritual faith lies within earthly faith, and spiritual goodwill
§360 faith 429