abilities to bring us to a state of partnership with him; in this state he
then reforms us, regenerates us, and saves us.
[ 6 ] “The life that flows into us comes from the Lord. This life is also
called the spirit of God. In the Word it is called the Holy Spirit. The
Word says that the Holy Spirit enlightens us and brings us to life, and
even that it works inside us. This life is varied and modified, however, by
the structure that is created in us by what we love.
“Another way to tell that all the goodness of love and goodwill and all
the truth of wisdom and faith flow in rather than coming from ourselves
is this: People who think that goodness and truth have been in us since
creation eventually cannot avoid thinking that God poured himself into
us and therefore we are partly gods. Yet people who think this and believe
it become devils. When they are among us, they reek like corpses.
[ 7 ] “Further, what else is human action except the mind acting?
Whatever the mind intends and thinks, it does and says through its
organ, the body. Therefore when our mind is led by the Lord, our words
and actions are also led by the Lord; our words and actions are led by the
Lord when we believe in him.
“If this is not true, tell me—if you can—why the Lord has com-
manded us in a thousand passages in his Word to love our neighbor, to
perform acts of goodwill, to bear fruit like a tree, to obey what he com-
mands, and to do all this so that we will be saved. For another thing, why
did he say that we are judged by the actions and works we have done—
people who do good things being judged to heaven and to life while peo-
ple who do evil things are judged to hell and to death? The Lord would
not say things like these if everything we accomplished was done to earn
merit and was therefore evil. It is important for you to know, therefore,
that if the mind is goodwill, then the action is goodwill; but if the mind
is faith alone, which is also faith separated from spiritual goodwill, the
action is also that same faith.”
[ 8 ] The people sitting under the laurel tree then said, “We under-
stand that you have spoken the truth—we just don’t understand what
you said.”
“You understand that I spoke the truth,” I replied, “because of the
general awareness that people have from the light that flows in from
heaven when they hear something true. You don’t understand it because
of your own awareness, which is something people have from the light
that flows in from the world. These two kinds of awareness, an inner one
and an outer one, or a spiritual one and an earthly one, become united in
singke
(singke)
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