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FEAR OR FAITH |
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People do not even know that faith is an affection for what is true, an affection that comes from a heavenly love that comes from the Lord. Emanuel Swedenborg [HH 480] Fear not, little flock, for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom (Luke 12:32). Fear not; I am the First and the Last.— Revelation i. 17. We do need to recognize, though, that volition makes us who we are. Thought does so only to the extent that it arises from our volition, while deeds and works come from both. Or in other words, love is what makes us who we are; faith does so only to the extent that it arises from love, and deeds and works come from both. It follows from this that love or intent is the actual person, for the things that come forth belong to the person they come forth from. Emanuel Swedenborg [HH 474] |
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FEAR IS THE UNWILLINGNESS TO SURRENDER TO REALITY OR LOVE The Truth is that the universe is not just physical; it is higher-dimensional. And these higher dimensions are dimensions of mind and spirit. Our inner state of being is far more important than our outer circumstances. In fact, we can acquire the wealth and glory of the whole world and still be miserable. The only way to eliminate fear is by understanding Truth and practicing Love. We must turn around and face God again. When we surrender to Reality or Love, our fear dissolves. Like Light dispels darkness, Divine Truth/Love casts out all fear. FAITH IS AN ACKNOWLEDGMENT OF TRUTH Swedenborg says that those who behaved according to conscience and lived a reasonable life of neighborly love in the world must still be instructed and prepared after they die and before they are raised into the communities of Heaven because this is the only way Heaven can flow into their life. But we can also do this before we die because faith is acknowledging and believing the Truth of spiritual realities: THIRD STATE OF MAN AFTER DEATH, The third state of man after death, that is, of his spirit, is a state of instruction. This state is for those who enter heaven and become angels. It is not for those who enter hell, because such are incapable of being taught, and therefore their second state is also their third, ending in this, that they are wholly turned to their own love, thus to that infernal society which is in a like love. When this has been done they will and think from that love and as that love is infernal they will nothing but what is evil and think nothing but what is false; and in such thinking and willing they find their delights, because these belong to their love; and in consequence of this they reject everything good and true which they had previously adopted as serviceable to their love as means. Good spirits, on the other hand, are led from the second state into the third, which is the state of their preparation for heaven by means of instruction. For one can be prepared for heaven only by means of knowledges of good and truth, that is, only by means of instruction, since one can know what spiritual good and truth are, and what evil and falsity are, which are their opposites, only by being taught. One can learn in the world what civil and moral good and truth are, which are called justice and honesty, because there are civil laws in the world that teach what is just, and there is interaction with others whereby man learns to live in accordance with moral laws, all of which have relation to what is honest and right. But spiritual good and truth are learned from heaven, not from the world. They can be learned from the Word and from the doctrine of the church that is drawn from the Word and yet unless man in respect to his interiors which belong to his mind is in heaven spiritual good and truth cannot flow into his life; and man is in heaven when he both acknowledges the Divine and acts justly and honestly for the reason that he ought so to act because it is commanded in the Word. This is living justly and honestly for the sake of the Divine, and not for the sake of self and the world, as ends. But no one can so act until he has been taught, for example, that there is a God, that there is a heaven and a hell, that there is a life after death, that God ought to be loved supremely, and the neighbor as oneself, and that what is taught in the Word, ought to be believed because the Word is Divine. Without a knowledge and acknowledgment of these things man is unable to think spiritually; and if he has no thought about them he does not will them; for what a man does not know he cannot think, and what he does not think he cannot will. So it is when man wills these things that heaven flows into his life, that is, the Lord through heaven, for the Lord flows into the will and through the will into the thought, and through both into the life, and the whole life of man is from these. All this makes clear that spiritual good and truth are learned not from the world but from heaven, and that one can be prepared for heaven only by means of instruction. Moreover, so far as the Lord flows into the life of any one He instructs him, for so far He kindles the will with the love of knowing truths and enlightens the thought to know them; and so far as this is done the interiors of man are opened and heaven is implanted in them; and furthermore, what is Divine and heavenly flows into the honest things pertaining to moral life and into the just things pertaining to civil life in man, and makes them spiritual, since man then does these things from the Divine, which is doing them for the sake of the Divine. For the things honest and just pertaining to moral and civil life which a man does from that source are the essential effects of spiritual life; and the effect derives its all from the effecting cause, since such as the cause is such is the effect. Emanuel Swedenborg [HH512] |
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FAITH WITHOUT LOVE (OR CHARITY) IS INSUBSTANTIAL OR USELESS Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows. Whoever sows to please their flesh, from the flesh will reap destruction; whoever sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life. Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up. Galatians 6:7-9 We think we live in a physical world. But the Truth is we live in a higher-dimensional universe, which includes being and consciousness. Therefore, it is important to make sure that what we believe is True but it is even more crucial to do the will of God through loving and useful works. This is our protection: our true beliefs, kind intentions and loving works. Then, even if we are faced with a pack of lions, they cannot hurt us because we have conquered the fear that is within ourselves. |
Copyright © 2011-2014 A. J. Coriat All rights reserved. |