Arcana Coelestia (Elliott) n. 6197

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6197. As often as anything which I have not known the source of has entered my thinking or the desires of my will and I have wished to know the source, it has been shown me. That is to say, I have been shown which communities it came from, and sometimes which spirits were their agents through whom it came. Those spirits have also talked to me at such times and have confessed that they were thinking about that particular matter and that they also knew it was coming to me and seemed to me to exist within me. Deceitful ones, who are visible directly overhead, have come to me, sometimes in such a clever way that I did not know where the influx came from, and I could hardly discern what flowed in as anything else than something that existed in and originated with me, as is ordinarily so with others. But as I knew quite definitely that it originated somewhere else, the Lord granted me a perception which was so keen that I discerned every detail of what flowed in from those deceitful spirits. I also discerned exactly where they were and exactly who they were. When they realized this they were highly indignant, especially at the idea that I could reflect on the fact that my thought had originated with them. That reflection came to me by way of the angels.

[2] In particular the deceitful spirits instilled ideas such as were opposed to the Lord, and on these occasions I was also led to reflect that no one in hell acknowledges the Lord, and that they speak as insolently against Him as they are allowed to, though they do not mind hearing mention made of the Father, the creator of all things. This experience, which is a very clear sign, makes it quite plain that the Lord is the One who reigns over the whole of heaven, as He Himself teaches in Matthew,

All power in heaven and on earth has been given to Me. Matt 28:18.

It also shows that those spirits are opposed to the Lord because they are opposed to heaven, in which the Lord is the All in all.


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