May 10, 2018

Revelation Through Prayer

Selection from Arcana Cœlestia ~ Emanuel Swedenborg
Prayer, regarded in itself, is speech with God, and some internal view at the time of the matters of the prayer, to which there answers something like an influx into the perception or thought of the mind, so that there is a certain opening of the man's interiors toward God; but this with a difference according to the man's state, and according to the essence of the subject of the prayer.
If the man prays from love and faith, and for only heavenly and spiritual things, there then comes forth in the prayer something like a revelation (which is manifested in the affection of him that prays) as to hope, consolation, or a certain inward joy. It is from this that to "pray" signifies in the internal sense to be revealed.
Still more is this the case here, where praying is predicated of a prophet, by whom is meant the Lord, whose prayer was nothing else than internal speech with the Divine, and at the same time revelation. That there was revelation is evident in Luke:
It came to pass when Jesus was baptized, and prayed, that the heaven was opened  (Luke 3:21).
In the same:
It came to pass that He took Peter, James, and John, and went up into the mountain to pray; and as He prayed, the fashion of His countenance was altered, and His raiment became white and glistening  (Luke 9:28-29).
In John:
When He prayed, saying, Father glorify Thy name, then came there a voice from heaven: I have both glorified, and will glorify again  (John 12:27-28);
where it is plain that the Lord's "praying" was speech with the Divine, and revelation at the same time.
(Arcana Cœlestia 2535)