Selection from Apocalypse Explained ~ Emanuel Swedenborg
As the Divine truth, when passed from the Lord Himself through the three heavens down to men in the world, was written and became the Word in each heaven, therefore the Word is the union of the heavens with each other, and the union of the heavens with the church in the world. For the Word is the same everywhere, differing only in the perfection of glory and wisdom according to the degrees in which the heavens are; consequently the holy Divine from the Lord flows in through the heavens with the man in the world who acknowledges the Lord's Divine and the holiness of the Word when he reads it; and so far as such a man loves wisdom, he can be instructed and can imbibe wisdom from the Word as from the Lord Himself, or from heaven itself, and can thus be nourished with the food with which the angels themselves are nourished, and in which there is life; according to these words of the Lord:The words that I speak unto you are spirit and are life (John 6:63).
The water that I will give you shall become a fountain of water springing up unto eternal life (John 4:14).
Man doth not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God (Matt. 4:4).
Work for the food that abideth unto eternal life, which the Son of man shall give unto you (John 6:27)Such is the Word.
(to be continued)
(Apocalypse Explained 1074:2)