When Good Becomes Good

From Arcana Coelestia ~ Emanuel Swedenborg

Spiritual food is in general all good, but specifically it is the good which is acquired by means of truth, that is, truth in the will and in act, for this good becomes good from the willing and doing, and is called the good of truth.

Unless truth thus becomes good, it does not benefit the man in the other life; for when he comes into the other life it is dissipated, because it does not agree with his will, thus not with the delight of his love.

He who has learned truths of faith in the world, not for the sake of willing and doing them and thus turning them into goods, but only that he may know and teach them for the sake of honor and gain, even although he may in the world be considered most learned, yet in the other life he is deprived of the truths and is left to his own will, that is, his life. And he then remains as he had been in his life; and wonderful to say he is then averse to all the truths of faith: and denies them to himself, howsoever he had before confirmed them.

To turn truths to goods by willing and doing them, that is, by life, is what is meant by appropriating the good of truth...

(Arcana Coelestia 5820)

The Working of the Angels into the Truths of Faith with Man

From Arcana Coelestia ~ Emanuel Swedenborg

There must be truths in the natural mind in order that good may work, and the truths must be introduced by means of the affection which is of genuine love. All things whatever that are in man's memory have been introduced by means of some love, and remain there conjoined with it. So also it is with the truths of faith - if these truths have been introduced by means of the love of truth, they remain conjoined with this love. When they have been conjoined, then the case is as follows.

If the affection is reproduced, the truths which are conjoined with it come forth at the same time; and if the truths are reproduced, the affection itself with which they have been conjoined comes forth at the same time. Wherefore during man's regeneration (which is effected in adult age, because previously he does not think from himself about the truths of faith) he is ruled by means of angels from the Lord, by being kept in the truths which he has impressed upon himself to be truths, and by means of these truths in the affection with which they have been conjoined; and as this affection, namely, of truth, is from good, he is thus led by degrees to good.

That this is so is evident to me from much experience, for I have noticed that when evil spirits have injected evils and falsities, then angels from the Lord kept me in the truths which had been implanted, and thus withheld me from evils and falsities.

From this also it was plain that the truths of faith, which have been inrooted by means of the affection of truth, are the plane into which angels work. Wherefore they who have not this plane cannot be led by angels, but suffer themselves to be led by hell, for the working of the angels cannot then be fixed anywhere, but flows through. But this plane cannot be acquired unless the truths of faith have been put into act, and thus implanted in the will, and through the will in the life.

It is also worthy of mention that the working of the angels into the truths of faith with man seldom takes place manifestly, that is, so as to excite thought about this truth; but there is produced a general idea of such things as are in agreement with this truth, together with affection. For this working is effected by means of an imperceptible influx, which when presented to the sight appears like an inflowing light, which light consists of innumerable truths in good, which encompass some single thing in the man, and keep him while in truth also in the love of this truth. Thus the angels elevate the mind of the man from falsities, and protect him from evils.

(Arcana Coelestia 5893)

One's 'LOVE' is the Whole Man

From Heaven and Hell ~ Emanuel Swedenborg

Every man's ruling affection or love remains with him after death, nor is it rooted out to eternity, since a man's spirit is wholly what his love is, and what is unknown, the body of every spirit and angel is the outward form of his love, exactly corresponding to his inward form, which is the form of his disposition and mind; consequently the quality of his spirit is known from his face, movements, and speech. While a man is living in the world the quality of the spirit would be known if he had not learned to counterfeit in his face, movements, and speech what is not his own. All this shows that man remains to eternity such as his ruling affection or love is.

(Heaven and Hell 363a)