Heaven and Hell - Swedenborg Foundation

HEAVEN AND HELL 168
26
The Power of the Angels
of Heaven
228. That the angels possess power cannot be comprehended
by those who know nothing about the spiritual world and its
influx into the natural world. Such think that angels can have
no power because they are spiritual and are even so pure and
unsubstantial that no eye can see them. But those who look
more interiorly into the causes of things take a different view.
Such know that all the power that a man has is from his
understanding and will (for apart from these he is powerless to
move a particle of his body), and his understanding and will
are his spiritual man. This moves the body and its members at
its pleasure; for whatever it thinks the mouth and tongue
speak, and whatever it wills the body does; and it bestows its
strength at pleasure. As man’s will and understanding are ruled
by the Lord through angels and spirits, so also are all things of
his body, because these are from the will and understanding;
and if you will believe it, without influx from heaven man
cannot even move a step. That this is so has been shown me by
much experience. Angels have been permitted to move my
steps, my actions, and my tongue and speech, as they pleased,
and this by influx into my will and thought; and I have learned
thereby that of myself I could do nothing. I was afterwards told
by them that every man is so ruled, and that he can know this
from the doctrine of the church and from the Word, for he
prays that God may send his angels to lead him, direct his
steps, teach him, and inspire in him what to think and what to
say, and other like things; although he says and believes
otherwise when he is thinking by himself apart from doctrine.