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“There are three distinct or vertical levels in us from creation. These three levels exist in each of us from birth and can be opened. As they are opened, we are in the Lord and the Lord is in us. We become involved in the first level, the one called ‘earthly,’ when we are born, and we can gradually expand this level within us until we become rational. We become involved in the second level, the one called ‘spiritual,’ if we live by the spiritual laws of the Divine design, laws that are Divine as to their truth; and we can also become involved in the third level, the one called ‘heavenly,’ if we live by the heavenly laws of the Divine design, laws that are Divine as to their goodness.” “As to how we can be more closely united to the Lord, this does not happen by simply knowing or by simply understanding or even by simply being wise; it happens by a life that is one with these states.” “Now since the Lord flows into everyone’s life and flows through our life’s desires into our perceptions and thoughts (and not the reverse), it follows that the closeness of our union with the Lord depends on the extent to which our love for evil and its desires – its compulsions – is dismissed.” “We can see from this that the closeness of our union with the Lord depends on the extent to which we abstain from evils as coming from the devil and as blocking the Lord’s entry. We can see that the union is closest for people who loathe these evils as though they were actually foul and fiery devils, since evil and the devil are one and the same, just as malicious falsity and Satan are one and the same.”“Our union with the Lord once our evils have been dismissed is what is referred to in the Lord’s words, ‘The pure in heart will see God’ (Matthew 5:8) and ‘I will make my dwelling with everyone who has my precepts and keeps them’ (John 14:21, 23).”
