8176. 'And you are to be silent' means that by their own powers they will achieve [absolutely] nothing. This is clear from the meaning of 'being silent' as resting content and, since temptations are the subject, refusing to think or believe that they achieve anything by their own powers, regarding which matter see what has been stated and shown above in 8172, 8175. Even so this does not mean that they should stay their hands and wait for immediate influx; rather they should fight as though they acted from themselves, but nevertheless should acknowledge and believe that they act from the Lord, see 1712, 1937, 1947, 2882, 2883, 2891.

2891. Those who have become spirits only recently torment themselves very much by trying to grasp the idea that no one is able to do good of himself, or to think what is true of himself, but that he does so from the Lord. For they believe that if that idea is true they would accordingly be like mere machines and have control of nothing at all; and that being so they would let hands hang down and allow themselves to be acted upon. But they are told that they ought by all means to think, to will, and to do good of themselves, and that in no other way could they have a heavenly proprium and heavenly freedom. But they are also told that they ought nevertheless to acknowledge that good and truth do not originate in themselves but in the Lord, and they are informed that such acknowledgement and indeed perception that this is so exists with all angels. And the more keenly they perceive that they are led by the Lord and so abide in Him the more they are in freedom.