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Ever heard of a commitment device? Basically it is a method of ensuring we succeed in an area where we would otherwise fail. A common one is to buy an expensive gym membership as a way of motivating us to go to the gym. I came across one example of a commitment device that was where a general set up his army with their backs to a body of water, thus preventing them from retreating. He was committing them to an attack. And it worked. The story reminded me of God parting the Red Sea for the Children of Israel... and made me wonder, "Does God use commitment devices?" I think He does. And I'll tell you why.

(Odkazy: Arcana Coelestia 6472; Exodus 14:14-31)

6472. The nature of the influx of both kinds of life - the life of thought and the life of the will coming from the Lord - has been made known to me through revelation. That is to say, I have been shown that the Lord flows in in two ways - indirectly by way of heaven, and from Himself directly - and that the influx from Himself is both into the rational levels of a person's mind, which are his interior ones, and into the natural levels of it, which are his exterior ones. What flows in from the Lord is the good of love and the truth of faith, for what goes forth from the Lord is Divine Truth holding Divine Good within it. But the way a person receives them varies, that is to say, his particular character determines how they are received.

[2] The Lord does not compel a person to accept what flows in from Himself but leads him in freedom; and so far as the person allows He leads him by means of freedom to good. Thus the Lord leads a person in accordance with his delights. He also leads him in accordance with his illusions and resulting false assumptions; but from these He gradually leads him away, though it seems to the person as though he leads himself away. Thus the Lord does not shatter those assumptions, for that would violate the person's freedom, which must of necessity exist if a person is to be reformed, 1937, 1947, 2875, 2876, 2881, 3145, 3146, 3158, 4031. The fact that the Lord flows into a person in this way - not only indirectly by way of heaven, but also from Himself directly, both into the interior levels of a person's mind and into the exterior ones - is an arcanum that has remained unknown up to now.