36. I became in the spirit on the Lord's day. (1:10) This symbolizes a spiritual state then owing to Divine influx.

"I became in the spirit" means, symbolically, a spiritual state, the state in which John was while he was experiencing the visions, and which we will take up in the following exposition. "On the Lord's day" symbolizes influx from the Lord then, for that day brings the Lord's presence, as it is a holy day.

Concerning the prophets we read that they were in the spirit or in vision, and that the Word came to them from Jehovah.

When they were in the spirit or in vision, they were not in the body, but in their spirit, a state in which they saw phenomena such as are found in heaven. But when the Word came to them, they were then in the body and heard Jehovah speaking.

These two states of the prophets must be properly distinguished. In the state of vision the eyes of their spirit were open and the eyes of their body closed; and they heard then what angels said, and what Jehovah said through angels, and also saw representations produced for them in heaven. Moreover, they sometimes seemed to themselves to be taken then from place to place, their body remaining where it was.

[2] This was the state in which John was when he wrote the book of Revelation, and the state sometimes experienced by Ezekiel, Zechariah, and Daniel. They also said that they were then in vision or in the spirit. For Ezekiel says,

The Spirit lifted me up... and brought me back into Chaldea, to those in captivity, in a vision (of God), in the spirit of God. (Thus) went up from me the vision that I had seen. (Ezekiel 11:1, 24)

He also says that the Spirit lifted him up, and he heard behind him an earthquake, and more (Ezekiel 3:12, 24). So, too, that the Spirit lifted him up between earth and heaven, that it brought him in visions of God to Jerusalem, and that he saw abominations (Ezekiel 8:3f.). He was likewise in a vision of God or in the spirit when he saw the four living creatures, which were cherubim (Ezekiel 1; 10), as also when he saw a new earth and a new temple, and an angel measuring them (Ezekiel 40; 41; 42; 43; 44; 45; 46; 47; 48). That he was then in the visions of God, he himself says (Ezekiel 40:2), and that the spirit lifted him up (Ezekiel 43:5).

[3] The same was the case with Zechariah, who had an angel with him at the time, when he saw a man riding a horse among the myrtle trees (Zechariah 1:8ff.); when he saw the four horns, and then a man with a measuring line in his hand (Zechariah 1:18; 2:1ff.); when he saw Joshua the high priest (Zechariah 3:1ff.); when he saw the lampstand and two olive trees (Zechariah 4:1ff.); when he saw the flying scroll and the ephah (Zechariah 5:1, 6); when he saw the four chariots coming from between two mountains, and the horses (Zechariah 6:1ff.).

Daniel was in a like state when he saw the four beasts coming up from the sea (Daniel 7:1ff.), and when he saw the combat between the ram and the male goat (Daniel 8:1ff.). He himself says that he saw these things in visions (Daniel 7:1-2, 7, 13; 8:2; 10:1, 7-8), and that the angel Gabriel appeared to him in a vision (Daniel 9:21).

[4] The same was the case with John, as when he saw the Son of Man in the midst of the seven lampstands (Revelation 1), and finally, the new heaven and the new earth, and then the New Jerusalem coming down out of heaven (Revelation 21, 22. John himself says that he saw these things in the spirit and in vision (1:10; 4:2; 9:17; 21:10). This, too, is meant by the statement, "I saw," everywhere it occurs in this book.

[5] It is clearly apparent from this that to be in the spirit is to be in a state of vision, which is brought about by an opening of the sight of a person's spirit; and when this is opened, phenomena found in the spiritual world are as clearly visible as those in the natural world are to the sight of the body.

The reality of this is something I can attest to from many years' experience.

The disciples were in this state when they saw the Lord after His resurrection, which is why are told that their eyes were opened (Luke 24:30-31).

Abraham was in a like state when he saw the three angels and spoke with them. ¹

So, too, Hagar, Gideon, Joshua and others, when they saw angels of Jehovah. Likewise when Elisha's lad saw the mountain full of fiery chariots and horses all around Elisha, for Elisha prayed and said,

"Jehovah, open, I pray, his eyes that he may see." And Jehovah opened the eyes of the lad, and he saw. (2 Kings 6:17)

As regards the Word, however, it was not revealed in a state of the spirit or of vision, but the Lord dictated it to the prophets in an audible voice. Consequently we are nowhere told that the prophets spoke it from the Holy Spirit, but from Jehovah. See The Doctrine of the New Jerusalem Regarding the Lord, no. 53.

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68. And His eyes as a flame of fire, signifies Divine Providence from His Divine love. This is evident from the signification of "eyes," as being the understanding (See above, n. 37); and in reference to the Lord, as meaning presence, and thus providence (See Arcana Coelestia 3869[1-14], 10569) of which in what follows; also from the signification of "a flame of fire," as meaning, in reference to the Lord, Divine love. "A flame of fire" means Divine love because from heaven the Lord appears as a sun, and the Divine that proceeds from Him as light, flaming light in the inmost or third heaven, and bright white light in the middle or second heaven. The Divine love itself is what thus appears. From this it is that in the Word "fire" and "flame" signify love (as can be seen from what is shown in the Arcana Coelestia, namely, that in the Word "fire" signifies love in each sense, n. 934, 4906, 5215. That sacred and celestial fire is Divine love, and every affection which is of that love, see n. 934, 6314, 6832. That there are two origins of heat, one the sun of the world, from which all things vegetate upon the earth, the other the sun of heaven, which is the Lord, from which angels and men derive the all of life, see n. 3338, 5215, 7324. That love is the fire of life, and that life itself is actually therefrom, see n. 4906, 5071, 6032, 6314. That flame is truth from the good of the inmost heaven, and light truth from the good of the middle heaven, see n. 3222, 6832; the reason is, that light in the inmost heaven appears flaming, and in the middle heaven bright white, see n. 9570; and likewise in the work on Heaven and Hell 116-140. In reference to the Lord, "eyes" signify Divine Providence, because, in reference to man, they signify understanding; and the Divine understanding, because it is infinite, is Divine Providence. Nothing else is signified by the "eyes" of Jehovah in Isaiah:

Incline thine ear, O Jehovah, and hear; and open thine eyes, O Jehovah, and see (Isaiah 37:17).

In Jeremiah:

I will set Mine eye upon them for good, and I will bring them again to their land, ¹ and I will build them (Jeremiah 24:6).

In David:

Behold the eye of Jehovah is upon them that fear Him (Psalms 33:18);

and in the same:

Jehovah is in the temple of His holiness, His eyes behold, and His eyelids prove the sons of man (Psalms 11:4);

and elsewhere. (What Divine Providence is, see The Doctrine of the New Jerusalem 267-279.)

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