Spirit of God
'The spirit of God,' as in Genesis 1:2, signifies the divine mercy of the Lord.
'The spirit of God' denotes good from an interior level, so from the divine. The spirit of God is what proceeds from the divine, so from good itself, because the divine is good itself, and what proceeds from it is truth within which is good. This is what 'the spirit of God' signifies in the Word, because the spirit itself does not proceed, but the truth itself within which is good, the spirit being the instrument which produces it.
(Verweise: Arcana Coelestia 19; Divine Love and Wisdom 100)
Divine Love and Wisdom #100
100. The heat and light that emanate from the Lord as the sun are by virtue of their preeminence what we call the spiritual essence, and we call them the spiritual essence in the singular because they are one. Consequently in subsequent discussions where we mention the spiritual essence, we mean the two together.
It is because of that spiritual essence that that entire world is called spiritual. All the constituents of that world have their origin in consequence of that spiritual essence, and so also their designation.
The reason we call that heat and that light the spiritual essence is because God is called spirit, 1 and God as spirit is that emanating essence. In relation to His own essence God is called Jehovah; but it is by that emanating essence that He animates and enlightens angels in heaven and people in the church. Consequently animation and enlightenment are said to be accomplished by the spirit of Jehovah. 2
Fußnoten:
2. See for example Judges 3:10, 6:34, 11:29, 13:25, 14:6, 19, 15:14; 1 Samuel 10:6, 16:13; 2 Samuel 23:2; 1 Kings 18:12; Isaiah 11:2, 59:19, 61:1; Ezekiel 11:5, 37:1; Micah 2:7, 3:8. Cf. the spirit of God, Genesis 1:2, 41:38; Exodus 31:3, 35:31; Numbers 24:2; 1 Samuel 10:10, 11:6, 19:20, 23; Ezekiel 11:24; Daniel 5:14.
