10203. 'Incense shall be continual before Jehovah' means in all worship springing from love received from the Lord. This is clear from the meaning of 'incense' as worship springing from love, dealt with in 9475; from the meaning of 'continual' as all and within all, dealt with in 10133; and from the meaning of 'before Jehovah' as from the Lord, dealt with in 10146. The expression 'worship springing from love received from the Lord' is used because both faith and love, the essential elements of worship, come from the Lord, and also the raising up to the Lord of everything of worship is done by Him. The person who has no knowledge of the arcana of heaven supposes that worship comes from himself since he thinks about and pays homage to the Lord. But worship which comes from a person himself is not worship; only that which comes from the Lord with a person is such. For love and faith compose worship, and since love and faith come from the Lord worship too comes from Him. Nor is a person able to raise anything from himself up to heaven; it is the Lord who raises it. Within the person there is solely the capacity for this to happen, which he is endowed with when being regenerated, 6148; but all the motive force and energy of that capacity come from the Lord.

Life itself comes from the Lord, and men and angels are recipient forms, see 1954, 2021, 2536, 2706, 3001, 3318, 3484, 3741-3743, 4151, 4249, 4318-4320, 4417, 4523, 4524, 4882, 5847, 5986, 6325, 6467, 6468, 6470, 6472, 6479, 9338.

6479. Some not so upright spirits who were once with me for quite a time were constantly introducing doubts that were based on the illusions of the senses and went against the idea that all things can flow in from a single source, and so from the Lord. But I told them that so many doubts could not be removed in a short space of time, on account of the illusions of the senses which had to be dispelled first and on account of their lack of knowledge of countless things which they needed to know first. Indeed I told them that with people who have a negative frame of mind, that is, who are ruled through and through by a negative attitude, doubts cannot by any means be removed; for with these people one small difficulty has more validity than a thousand proofs. With them one small difficulty is like a grain of sand placed right in front of the pupil of the eye, and although it is only a single grain and very tiny it nevertheless blocks one's entire field of vision. But people who have an affirmative frame of mind, that is, who are ruled through and through by an affirmative attitude, turn away small difficulties which are based on the illusions of the senses and go against truths; and any things they cannot grasp they cast aside, saying that they do not yet understand them, and in so doing hold fast to their belief in the truth. But the spirits mentioned above paid little attention to what they were told because of their negative frame of mind.