59. The reason only edible and green plants are mentioned here as food for the natural man is this: While a person is being regenerated and becoming spiritual he is involved constantly in conflict, which is why the Lord's Church is called militant. For before regeneration started, evil desires were in control, since the whole person consisted entirely of evil desires and resulting falsities. During the process of regeneration his desires and falsities cannot be done away with instantly, since that would amount to destroying the whole person; indeed he has not acquired any other life for himself. So for a long time evil spirits are left with him to activate his desires, and so release them in countless ways. Indeed the spirits are left there to do this in order that those desires may be turned by the Lord towards something good, and in this way the person may be reformed. In the hour of conflict evil spirits are present who absolutely hate everything that is good and true, that is, every element of love and faith in the Lord - elements that alone are good and true because they contain eternal life. These evil spirits leave a person with no other food than that which is compared to edible and green plants. But the Lord gives him a food as well that is compared to the plant yielding seed and to the tree in which there is fruit. These are periods of peace and calm attended by their forms of delight and happiness. This cycle occurs repeatedly.

[2] If the Lord did not protect man moment by moment, and in every shortest instant, he would immediately perish, for there is such murderous hatred reigning in the world of spirits against all forms of love and faith in the Lord as to defy description. I can positively declare that this is so, because for several years now, although still in the [physical] body, I have also been in the next life in the company of spirits. I have been surrounded by evil spirits, even the worst of them, sometimes by thousands, who have been allowed to pour out their venom and molest me in every possible way, but who nevertheless could do no harm to the tiniest hair on my head, so well did the Lord protect me. From all these years of experience I have become thoroughly informed about the character of the world of spirits and also about the conflict which people who are being regenerated must inevitably undergo if they are to attain the happiness of eternal life. But because nobody from just a general description can be so well informed as to have a faith free from doubt, these matters in the Lord's Divine mercy will therefore be noted in greater detail later on.

10729. 'Six days shall work be done' means the first state in the regeneration of a person by the Lord, and in the highest sense the first in the glorification of the Lord's Human. This is clear from the meaning of 'six days' - which come before the seventh or the sabbath, and during which work must be done - as the first state in the regeneration of a person by the Lord, a state when a person is in possession of truths and is being led by means of them towards good, and is engaged in conflicts, dealt with in 8510, 8888, 9431, 10360. As regards its further meaning as a state in the glorification of the Lord's Human when He was in the world, employing Divine Truth to fight the hells, and restoring all things there and in the heavens to a state of order, see 10360. There are two states which a person passes through while being regenerated by the Lord; the first exists when he is in possession of truths and is being led by means of them towards good, the second when he is in possession of good and from good sees and loves truths. In the first state the person is, it is true, being led by the Lord, yet by means of what is his own; for when people are motivated by truths they are motivated by something in themselves, but when they are motivated by good they are motivated by the Lord.

[2] From this it is evident that so far as a person allows himself to be led by means of truths towards good he is led by the Lord and towards the Lord; for in all things which have been joined together there is action and response, good being that which acts and truth that which responds. Truth however is never moved to respond of its own accord; it is moved to do so only by good. Consequently so far as truth is receptive of good it acts in response to it, and so far as it acts in response, it is joined to it. From this it also follows that before a person is joined to the Lord, the Lord spurs him on towards Himself by means of truths; and so far as the person allows himself to be led he is joined to the Lord, for God's truths are by nature such that they conform with good, because truths are conformable to good. As a result the person possesses perception, which is essentially a form of response. Allowing oneself to be spurred on or led by means of truths towards good implies living in accordance with them. These things have been mentioned in order that people may have some idea of what the first state of a person being regenerated is like, meant by 'six days of labour'.