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.
(References: Arcana Coelestia 19; Divine Love and Wisdom 100)
Heaven and Hell #348
348. By those who "turn many to righteousness" are meant those who are wise, and in heaven those are called wise who are in good, and those there are in good who apply Divine truths at once to the life; for as soon as Divine truth comes to be of the life it becomes good, since it comes to be of will and love, and whatever is of will and love is called good; therefore such are called wise because wisdom is of the life. But those who do not commit Divine truths at once to the life, but first to the memory, from which they afterwards draw them and apply them to the life, are called the "intelligent". What and how great the difference is between the wise and the intelligent in the heavens can be seen in the section that treats of the two kingdoms of heaven, the celestial and the spiritual (20-28), and in the section that treats of the three heavens (29-40). Those who are in the Lord's celestial kingdom, and consequently in the third or inmost heaven, are called "the righteous" because they attribute no justice to themselves, but all to the Lord. The Lord's justice in heaven is the good that is from the Lord. 1 Such, then, are here meant by those that "turn to righteousness"; and such are meant also in the Lord's words,
The righteous shall shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of My Father. Matthew 13:43.
Such "shine forth as the sun" because they are in love to the Lord from the Lord, and that love is meant by the "sun" (see above, 116-125). The light pertaining to these is flame-coloured; and the ideas of their thought are so tinged with what is flaming because they receive the good of love directly from the Lord as the Sun in heaven.
Footnotes:
1. [Swedenborg's footnote] The merit and justice of the Lord is the good that rules in heaven (Arcana Coelestia 9486, 9983).
He that is "righteous" or "made righteous" is one to whom the merit and justice of the Lord is ascribed; and he is "unrighteous" who holds to his own justice and merit (Arcana Coelestia 5069, 9263).
The quality of those in the other life who claim justice to themselves (Arcana Coelestia 942, 2027).
In the Word "justice" is predicated of good and "judgment" of truth; therefore "doing righteousness and judgment" is doing good and truth (Arcana Coelestia 2235, 9857).
