33. I need to explain briefly how we can be more closely united to the Lord and then how that union can seem closer and closer. As to how we can be more closely united to the Lord, this does not happen by simply knowing or by simply understanding or even by simply being wise; it happens by a life that is one with these states.

Our life is our love, and there are many kinds of love. Broadly, there is love for what is evil and love for what is good. Love for what is evil is love for adultery, vengeance, cheating, blasphemy, and taking others' possessions. A love for evil finds delight and gratification in thinking about such things and in doing them. There are as many derivative motivations or desires of this love as there are evil deeds in which it takes specific form; and there are as many perceptions and thoughts of this love as there are distortions that nurture and justify these evil deeds. These distortions are integral to the evils themselves just as our discernment is integral to our volition. They do not part from each other, because they belong to each other.

[2] Now since the Lord flows into everyone's life and flows through our life's desires into our perceptions and thoughts (and not the reverse), as already noted [28], it follows that the closeness of our union with the Lord depends on the extent to which our love for evil and its desires--its compulsions--is dismissed. Further, since these compulsions have their home in the level of our being that deals with this world, and since anything we do that is rooted in that level feels as though it belongs to us, we need to dismiss the evils of this love with what seems to be our own strength. To the extent that we do this, the Lord draws near and unites us to himself.

Surely anyone can see simply on the basis of reason that our compulsions and the gratifications they offer shut the door firmly in the Lord's face, and that they cannot be ousted by the Lord as long as we ourselves keep that door closed and throw our weight against it from the other side to keep it from opening. The Lord's words in the Book of Revelation show that we ourselves need to open the door:

Here I am, standing at the door and knocking. If any hear my voice and open the door, I will come in to them and dine with them, and they with me. (Revelation 3:20)

[3] We can see from this that the closeness of our union with the Lord depends on the extent to which we abstain from evils as coming from the devil and as blocking the Lord's entry. We can see that the union is closest for people who loathe these evils as though they were actually foul and fiery devils, since evil and the devil are one and the same, just as malicious falsity and Satan are one and the same. As a result, just as the Lord's inflow is into a love for what is good and its desires and through these into our perceptions and thoughts (which derive all their truth from the fact that they stem from goodness we are engaged in), so the inflow of the devil or hell is into a love for what is evil and its desires--its compulsions--and through these into our perceptions and thoughts, which derive all their falsity from the fact that they stem from what is evil.

[4] As to how that union can seem closer and closer, the more completely the evils in our earthly self are dismissed by our abstaining from and rejecting them, the more closely we are united to the Lord. Further, since the love and wisdom that are the Lord himself are not in space, and since a desire of love and a thought of wisdom have nothing in common with space, the Lord seems to be closer in proportion to the union occasioned by love and wisdom. By the same token, he seems more distant as we spurn love and wisdom.

Space does not exist in the spiritual world. Instead, distance and presence there are appearances that depend on likeness or dissimilarity of desire. This is because, as just noted, desires (or properties of love) and thoughts (or properties of wisdom) are intrinsically spiritual. They are not in space, as explained in Divine Love and Wisdom 7-10, 69-72, and elsewhere.

[5] Our union with the Lord once our evils have been dismissed is what is referred to in the Lord's words, "The pure in heart will see God" (Matthew 5:8) and "I will make my dwelling with everyone who has my precepts and keeps them" (John 14:21, 23). "Having the precepts" is knowing, and "keeping the precepts" is loving, since it also says in the same passage that "whoever keeps my precepts is one who loves me."