359. We could not be images of God according to his likeness unless he were within us and were our life from our very center. God's presence within us and God's being our life from our very center follow from what I explained in 4-6 above, namely that God alone is life and that we and angels are life-receivers from him.

The Word tells us that God is in us and makes his home with us; and because the Word tells us this, preachers are fond of telling us to prepare ourselves to let God come into our lives so that he may be in our hearts and that our hearts may be his dwelling. The devout say the same in their prayers. Some [preachers] talk and preach more explicitly about the Holy Spirit, who they believe is within them when they are filled with holy zeal as the source of their thought, speech, and preaching. I have explained in 51-53 of Teachings for the New Jerusalem on the Lord that the Holy Spirit is the Lord and not some God who is a separate individual. The Lord actually says, "In that day you will know that you are in me and I in you" (John 14:21 [20]), and he says similar things in John 15:24 [4] and John 17:23.

8866. 'Who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slaves' means deliverance by Him from hell. This is clear from the meaning of 'bringing out' as deliverance; from the meaning of 'the land of Egypt' as molestations by those from hell, dealt with in 7240, 7278; and from the meaning of 'the house of slaves' as spiritual captivity, dealt with in 8049. The reason why 'the house of slaves' means spiritual captivity and also hell is that being held captive by those in hell and being led by them is slavery, whereas being led by the Lord is freedom, 892, 905, 2870-2875, 2882, 2884, 2892, 2893, 6205, 8209. The fact that those belonging to the spiritual Church, who are represented by the children of Israel, were delivered from hell by the Lord, through His coming into the world and making Divine the Human within Himself, see 6854, 6914, 7035, 7828, 7932, 8018, 8321.