18. XVIII. The linking of heaven with a member of the church by means of the literal sense of the Word.

Much experience has allowed me to know that the Word opens heaven to a person. This means that when a person reads the Word or speaks from it, communication is established with heaven. I have read through the prophetic Word from Isaiah to Malachi, and I was allowed to perceive that every chapter, in fact every verse, was perceived in some heavenly community. Because what was communicated was not the literal but the spiritual sense, the angels of that community were unaware that this was coming from a man. It seems to them that they were thinking as if of themselves about the things inwardly contained in the Word.

[2] Some African spirits from Abyssinia were with me, when on one occasion their ears were opened so that they could hear the singing of a Psalm of David in a church in the world. This gave them such joy that they sang along with them. But after a while their ears were closed again, so that none of them could hear the singing from there. Then they felt an even greater joy, because this was spiritual; and at the same time they were filled with intelligence, because in the spiritual sense the Psalm dealt with the Lord and the redemption He effects. The joyful lifting of their hearts was to some small extent communicated to a heavenly community from the Christian world, and this brought this community similar joy. It was plain from this that the whole of heaven is able to communicate by means of the Word.

[3] I pass over many ¹ other experiences which proved to me that the literal sense of our Word has this effect, in fact, that the spiritual sense unaccompanied by the natural sense does not produce communication with heaven. The reason is that the Lord's influence comes from what is first to what is last, so it proceeds from Himself into the natural sense of the Word, and calls forth or unfolds its spiritual and celestial senses; and thus its enlightenment teaches and guides the angels. The Lord is therefore called in the Word the First and the Last.

[4] This makes it plain that the church's teaching is not valid, unless it is gathered and proved from the literal sense of the Word, because it does not establish communication. But teaching drawn from the literal sense is valid, and acts together with the spiritual sense.

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