25. The angels in the Lord's heavenly kingdom far surpass the angels of the spiritual kingdom in regard to wisdom and splendor because they accept the Lord's divine nature on a deeper level. They live in love for him, and are therefore more intimately united to him. ¹ The reason for their excellence is that they have accepted divine truths directly into their lives and continue to do so, rather than taking them into memory and thought first, the way spiritual angels do. This means they have them engraved on their hearts and grasp them, virtually see them, within themselves. They never calculate whether or not they are true. ² They are like the people described in Jeremiah,

I will put my law in their mind and engrave it on their heart: no longer will one person teach a friend or a brother, saying, "Know Jehovah;" from the smallest to the greatest, they will know me. (Jeremiah 31:33-34)

In Isaiah, they are called "the people who have been taught by Jehovah" (Isaiah 54:13). In John 6:45-46, the Lord himself teaches that those who are taught by Jehovah are the ones who are taught by the Lord.

Imibhalo yaphansi:

1387. I have spoken on several occasions about perception to those in the next life who, while they lived in the world, imagined that they had the ability to see into and understand all things. I told them that angels perceive that they think and speak, will and act, from the Lord; but they were still unable to envisage what perception was, for they imagined that if all things flowed in from Him in that way they would be bereft of all life. They would be bereft of it because they would not think anything from themselves or from their proprium - in which activity they made life consist - and so it would be another who did the thinking and not they themselves, so that they would be organs without any life in them. They were told however that so far as life is concerned the difference between having perception and not having it is like the difference between darkness and light, and that people first begin to feel alive when they are receiving such perception, for in that case they live from the Lord yet also have a proprium, which is imparted to them together with every happiness and delight. They were also shown from much experience what perception really was, during which time they acknowledged the existence of it. But after a while they again had no knowledge of it, and doubted and denied its existence. This made clear how difficult it is for man to grasp what perception is.