Church of the Holy City

The Breath of Life

The Breath of Life
Rev. Dr. David J. Fekete
April 11, 2010

Genesis 2: 4-7 John 20: 19-31 Psalm 139

In this morning’s reading from Genesis, we heard about the birth of Adam. And after God had formed Adam from the dust of the earth, He breathed into him the breath of life. So life is called the breath of God. Then, in our New testament passage, Jesus breathes on the Apostles and gives them the Holy Spirit. So the Holy Spirit is also the breath of God. When Jesus breathed the Holy Spirit on the Apostles, it occurred after the resurrection, so it is fitting to talk about the Holy Spirit after Easter.
Traditional Christians think of the Holy Spirit as a person. They think of it as one of the three persons of the trinity. I find this hard to understand, since the very word “spirit” doesn’t sound like a person. Swedenborg is at pains to dispel this concept of the Holy Spirit. He does so because he insists on there being only one God, in one person. So Swedenborg emphasizes the idea that the Holy Spirit is one with God the Father and the Lord Jesus. Jesus is the embodiment of divine truth, or the Word. John tells us that the Word became flesh in Jesus’ incarnation (1:14). And as divine truth personified, or as the Word made flesh, Jesus Himself is the Holy Spirit, which John calls the Spirit of Truth (14:17). So Jesus Himself is the Holy Spirit.
By the Holy Spirit is properly signified the Divine truth, thus also the Word, and in this sense the Lord Himself is also the Holy Spirit . . . and of this we speak for the reason also that the Divine operation is effected by Divine truth which proceeds out of the Lord; and that which proceeds is of one and the same essence with Him from whom it proceeds (TCR 139).
But the Holy Spirit flows out of God and into us. It is the Holy Spirit that gives us spiritual life. It is the Holy Spirit that enlightens us. It is the Holy Spirit that reforms and regenerates us. So although the Holy Spirit is the Lord as to truth, the Holy Spirit is also what proceeds out of God and into us. “The Holy Spirit, that it is not a God by itself, but that by it in the Word is meant the Divine operation proceeding from the one omnipresent God” (TCR 138). What proceeds out of God and what we receive of God is the Holy Spirit. God’s Spirit is what heaven is made of. In heaven, the heat and the light are God’s love and wisdom. When we think of the created universe, we often use thoughts that are based on science. We think of the chemical elements, or atoms, or sub-atomic particles, or in its most vague form, energy. But the substances of the spiritual world are actually love itself and wisdom itself. Those two qualities are the building blocks of everything in heaven. The love and wisdom that heaven is made of proceed from God, and actually are God. We are angels to the extent that we embody love and wisdom. And since that love and wisdom are from God and are God, we are angels to the extent that God is in us, as Jesus says in John, “Abide in me, and I in you” (15:4). Being in heaven means receiving God, and so heaven itself is God.
The Lord not only is in heaven, but also is heaven itself; for love and wisdom are what make an angel, and these two are the Lord’s in the angels; from which it follows that the Lord is heaven (DLW 114).
The love and wisdom that emanate from God and form heaven are also called God’s Holy Spirit. For the Holy Spirit is what proceeds from God.
The heat and light that proceed from the Lord as a sun are what in an eminent sense are called the spiritual . . . From that spiritual it is that the whole of that world is called spiritual. . . . That heat and that light are called the spiritual, because God is called Spirit, and God as Spirit is the spiritual going forth. God, by virtue of His own very Essence, is called Jehovah; but by means of that going forth He vivifies and enlightens angels of heaven and persons of the church. Consequently, vivification and enlightenment are said to be effected by the Spirit of Jehovah (DLW 100).
In order to receive the love and wisdom of which heaven consists, a person needs to be reformed and regenerated. We need to be purified from character defects that block the reception of God. Swedenborg calls this purification from evil. And purification from evil is salvation. The power to do this comes from God. And God acting upon our personalities, purifying us from evil, is again the Holy Spirit.
By means of Divine truth from good, that is, by means of faith from charity, a person is reformed and regenerated; also renovated, vivified, sanctified, justified; and, according to the progress and increase of these, purified from evils, and purification from evils is remission of sins. . . . (TCR 142). The operation of these powers is the Holy Spirit that the Lord sends to those who believe in Him and who dispose themselves to receive Him (TCR 145).
God’s sanctifying love flows into us like the breath of life. In fact, the word “inspiration” comes from the Latin inspiro, which means to blow upon, or to breathe into. The Holy Spirit breathes spiritual life into us. And by the way, the word “spiritual” is also based on the same Latin root as inspiro, and means breath.
For us, the essential power of the Holy Spirit is sanctification, enlightenment, and reformation and regeneration. This is God acting in our souls to save us. It is through the work of reformation and regeneration that we are able to receive God’s breath of life, or the spiritual life of heavenly love and wisdom. So the act of salvation is a work of the Holy Spirit, which is nothing other than God flowing into us.
. . . the Lord operates those powers, which are meant by the sending of the Holy Spirit, in those who believe in Him, that is, He reforms, regenerates, renovates, vivifies, sanctifies, justifies, purifies from evils, and finally saves them . . . (TCR 149).
And God wills the salvation of everyone. God’s boundless love reaches out to the whole human race, and wants to bring everyone into a loving relationship with Himself.
It should be known that the Lord is continually operating those saving graces with every person, for they are steps to heaven, since the Lord wills the salvation of all, and therefore the salvation of all is His end (TCR 142).
Salvation for Swedenborg is not walking through a doorway into a glorious place. Rather, salvation is entering into a loving relationship with God. In order for there so be such a relationship, God gives us His own love as if it were our own. God’s love flows into us and remains in us to such an extent that it feels as if it were our own love. When we feel God’s love in us, as if it were our own love, we can return the love. Only when we feel love can we give it back. And so God gives us the feeling that we ourselves love. Then it is possible for love to be returned to God. And the circle of love that we all know can happen. We give and receive love. This happens in human life, and it also happens in relation to God.
Conjunction is of the Lord with the angel and of the angel with the Lord; conjunction, therefore, is reciprocal. . . . Nor can it be possible for the Lord to be in any angel or man, unless the one in whom the Lord is, with love and wisdom, has a perception and sense as if they were his. By this means the Lord is not only received, but also, when received, is retained, and likewise loved in return. . . . From all this it can be seen that there must be an ability to reciprocate that there be conjunction (DLW 115).
Being in this circle of love is what is meant by being filled with the Holy Spirit. We only feel this love when we have been purified from evils and we have been filled with love. This purification is called reformation, regeneration, sanctification, and justification and these are all the work of the Holy Spirit. And the Holy Spirit is what proceeds from the Lord Jesus Christ and is the Lord Jesus Christ. It is the Divine Truth that purifies and sanctifies us, and Jesus is the Divine Truth itself, the Word made flesh.
There is only one loving God, from whom all that is good and true emanates. And to the extent that we receive that emanating good and truth we are in God. Since God is everything of which heaven is made, when we are in God, we are in heaven. Or when we are in heaven, we are in God. We are filled with the breath of God, the Holy Spirit.