The spiritual church(state) is about warfare



Arcana Coelestia 7233. [2] In respect to this matter, be it known further that the doctrine of the spiritual church is not that of truth Divine itself, because those who are of the spiritual church have no perception of truth Divine, as have those who are of the celestial church; but instead of this perception they have conscience, which is formed from the truth and good which they have acknowledged within their own church, of whatever kind these may be. (That those who are of the spiritual church are relatively in obscurity in respect to the truths of faith, see n. 86, 2708, 2715, 2716, 2718, 2831, 2935, 2937, 3241, 3246, 3833, 6289, 6500, 6865, 6945.) Hence it is that everyone within the spiritual church acknowledges as the truth of faith that which its founders have dictated, nor do they search further from the Word whether it be the very truth; and moreover if they did search they would not find it unless they had been regenerated and at the same time enlightened in an especial manner; and this for the reason that their intellectual can indeed be enlightened, but the new will cannot be affected with any other good than that which has been formed by means of conjunction with the truth received within the church. For their own will has been destroyed, and a new will has been formed in the intellectual part (see n. 863, 875, 1023, 1043, 1044, 1555, 2256, 4328, 5113); and when their own will has been separated from the new will which is in the intellectual part, the light in this is feeble, such as is the nocturnal light from the moon and stars compared with the diurnal light from the sun.



AC 7236... But the goods of the spiritual church are in their essence nothing else than truths, for these are called goods when the life is according to them. Hence by “armies,” when said of the regenerate within the spiritual church, are signified the goods of truth, or goods in truths. The reason why it is said that the sons of Israel were to be “led forth according to their armies,” is that it is said of them when going out of Egypt; in the internal sense when they come out of combats with falsities, thus after they have waged spiritual warfare. 



The work of the spiritual states enable the Lord to instil what is of Himself into the understanding faculties - to create an 'own' that has life in it for us



AC 1044. [2] For man when regenerated is as to the intellectual part the Lord’s, but as to his will part is his own, these two parts in the spiritual man being opposed. But though the will part of man is opposed, yet it cannot but be present; for all the obscurity in his intellectual part, or all the density of his cloud, is from it. It continually flows in from it, and in proportion as it flows in, the cloud in his intellectual part is thickened; but in proportion as it is removed, the cloud is made thin. ... The “token” or “sign” of the covenant is this, that in proportion as there is the presence of the Lord in the Own of the understanding, in the same proportion the Own of the will will be removed.



AC 1937...there is more of freedom than is possible in any state out of temptations-although at the time the man cannot comprehend this-for there is an interior freedom, from which he wills to subjugate evil, and which is so great as to equal the force and strength of the evil that is assailing him, for otherwise he could not possibly wage the combat. This freedom is from the Lord, who insinuates it into the man’s conscience, and by means of it causes him to overcome the evil as from what is his own. Through this freedom man acquires an Own in which the Lord can work what is good. Without an Own acquired, that is, given, through freedom, no man can possibly be reformed, because he cannot receive the new will, which is conscience. The freedom thus given is the very plane into which there is an influx of good and truth from the Lord. Hence it is that they who in temptations do not ...

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