AC 3518 - Receiving Good and Deriving Good; AC 3519 - The Lord Enters Through Innocence

AC 3518 [2]

. . . with every person who is being regenerated
the good which he receives
from the Lord as from a new father is interior,
but the good which he derives
from his parents is exterior;
the former good,
which he receives from the Lord,
is called spiritual; but the latter,
which he derives from his parents,
is called natural good.
The good that a person derives from his parents
is serviceable first of all for his reformation,
for by means of it are introduced
as by what is pleasurable and delightful,
first, memory-knowledges,
and afterwards the knowledges of truth;
but when it has served as a means for this use
it is separated from these;
and then spiritual good comes forth and manifests itself.
This must be evident from much experience,
as from the single instance
that when a child is first instructed
he is affected with the desire of knowing,
not at first for any end that is manifest to himself,
but from a certain pleasure and delight
that is born with him
and is also derived from other sources;
but afterwards, as he grows up,
he is affected with the desire of knowing
for the sake of some end,
as that he may excel others, or his rivals;
and next for some end in the world;
but when he is to be regenerated,
he is affected from the delight and pleasantness of truth;
and when he is being regenerated,
which takes place in adult age,
from the love of truth,
and afterwards from the love of good;
and then the ends which had preceded,
together with their delights,
are separated little by little,
and to them succeeds interior good from the Lord,
which manifests itself in his affection.
From this it is evident that the former delights,
which had appeared in the outward form as good,
had served as means.
Such successions of means are continual.

AC 3519 [6]

The reason was that Jehovah or the Lord
cannot appear to anyone,
not even to an angel,
unless he to whom He appears
is in a state of innocence;
and therefore
as soon as the Lord is present with anyone
he is let into a state of innocence;
for the Lord enters through innocence,
even with the angels in heaven.