DP 154, 156, 157, 158 , 159 - Be Led and Taught by the Lord Alone

It Is a Law of Divine Providence
That a Person Be Led and Taught by the Lord
from Heaven Through the Word
and Through Doctrine and Preaching from the Word,
and this to All Appearance as Though of Himself

DP 156

A person is led and taught by the Lord alone
because he lives from the Lord alone,
it being his life's will that is led,
and his life's intellect that is taught.
But this is contrary to the appearance,
for it appears to a person that he lives of himself;
and yet the reality is
that he lives from the Lord and not from himself.

Now because as long as he lives in the world
a person cannot be given a conscious perception
that he lives from the Lord alone -
since the appearance that he lives of himself
is not taken from him,
for without it a person would not be human -
therefore we have to establish it
by rational considerations,
which must then be confirmed
by empirical (factual) observation,
and finally by the Word.

DP 157 [8]

. . . everyone who prays to God from his heart
beseeches Him to lead him,
because He has the power to.
Thus at those times
everyone acknowledges the Divine
omnipresence, omniscience and omnipotence.
He does so
because he then turns his face to the Lord,
and the truth of it then flows in from the Lord.

DP 158

. . . the more closely anyone
is conjoined with the Lord,
the more distinctly does he appear to himself
to be his own person,
and the more clearly does he recognize
that he is the Lord's.

DP 159

That life is the Lord's alone is apparent
from these passages in the Word:

"I am the resurrection and the life.
He who believes in Me,
though he die, shall live."
(John 11:25)

"I am the way, the truth, and the life."
(John 14:6)

. . . the Word was God.
In Him was life,
and the life was the light of men.
(John 1:1, 4)

The Word there is the Lord.

". . . as the Father has life in Himself,
so He has granted the Son to have life in Himself?"
(John 5:26)

That a person is led and taught by the Lord alone
is apparent from these passages:

". . . without Me you can do nothing."
(John 15:5)

"A man can receive nothing
unless it has been given to him from heaven."
(John 3:27)