AC 2706 - The Lord's Presence; AC 2709 - The Use of the Spiritual

AC 2706

God was with the child.
(Genesis 21:20)

That this signifies the Lord's presence with the spiritual,
is evident from the signification of
"God being with" anyone,
and from the signification of the "child."
That "God being with" anyone
signifies the Lord's presence,
is evident without explanation.
The Lord is indeed present with everyone;
for life is from no other source,
and He governs the most minute things of it,
even with the worst of men, and in hell itself;
but in various ways
according to the reception of life.
With those who receive the life
of the love of His good and truth in a wrong manner,
and pervert it into loves of evil and falsity,
the Lord is present,
and overrules their ends as far as possible for good;
but His presence with them is called absence,
and indeed in the same degree
in which evil is distant from good,
and falsity from truth.
But with those who receive the life of the love
of the Lord's good and truth,
He is said to be present,
and indeed according to the degree of reception.
It is with the Lord's presence as with that of the sun,
which is present with its heat and light
in the vegetation of the world
also according to the reception. 
That the "child" signifies the spiritual as to truth,
has been said above;
but here he signifies those who are spiritual
because he represents the man of the spiritual church,
and also the spiritual church itself,
and in the universal sense
the Lord's spiritual kingdom . . ..

AC 2709

And he became a shooter of the bow.
(Genesis 21:20)

That this signifies the man of the spiritual church,
is evident from the signification
of a "shaft," "dart," or "arrow," as being truth;
and from the signification of a "bow," as being doctrine.
The man of the spiritual church
was formerly called a "shooter of the bow,"
because he defended himself by truths,
and disputed about truths;
differently from the man of the celestial church,
who is secure by means of good,
and does not dispute about truths.
The truths by which
the man of the spiritual church defends himself,
and respecting which he disputes,
are from the doctrine which he acknowledges.