Is it God or My Ego? Discerning the Voice of the Good Shepherd We each face moments where we feel pressured to succeed, prove ourselves, or respond to fear—those are the voices of our ego trying to drive us. But the Lord, as the Good Shepherd, gently leads us by a quiet voice within, calling us toward real love, patience, and kindness. True spiritual growth happens when we discern the difference: Are we chasing self-centred goals, or following the Lord’s invitation to goodness? Pause, listen, and let Divine Love—not anxiety or pride—shape how you live today (John 10:14, Psalms 118:24, True Christian Religion 387).
The grave clothes left behind in the Lord’s tomb (John 20:6, 7) symbolise the external and natural layers of our lives—habits, roles, external identities, and self-protections. These “linens” can serve a purpose for a time, but spiritual resurrection means not clinging to them or mistaking them for our true selves. When Jesus rose, He left the bindings behind, showing that genuine spiritual life is about letting go of what merely covers or constrains the heart. As we follow Him, we are called to shed what is merely external, embracing a life rooted in love, truth, and inner freedom (Arcana Coelestia 2916, Apocalypse Explained 899:24).
At the moment the Lord gave up His spirit, the veil in the Temple was torn in two from top to bottom (Matthew 27:51). In New Church teaching, this dramatic event symbolises the removal of every barrier between humanity and God. The veil represented the division between the holy of holies (God’s presence) and the people. By tearing it, the Lord opened a new and living way for direct relationship with Him. Through His glorification—making His human Divine—the Lord made it possible for anyone to approach Him personally, without obstacle, and receive His love and truth directly (Arcana Coelestia 2571, Apocalypse Explained 405).
In John 20, John (the disciple whom Jesus loved) reaches the empty tomb before Peter, symbolising a key spiritual truth: love should lead and faith should follow. In New Church teaching, John represents love or charity, while Peter represents faith or the understanding of truth. The sequence at the tomb reveals that love for the Lord and others must go first—opening the way—while faith follows, confirming and illuminating what love has found. True spiritual life begins when love leads our decisions and actions, with faith supporting, guiding, and clarifying, so both work together for regeneration (Arcana Coelestia 10087).
On Palm Sunday, the people longed for a king to free them from Roman oppression—much like we can long for a leader to fix our town, our state, or our country. The Lord, however, knew we needed a far greater deliverance: liberation from our own wounded and stubborn hearts. By entering Jerusalem riding a humble donkey, not a war horse, He showed that His kingdom is spiritual—not of this world—and that He comes to rule gently over the self-will within us. The donkey represents the natural mind and its resistant tendencies; by riding it, the Lord signified His power to subdue and transform our will, leading us toward true freedom and inner peace (Zechariah 9:9; Apocalypse Explained 31).
Lazarus does not merely represent a man restored to earthly life, but a state within us that has grown spiritually inert. The tomb is the mind closed off by habit, distraction, or despair. When the Lord calls, “Come out,” He is summoning our will to awaken. His voice is divine truth entering the darkness of our lower nature. Resurrection begins the moment we respond. The stone is moved, the light enters, and what seemed finished becomes the beginning of a new life of love and use.
The bronze serpent represents the ultimate or external level of life—the sensory mind. While our own sensory nature can become a site of selfish impulses, the Lord did not remove the serpents (our inherited tendencies). Instead, He commanded a bronze serpent be "lifted up."
This act symbolises the glorification of the sensory level in the Lord. The bronze snake represents the Lord’s own sensory level—the Divine Natural—which is the only "heavenly" state capable of perfect watchfulness and provision. Healing occurs when we "look up," shifting our focus from our own distorted sensory perceptions to the Lord’s Divine Human. By looking to Him, our lower nature is brought into submission and order. What once threatened life is transformed into a means of seeing the Lord’s saving power, as we trust in His "watchfulness" to guard us against the evils our own senses cannot navigate.
The Samaritan Woman and Living Water (John 4:5-42)
In the story of the Samaritan woman at the well, Jesus speaks of “living water”—not as a reward for moral perfection, but as a gift for a thirsty soul. In the symbolic language of the Bible, this living water represents divine truth flowing from divine love, offered to renew the inner life. The woman’s many “husbands” symbolise the many ways we try—and fail—to find lasting fulfilment in external things. Jesus meets her not with condemnation, but with understanding, awakening her to a deeper source of life within. True worship, He teaches, is not about place or ritual, but about receiving truth that transforms the heart.
These words remind us that the Lord is never distant or withdrawn from us. He is present with every person, not intermittently, but constantly—quietly sustaining our freedom while gently inviting our hearts to open. The “insistent pressure” he describes is not force or coercion. It is love at work.
This divine pressure is the steady influence of truth and goodness pressing at the edges of our awareness—especially in the places we would rather keep closed. The Lord seeks entry not into our self-assured strengths, but into our uncertainties, our fears, and our hidden griefs. Like light slipping through heavy curtains, He shines where we least expect it, illuminating not to condemn, but to heal.
To receive the Lord is simply to allow that light to remain—to let truth clarify, love soften, and goodness take root. Even in our darkest moments, the Lord has not ceased knocking. His light has never stopped trying to reach us.
Are you seeking your own pleasure or are you seeking your own fulfilment? There is a difference.
No one who is wholly involved in pleasures of the body or the flesh feels any pleasure except in eminence or profit or in physical and sensory gratification. These stifle and smother deeper pleasures of heaven so completely that people do not even believe such pleasures exist. (Heaven and Hell 398)
Spiritual Shorts
Is it God or My Ego? Discerning the Voice of the Good Shepherd
We each face moments where we feel pressured to succeed, prove ourselves, or respond to fear—those are the voices of our ego trying to drive us. But the Lord, as the Good Shepherd, gently leads us by a quiet voice within, calling us toward real love, patience, and kindness. True spiritual growth happens when we discern the difference: Are we chasing self-centred goals, or following the Lord’s invitation to goodness? Pause, listen, and let Divine Love—not anxiety or pride—shape how you live today (John 10:14, Psalms 118:24, True Christian Religion 387).
3 days ago | [YT] | 9
View 0 replies
Spiritual Shorts
The grave clothes left behind in the Lord’s tomb (John 20:6, 7) symbolise the external and natural layers of our lives—habits, roles, external identities, and self-protections. These “linens” can serve a purpose for a time, but spiritual resurrection means not clinging to them or mistaking them for our true selves. When Jesus rose, He left the bindings behind, showing that genuine spiritual life is about letting go of what merely covers or constrains the heart. As we follow Him, we are called to shed what is merely external, embracing a life rooted in love, truth, and inner freedom (Arcana Coelestia 2916, Apocalypse Explained 899:24).
1 week ago | [YT] | 10
View 2 replies
Spiritual Shorts
The Veil is Torn
At the moment the Lord gave up His spirit, the veil in the Temple was torn in two from top to bottom (Matthew 27:51). In New Church teaching, this dramatic event symbolises the removal of every barrier between humanity and God. The veil represented the division between the holy of holies (God’s presence) and the people. By tearing it, the Lord opened a new and living way for direct relationship with Him. Through His glorification—making His human Divine—the Lord made it possible for anyone to approach Him personally, without obstacle, and receive His love and truth directly (Arcana Coelestia 2571, Apocalypse Explained 405).
2 weeks ago | [YT] | 16
View 0 replies
Spiritual Shorts
Love Leads. Faith Follows
In John 20, John (the disciple whom Jesus loved) reaches the empty tomb before Peter, symbolising a key spiritual truth: love should lead and faith should follow. In New Church teaching, John represents love or charity, while Peter represents faith or the understanding of truth. The sequence at the tomb reveals that love for the Lord and others must go first—opening the way—while faith follows, confirming and illuminating what love has found. True spiritual life begins when love leads our decisions and actions, with faith supporting, guiding, and clarifying, so both work together for regeneration (Arcana Coelestia 10087).
3 weeks ago | [YT] | 14
View 1 reply
Spiritual Shorts
The Myth of the Political Messiah
On Palm Sunday, the people longed for a king to free them from Roman oppression—much like we can long for a leader to fix our town, our state, or our country. The Lord, however, knew we needed a far greater deliverance: liberation from our own wounded and stubborn hearts. By entering Jerusalem riding a humble donkey, not a war horse, He showed that His kingdom is spiritual—not of this world—and that He comes to rule gently over the self-will within us. The donkey represents the natural mind and its resistant tendencies; by riding it, the Lord signified His power to subdue and transform our will, leading us toward true freedom and inner peace (Zechariah 9:9; Apocalypse Explained 31).
1 month ago | [YT] | 10
View 0 replies
Spiritual Shorts
Lazarus does not merely represent a man restored to earthly life, but a state within us that has grown spiritually inert. The tomb is the mind closed off by habit, distraction, or despair. When the Lord calls, “Come out,” He is summoning our will to awaken. His voice is divine truth entering the darkness of our lower nature. Resurrection begins the moment we respond. The stone is moved, the light enters, and what seemed finished becomes the beginning of a new life of love and use.
1 month ago | [YT] | 10
View 1 reply
Spiritual Shorts
Moses and the Bronze Serpent (Numbers 21:4-9)
The bronze serpent represents the ultimate or external level of life—the sensory mind. While our own sensory nature can become a site of selfish impulses, the Lord did not remove the serpents (our inherited tendencies). Instead, He commanded a bronze serpent be "lifted up."
This act symbolises the glorification of the sensory level in the Lord. The bronze snake represents the Lord’s own sensory level—the Divine Natural—which is the only "heavenly" state capable of perfect watchfulness and provision. Healing occurs when we "look up," shifting our focus from our own distorted sensory perceptions to the Lord’s Divine Human. By looking to Him, our lower nature is brought into submission and order. What once threatened life is transformed into a means of seeing the Lord’s saving power, as we trust in His "watchfulness" to guard us against the evils our own senses cannot navigate.
Read more: Secrets of Heaven 197 (newchristianbiblestudy.org/exposition/translation/…)
1 month ago | [YT] | 11
View 0 replies
Spiritual Shorts
The Samaritan Woman and Living Water (John 4:5-42)
In the story of the Samaritan woman at the well, Jesus speaks of “living water”—not as a reward for moral perfection, but as a gift for a thirsty soul. In the symbolic language of the Bible, this living water represents divine truth flowing from divine love, offered to renew the inner life. The woman’s many “husbands” symbolise the many ways we try—and fail—to find lasting fulfilment in external things. Jesus meets her not with condemnation, but with understanding, awakening her to a deeper source of life within. True worship, He teaches, is not about place or ritual, but about receiving truth that transforms the heart.
1 month ago | [YT] | 14
View 1 reply
Spiritual Shorts
“Insistent Pressure”
These words remind us that the Lord is never distant or withdrawn from us. He is present with every person, not intermittently, but constantly—quietly sustaining our freedom while gently inviting our hearts to open. The “insistent pressure” he describes is not force or coercion. It is love at work.
This divine pressure is the steady influence of truth and goodness pressing at the edges of our awareness—especially in the places we would rather keep closed. The Lord seeks entry not into our self-assured strengths, but into our uncertainties, our fears, and our hidden griefs. Like light slipping through heavy curtains, He shines where we least expect it, illuminating not to condemn, but to heal.
To receive the Lord is simply to allow that light to remain—to let truth clarify, love soften, and goodness take root. Even in our darkest moments, the Lord has not ceased knocking. His light has never stopped trying to reach us.
1 month ago | [YT] | 14
View 0 replies
Spiritual Shorts
Are you seeking your own pleasure or are you seeking your own fulfilment? There is a difference.
No one who is wholly involved in pleasures of the body or the flesh feels any pleasure except in eminence or profit or in physical and sensory gratification. These stifle and smother deeper pleasures of heaven so completely that people do not even believe such pleasures exist. (Heaven and Hell 398)
1 month ago | [YT] | 12
View 2 replies
Load more