When a person reads the Word and considers it holy, then its natural meaning becomes spiritual in the second heaven and celestial in the third. In this way its natural quality is progressively removed. This takes place because natural, spiritual and celestial things correspond to each other, and the Word was written solely in terms of things that correspond. The natural meaning of the Word is the sort found in the meaning of the letter, and everything of this becomes spiritual and then celestial in the heavens. When it becomes spiritual, it is then alive in that heaven from the light of truth there; and when it becomes celestial, it is alive from the flame of good there. The reason is that spiritual ideas among angels of the second heaven draw their life from the light in that heaven, which in its essence is Divine truth, while celestial ideas among angels of the third heaven draw their life from the flame of good, which in its essence is Divine good. For in the second heaven the light is bright white, and the angels there think from this; and in the third heaven the light is flaming, and the angels there think from that. The thoughts of angels are altogether different from the thoughts of people. Angels think by means of the kinds of light they have, bright white or flaming, and these are such that they cannot be described in natural terms.

It is apparent from this that the Word is inwardly full of life, consequently that it is not dead but alive in a person who reads it and thinks of it in a reverent way. Moreover, everything in the Word is made alive by the Lord, for with the Lord it becomes life, as the Lord also says in John:

The words that I speak to you are spirit, and are life. (John 6:63)

The life that flows in from the Lord through the Word is the light of truth that flows into the intellect and the love of good that flows into the will. This love and that light together make the life of heaven in a person, which is called eternal life. The Lord also teaches:

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