246. This spiritual warmth can be acquired only by refraining from evils as being sins and at the same time by looking to the Lord. For as long as a person is caught up in evils, he is also caught up in a love for them, being driven by a lust for them, and a love of evil and its lust are prompted by a love opposed to spiritual love and affection. This love or lust cannot be removed except by refraining from evils as being sins; and because a person cannot refrain from them on his own but from the Lord, he must therefore look to the Lord. Consequently when a person refrains from evils and does so from the Lord, then the love of evil and its warmth are removed, and in their stead are introduced a love of good and its warmth, by which the higher degree is opened. For the Lord flows in from above and opens it, and at the same time joins spiritual love or warmth to spiritual wisdom or light; and as a result of that union the person begins to blossom spiritually, like a tree in springtime.