Source: https://www.bertha-dudde.org/en/proclamation/0555

0555 Destiny.... free will....

August 26, 1938: Book 12

Whoever of men resists to hear the word of God will remain in long darkness of spirit, because when I preached such to men on earth they received the light from the heavens. But now the time has become much worse.... There is almost no human being on earth who is not offered the true teaching, and yet most of them close their hearts and ears to this teaching and only know how to talk about uninhibited enjoyment of life. And that is why My teaching remains so distant and incomprehensible to them, because the slightest hint of restriction of their enjoyment of life makes them unwilling and they would love to reject and deny everything. But divine power also has its means, for it always pursues the same end and therefore does not want to abandon any earthly child to its chosen fate. Admittedly, people call this coercive measures which completely counteract the desire which appeals to them and they therefore do not fully recognize free will.... However, they must consider the extent to which they themselves are responsible for what they now perceive as coercion and how easily they can escape it with only a little goodwill. They could always remain in the same relationship of a child to the father, who after all only wants to provide them with all the comforts and whose harshness they would never feel as long as they want to be closely attached to the father and intimate love unites them both. In the same way the heavenly father rules and keeps His children, who love Him and detest all injustice, away from all evil, oppressive and tormenting things and only uses these means when this relationship has suffered a blow and the earthly child now acts contrary to the father's instructions, Who nevertheless loves it and wants to give it everything that delights the child's heart. Every child is entitled to the blessings of faith and love.... if they do not accept them, indeed, if they obviously act against them and disregard them, then everything that is then perceived as coercion must come upon the earthly human being as a countermeasure.... Then the human being believes that he has been placed into creation completely unfree.... and has only himself and his hardened heart to blame for everything. And so it is precisely these people who are most likely to fall into the temptation to absolve themselves of responsibility, always with the good excuse of being forced to carry out everything, but this is only ever the result of their previous wrong actions. Every person is given the opportunity to freely choose a different path than the one he has taken or is taking.... who is preventing him from doing so.... but he chose this particular path precisely because he thought it was good, and so the effect of his actions will always be as it was the person's wish and will.... If he then realizes that the success is different from what he wanted, he now wants to blame another power for his supposed failure so that he does not have to recognize himself as the author of it. Those who endeavour to look within themselves for the starting point of all events that affect them will very soon come to a different opinion of "fate".

Although the paths he has to take are marked out for him, he is left free to do everything himself, so that everyone can find the right nourishment for himself or his soul in every situation in life to ensure its spiritual upswing. And thus no event in life will have to somehow hinder the soul.... but the human being will always contribute to whether every event has a favourable or unfavourable influence on the soul.... and thus the human being can never again want to make the degree of maturity of his soul dependent on the situation in life assigned to him, which in itself is not in the least decisive for what the human being thinks in his innermost heart.... feels.... and wants.... Only man's thinking, feeling and willing brings about the maturing of the soul, but all the circumstances surrounding him are only suited to bring thinking, feeling and willing to their highest development, so that man can decide freely.... But not that man is forced to act differently than his will dictates. This can certainly be applied to purely earthly activity, but never to the inner life, which every human being can form at his own discretion. The only difference is that he must bear the consequences even if his thinking, feeling and willing violate the divine order. For God gave people the intellect to be able to recognize.... and again and again hints where the earthly child threatens to go astray....

Amen

Translated by Doris Boekers