Source: https://www.bertha-dudde.org/en/proclamation/0768

0768 (Continuation of No. 0767) Spiritual blindness.... labourious work of the spiritual beings....

February 5, 1939: Book 16

In the night of the spirit all realization is excluded, the ignorant continue to resist, they do not desire the light but believe they do not need it, for in their delusion they only have a sense for that which is in strict opposition to true realization.... they are convinced that they can manage without spiritual knowledge, they rather perceive all spiritual problems as a burden which they want to avoid by keeping away from everything that could impair their previous thinking. As a result, these people experience a spiritual emptiness. Their earthly life occupies them completely and they walk through God's creation as if blind, nowhere hearing the voice of the lord or paying attention to it. The more this state prevails, the more alarming the consequences. In unspeakably arduous labour, the spiritual forces now struggle for the souls languishing in such darkness. Their work is visible and invisible. They bring together those who instruct each other, they guide the thoughts and are pleased when their influence is heeded and the human being willingly allows himself to be guided.... when he carries out what his heart drives him to do, when he yields to the spiritual impulse within himself without resistance and spiritually distances himself from the earthly world for a short time. This is so extraordinarily arduous because it often takes a long time before the earthly child heeds the spiritual call to separate itself from the purely material. The resistance is sometimes so strong that the influence of the spiritual forces is unsuccessful and the erring soul continues to be in severe distress, which the human being as such does not recognize and therefore does not remedy the soul's agonizing state. And so time after time passes, and where there is no possibility to change a person's mind, the spiritual beings help themselves in community.... They try to disrupt all earthly joy.... In their distress they resort to a means that is seemingly unloving and yet only testifies to the great love of the spiritual beings for earthly creatures.... They let bitter drops flow into every joy.... they cause, so to speak, that even earthly joys are not a complete fulfilment of earthly desires.... and thus lay the foundation for inner dissatisfaction, which increases more and more the more resistance the earth child puts up to the work of the spirit friends. In connection with this all joy of life will appear stale and empty, the soul will restlessly wander to and fro, it will search where it finds complete fulfilment, it will recognize earthly pleasures as transient and only then pay attention to spiritual questions, and when after long arduous work the friends on the other side can record this success, its joy is indescribable, for only now is the soul saved and receptive to everything that comes to it from above.

But now the spirit is able to spread significant light, and there will be brightness where before there was deepest darkness, and spiritual blindness will give way to the clearest realization. Precisely where one believes to be in the deepest knowledge, a procedure is often necessary to transform a person's thinking. The few who recognize correctly are often unable to convey their spiritual knowledge to them; they encounter contradiction and their gift, although gladly offered, is not accepted. The heavenly truth is not properly recognized.... the thoroughly spiritual attitude, which is a prerequisite for recognizing divine wisdom, is not taken into account. The gifts from above only penetrate a person's heart as such if the spiritual desire for them is a prerequisite. Whoever immerses himself in his innermost being and at the same time makes the flight into infinity, whoever seeks to fathom the eternal deity and in doing so deeply humbly surrenders to It, whoever recognizes a purpose in earthly life other than just the fulfilment of earthly destiny, whoever views every event on earth only from a spiritual point of view, his heart is receptive to divine gifts.... He will soon separate everything earthly from the spiritual.... he will recognize two worlds, but always the one as a means to an end.... to mature for the second, the spiritual world. Love should certainly permeate everything, it should determine all actions in earthly life, it should work without ceasing so that the spirit will come alive through love, so that the human being will become free through love.... But love should always give, but love of possession should never prevail. But true love will at the same time be a renunciation and therefore a separation from matter; and spiritual striving will never again be for earthly goals but only for the union with God as eternal love.... Therefore do not seek the last goal in a state of perfection on earth. Earth is and remains for humanity what it always was.... the abode where the soul is to mature through resistance for its actual destiny, where it is to recognize that only in the spiritual kingdom is its true home, towards which it is to strive without ceasing....

Amen

Translated by Doris Boekers