Source: https://www.bertha-dudde.org/en/proclamation/1036

1036 Living and dead faith....

August 3, 1939: Book 19

You should have a living faith and not just be content with the form.... This is what the father demands of His children, and you will have to fulfil this demand if you want to be blessed by this faith. If you are taught true faith and you only accept it outwardly, i.e. you do not combine the acceptance of faith with the deed, then this faith is dead, for it does not awaken the spirit in you.... it is only a form, calculated for the world, but of no use to yourselves. On the contrary, such a belief can still give rise to the erroneous view that you have completely fulfilled your duty and are therefore relieved of all responsibility. But such a formal belief has caused immense damage among mankind, as thousands arm themselves with the shield of such a belief and their souls are dead and do not derive the slightest benefit from it. Faith only comes to life when a person consciously makes contact with God; when the thought of the eternal deity makes him think and act differently than was originally the case. Living faith must determine all thinking, something must not only be regocnized as a precaution or on a trial basis which one then endeavours to prove, but without being able to provide proof the conviction must be present in the human being's heart that God is.... and this conviction must again trigger the will to put the divine will before one's own. What the human being believes is then put into practice, and this is then not a dead faith since it revitalizes the human being.... i.e. it stimulates activity. Nowadays, however, only a vanishingly small number of people are able to feel the power of faith in themselves because this word is not just an empty concept to them. Although people speak of faith because they have been taught to do so, they do not even realize what faith itself is. It is not just the affirmation of something that cannot be proven.... faith is rather an affirmation of everything that cannot be grasped with the senses, and an acceptance and unconditional acceptance of all demands that are made on us through this very faith. If a person does what the eternal deity demands of him, he regocnizes this demand and has thus become alive, i.e. the power from God now has a vitalizing effect on the person who completely professes his faith in God. And anyone who thus stands in living faith will never again be a man of form; he will not fulfil what is demanded of him out of habit or for the sake of his fellow human beings but solely for the sake of Him Who, according to faith, is the epitome of everything; he will affirm precisely because he believes and thus become wide awake in spirit....

Amen

Translated by Doris Boekers