Source: https://www.bertha-dudde.org/en/proclamation/1385

1385 Stage of free will of highest importance....

April 20, 1940: Book 23

Infinite space requires infinite creations, and every creation testifies to God's activity, it testifies to His omnipotence and wisdom and His unceasing will to love. And all creations are alive, i.e. in a state of constant change.... i.e. in a certain activity that never allows them to remain at the same stage. There is nothing in God's work of creation that is not in constant higher development as long as it is subject to divine will. This must be regocnized beforehand in order to really grasp the significance of the stage where free will enables the being to promote its higher development or also to shape it regressively.... It must be considered that through incomprehensible times the path always went upwards.... that the constant change of the works of creation guaranteed a progressive development.... and that now, after an inconceivably long time, the free will of man can be the cause of both the highest perfection and the standstill or decline of spiritual development. Only a short span of time God gives the being the freedom of its will after an endless long walk on earth in bound will.... and this short time is decisive for eternity.... For even if the being still has the opportunity after its earthly progress in the beyond to attain the degree of maturity which is required for entry into spheres of light.... it will never reach the degree of perfection which a properly utilized will brings on earth. It is so extraordinarily significant how the will is utilized on earth.... whether the freedom of will, which God gives to the being, is used for the complete approach to God or strives again towards matter and the being desires everything that it has already so to speak overcome through the course through all works of creation. This is tremendously significant, for life on earth as a human being is the conclusion of the being's eternally long sojourn on earth....

Each stage of development was a step closer to perfection, the being has served in every form and thereby always attained that degree of maturity which was the prerequisite for the realization of the next form. Now, however, with the last outer form as a human being he is given a certain freedom to utilize this form according to his own will.... The human being can continue to strive upwards as well as nourish the downward drive within himself, he will not be hindered in his endeavour. However, the success of right and wrong endeavour is so far apart.... The right use of the will brings highest happiness, but a wrong will likewise deepest downfall, and each state must be taken upon itself after the decease on earth.... The possibilities of education of the spiritual being are indeed also available in the hereafter, but such a state of happiness can never be reached as it is granted to the person who strives rightly on earth when he dies. For the earth has been chosen by the eternal creator to be able to bring the last perfection to willing beings, the earth is undeniably the place where the human being's soul can be purified and rid itself of all its dross....

Consequently, the stay on earth has highest significance for the being insofar as that it previously stood in furthest distance from God and can be in closest proximity to God after the end of the earth orbit.... unless the being on earth wilfully increases the distance from God again. The long path has therefore brought a certain perfection of the spiritual state, which can still be increased in the last stage, but can also be reduced. The perfection of the spiritual in earthly life, however, entitles the being to the inheritance of the father in heaven.... Anyone who attains childship to God in earthly life is therefore a true child of God, i.e., supreme bliss is his inheritance, he can create and shape his highest pleasure and dwelling in God's proximity is an unceasing state of happiness.... whereas beings who did not seriously strive to come closer to God on earth can certainly perfect themselves in the beyond and likewise still become blissful, yet they will never reach the degree which shapes the being into a child of God. There is always the great danger that the beyond will not bring redemption to the being either, as long as its will, just as on earth, resists all those forces which want to help it.... The danger is obvious that it will develop regressively and that the distance from God will become ever greater.... and finally the being will approach the banished state ever more, consequently the course on earth which has lasted for inconceivable times will have been in vain, thus the being will have to go back again and bring it unspeakable agonies of being unredeemed once more. These are unimaginable sufferings which the being cannot be spared so that it again reaches that degree which earns it again the favour of embodiment as man. For the final perfection can only be achieved by consciously striving towards God.... It has to turn to God of its own free will and it can never be forcibly guided, otherwise it would not be able to attain the degree of childship to God, which requires most devoted love and deepest longing for God and which is again only the result of a completely free will. The being is therefore entitled to the highest grant of heavenly bliss on the one hand and the possibility of sinking into the deepest night on the other.... And both is left to him.... it can choose for itself and thus its will can decide how life in eternity is organized.... For they are always concepts of eternity.... both life in bliss and the state of being banished in form. For the latter likewise cannot be called temporally limited for man.... the stay in the form is likewise eternal for human concepts, even though all beingness once approaches final redemption....

Amen

Translated by Doris Boekers