Source: https://www.bertha-dudde.org/en/proclamation/1549

1549 Utilised divine power.... Misused power....

August 2, 1940: Book 25

He Who is life and strength in Himself also places them into the human being's chest, and endows him with abilities which testify to His love and wisdom. He remains in perpetual contact with them through the gift of that power which determines the life of man. Therefore, is also strength what a person who carries God within him gives. For through his abilities he is able to utilise this strength in such a way that it benefits his fellow human being, provided he cultivates love. However, he can also utilise the strength.... which comes to him, regardless of whether he is worthy of it.... also in a God-opposing sense, if he uses it for the creation of things which harm his neighbour in body and soul. For then this power is no longer synonymous with life, but with death.Being allowed to receive divine strength is a process that is always and constantly repeated. For not a second passes in which the flow of power from God ceases, and it can always and constantly be utilised in a life-awakening way if a person's endeavours are always directed towards the good.... Then this power has a constructive but not a destructive effect. And if this strength from God is utilised to build up what is threatened to collapse.... if, by means of this strength, what is in decline yet guided upwards again, then this strength has a truly life-awakening effect. One must always bear in mind the adversity of the one who is likewise of God but is not aware of his life-awakening power.... He does not use what is offered to him, and that means stagnation of the spiritual within himself.... Or he utilises it in a wrong way, and that means regression. The life that was given to man on earth is preserved for him precisely through the gift of divine strength. This strength should not remain unused but it should not be misused either.... It is used by man through every activity, and if the activity is willed by God, then the power is used in His sense. But misused strength is sin before God, for misused strength is anything that is started in opposition to God's law, thus every deed that lacks love for God and one's neighbour. And that is why it is incumbent on every individual human being to participate in the divine work of creation in earthly life as well as in the spiritual.... that enlivens the divine work of creation i.e. to use his strength for everything beneficial to the soul. For this should be man's greatest concern. If the human being uses the strength imparted to him by God to be spiritually constructively active, he will utilise this strength in a God-pleasing way, and he will now find the greatest possible support, for currents of strength will now converge which guarantee extraordinary activity. A construction is now being continued for which God Himself laid the foundation stone by giving every human being the ability to recognise what corresponds to divine will. Everything that is constructively active will live, for it utilises the strength from God in a manner pleasing to Him, and thus it will never again be taken away from it, and it will be granted an uninterrupted life with constant receipt of divine strength and constant use of it according to God’s will....

Amen

Translated by Sven Immecke