Source: https://www.bertha-dudde.org/en/proclamation/2124

2124 Spiritual knowledge is the result of the right walk before God....

October 23, 1941: Book 30

It remains incomprehensible to people that spiritual knowledge is the result of the right way of life before God.... that therefore it is not the striving for knowledge through systematic schooling which makes a person knowledgeable but that the latter can be completely eliminated and yet profound knowledge can be gained if the human being, instead of striving for scholastic wisdom, endeavours to live according to God's will.... that therefore the right wisdom is not acquired mentally but that the heart and its feelings are decisive if the human being wants to become knowledgeable. Man can certainly acquire human wisdom by way of the intellect, but this is only applicable to earthly life, thus also only useful for earthly life, but can never increase spiritual knowledge in the slightest. Spiritual knowledge is completely independent of earthly endeavour, of earthly eagerness to learn and the successes or results gained in this way. And this is why a person whose thoughts and actions are not based on his love remains spiritually ignorant, even though he fills his life exclusively with intellectual research, for he always remains outside the spiritual kingdom and his knowledge of it is inadequate; for him this kingdom is an unenlightened realm, a realm which is unrecognizable to him in its darkness and which he therefore does not try to explore as it does not exist. Consequently, he does not acquire spiritual knowledge, he does not desire it and does nothing to make himself receptive to it. He therefore does not consciously work on himself, he neither seeks to ennoble his nature nor to consciously walk according to God's will, and thus his heart will also not be receptive to spiritual wisdom if it is imparted to him by his fellow human being. A person who feels and acts in a good and noble way is different in his whole thinking than a person who spends his life in unkindness towards his fellow human beings and in self-love. The former will pay attention to everything that brings him closer to the divine creator.... he will recognize the activity of a power in, around and above himself and come into contact with this power, and thus he will be made mentally aware of God's will, i.e. he will recognize the divine order and know that only life in the divine order will bring him closer to the eternal deity. And if he has the will to come closer to God, God will also come to meet him, and that in the form of knowledge. Thus, living according to God's will will always determine man's knowledge. Even if the human being does not consciously strive for divine wisdom but he will not be able to think other than correctly if it concerns spiritual things, things which lie outside of the earthly, which do not concern the body but its soul and spirit. And he will affirm these thoughts without reluctance, he will feel with a certain certainty that his thoughts correspond to the truth and announce them to his fellow human beings, for his spirit will tell him that he is thinking correctly. And where people who are active in love and strive for what is good come together the exchange of thoughts will result in complete agreement, and from this alone it is evident that they all live in truth, that they have mentally received the same information and that they can therefore rightly call themselves knowledgeable. And the more people endeavour to shape themselves, i.e. their soul, the deeper they penetrate spiritual knowledge. Soon there is nothing left for them that is unclear or incomprehensible. For a well-formed soul is constantly active in love.... activity of love attracts God.... and God, as the eternal truth, distributes it to the human being as proof of His love for him. And thus the human being will truly be well-informed and have great knowledge at his disposal when he concludes his earthly life.... But the one who acquires earthly wisdom through study or research, who absorbs humanly gained wisdom, will not always find himself in the truth. It can certainly also come to him if his attitude towards God is in accordance with His will, but then it can never be attributed to intellectual pondering or research, only his way of life will give him the knowledge of truth.... And the human being takes this knowledge with him into eternity, whereas earthly knowledge remains behind or rather fades into nothingness and a person who is held in high esteem on earth can enter the beyond poor in spiritual possessions as soon as he attaches too much value to his earthly knowledge and does not fulfil the preconditions which earn him spiritual knowledge on earth....

Amen

Translated by Doris Boekers