Source: https://www.bertha-dudde.org/en/proclamation/2297

2297 Freedom of the will.... last grace period.... proclaiming the divine word....

April 11, 1942: Book 32

People still move in the freedom of their will, they can still be active by utilizing their life force and gather the possessions they desire, and this is a grace from God which they cannot yet fully comprehend.... They can shape their future entirely at their own discretion, and thus they create their own fate for eternity, either freedom of spirit or the opposite, renewed imprisonment of that which already possessed a certain freedom. And people live their lives without any sense of responsibility. And even if they are preached to time and again, they do not heed such words because they do not believe them. They do not use their freedom of will for the soul's higher development and this is a spiritual regression which is severely penalized after the human being's death. And thus, since the human being misuses the freedom of the spirit or does not utilize it properly, his soul returns to a state of bondage.... It has to move again according to God's will through endless times so that it feels the agony of the bound will and longs again for its freedom. The spiritual in man was originally created free and will always long for this original state. But as long as the resistance against God, i.e. the own lack of love, is still so great, also the will for freedom is only small in the being and can only be awakened or strengthened by pressure and compulsion from outside. This is why there is no other way for the being to ascend than the agonizing path through the works of creation in bound will. For only when the being desires freedom out of itself will the will also become active in it, and only then will the ascent upwards begin, for only then can light and strength be supplied to it, through which it can attain freedom of spirit. Mankind of the present time, however, no longer respects its freedom and therefore does not utilize it. And therefore it also forfeits its right to live on earth as it ignores one of God's favours. It is therefore by no means an act of injustice if people's stay on earth is shortened or taken away completely, for they do not want it any other way, which they openly demonstrate by abusing their free will. Yet God still allows a short period of grace to follow His last admonition, and people who make extensive use of this period of grace can allow their free will to become active by living in accordance with divine commandments and submitting their free will to God, thus giving up their former resistance against God. And that is why the divine teaching of love has to be made accessible to people in this short time, they have to be urgently reminded once again of the dreadful consequences of a wrongly led earthly way of life. God's love and His constant care for His living creations must be preached to them, but this also requires a will turned towards Him in order to be able to have a corresponding effect. And therefore this time is particularly important for the spreading of the divine word, the observance of which is to be urgently taught to them so that it can become effective. And this is the last time of grace, which precedes the last judgment and which therefore cannot be taken seriously enough....

Amen

Translated by Doris Boekers