3153 Effectiveness of grace through free will....

June 10, 1944: Book 41

God only determines the effect of human will but never the human will itself. And therefore a person's path on earth is certainly predetermined according to divine plan, but whether he travels it in accordance with divine will depends on his free will. The greatest gift of grace can be offered to him, it only becomes effective in him when the will accepts it, when the human being opens himself to the strength which flows from this gift of grace. But if he uses this power then it is his free will, and it can then never be spoken of a change of nature against his free will, of a change of nature which was achieved suddenly and only through God's grace.... For such a change would completely contradict God's plan of redemption, because then the supply of divine grace would have brought about this redemption and the human being himself would not need to be active in it. However, divine love wants to produce perfect beings and this perfection requires free will, thus the measure of grace he receives must always be adapted to this free will, i.e. it must not force him to accept it, which would inevitably be the case if the gift of grace overwhelmed him and suddenly resulted in his change.... God's grace can indeed bring about a change in a person, but the person must first have been inwardly prepared to allow the grace to work on him, i.e. not to resist it. God's love provides every human being with a measure of grace which guarantees his complete transformation, his alignment with God, for the latter is the goal of all beings in their final embodiment. And God will never withhold anything from a being which could bring it closer to this goal. Rather, He offers the human being an excess of grace which, however, can also be rejected by the human being's will and will then no longer be effective. If, however, he is receptive to it then he will be able to mature in a time which seems extraordinarily short, he will, as it were, suddenly change, a flash of insight will come over him because he willingly opens himself, thus God's grace can obviously be effective in him. For grace is strength from God, it is helping assistance, it is, as it were, the transmission of God's will, which includes all strength in itself as soon as the human being's will offers no resistance. This person is therefore chosen because he felt his calling within himself and followed it.... But it is never an inevitable transformation of his will, even though God's grace contributes a great deal towards the human being giving up his resistance, for every human being needs divine help, even if his will is turned towards God. But a person who is turned away from God can stand in the midst of grace, he rejects it and consequently does not feel its effect either. And then he is completely incapable of changing according to God's will.... His will is still so resistant that he does not subordinate himself to the divine will and therefore cannot receive God's grace either, even though it is available to him without measure. He makes himself unreceptive to it, so to speak, but this does not exclude that God offers it to him in all fullness....

(10.6.1944) His love for His living creations will never diminish and He will not let any of them go astray, thus He will not consider any of His living creations less but give them all the same opportunity to ascend, which therefore also means the same measure of grace which they may use for their higher development. But if the creature itself withdraws itself from the effectiveness of grace through its will, it has nevertheless not been given a lesser possibility; just as conversely no exceptionally high measure of grace is given to a man if the will, the opening of this grace, would not be recognizable. And this will can be seen by God, Who knows every slightest stirring of the heart, even if this is not yet apparent to fellow human beings. God's gift of grace therefore does not oblige a person to work for Him nor to shape himself, it only gives him an increased ability to change, but always on the condition that this is within the human being's will to change himself in the right knowledge of truth.... A person who is completely turned away from God will never have this will, and he therefore carelessly passes by the gift of grace which, however, is at his disposal like every other person.... Man's will therefore determines (as it were) the measure of grace, not that which comes to him, but that which becomes effective in him.... Through his willingness he can now increase the influx of grace the more he uses it, and he will also do this because he thereby also comes to recognize, to deeply believe in God's love, wisdom and omnipotence and is now inwardly driven to strive towards Him, to conform to Him and to be active for Him. God's grace may have brought this about, but without his will it could never have worked....

amen

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