Source: https://www.bertha-dudde.org/en/proclamation/3266

3266 Spiritual rebirth.... grace....

September 23, 1944: Book 42

The act of grace of spiritual rebirth is evidence of the rightly utilized free will.... For this spiritual rebirth is not accomplished by divine will, otherwise no human being would remain in spiritual darkness, because God loves every one of His living creations and this love never grows cold. But the spiritual rebirth is a sign of progress, it is a step towards perfection, and this can only be achieved in free will. Nevertheless, the spiritual rebirth is an act of grace, i.e. divine grace has brought it about, for without grace the human being is incapable of progressing even one step further on the path of perfection. So free will has evaluated the divine grace available to the human being in the right way, he has let it work on him, free will has desired it and received it, and the effect of divine grace is spiritual rebirth. Hence, only someone who has consciously turned his will towards God, who strives towards Him and enters into contact with Him through heartfelt prayer and who therefore opens himself to receive His gift of grace.... His word and with the word of His power.... And thus the awakening of the spirit in man is an act of grace.... a manifestation of divine love, which now reveals itself to the human being through His spirit. Without the human being's will the awakening of the spirit does not come about unless the soul is bound by the strong power of satan, who controls it against its will.... In that case God can break satan’s power and liberate the spirit in the human being without his conscious intervention, since in such a possessed state he is deprived of his free will. Nevertheless, the soul then already has a certain maturity and is no longer resistant to God, thus as soon as the human being can dispose of his will again, he also turns to God. Then God's grace appears even more obviously, because at the same time the revival of the spirit is connected with a healing of the sick, which must always be considered (evaluated?) as a gift of grace from God. But once the spiritual rebirth has taken place the human being's will has to remain constantly active, the human being has to constantly ask for the influx of grace, he has to constantly open himself to this grace and make use of it, because the awakening of the spirit actually means a constant receipt of that which God's love bestows upon people for the attainment of perfection.... And all this is grace.... but it can only ever be received by the human being if he opens himself to it of his own free will. Free will requests grace, free will accepts it, grace again awakens the spirit to life, and the spirit's activity is again the imparting of gifts of grace.... For everything divine, if it is made accessible to the human being, is grace, because the human being in his lower state of maturity is not worthy to come into contact with divine gifts. Yet God's love overlooks the human being's unworthiness and grants him divine gifts as soon as the human being is willing to accept them. The will is manifested through prayer and through loving activity, for the latter is the direct connection with God which increasingly earns the human being grace.

(23.9.1944) If the human being is spiritually reborn, God's grace has therefore become effective in him, and then the human being will also remain in His grace, for the spirit now guides and leads him and stimulates him into constant activity of love, as a result of which God's grace constantly flows to him. And therefore a spiritually reborn person can no longer fall, he can no longer distance himself from God because this is prevented by divine grace, by God's love, which keeps and constantly cares for the human being. The human being truly does not deserve the abundance of grace which is at his disposal, for as long as he lives on earth he is not so good and perfect that he would be entitled to claim it, yet he can become so if he uses grace, for it is the means at the human being's disposal to become perfect. Everything that helps the human being to develop upwards can be called grace. And so suffering is also a grace which, if used properly, can bring infinite blessings and ensure spiritual progress for the soul. Suffering must also be accepted by a person whose spirit has awakened to life, who is therefore spiritually reborn, for suffering is meant to mature him, it is meant to purify him, because no soul, not even the spiritually reborn, is already so clear and pure that it no longer needs a purification process. And that is why suffering is also to be regarded as grace, like everything else that helps the spiritually awakened to higher development. For to attain the highest possible maturity on earth should be the aim of the one who is spiritually reborn. But without God's grace he cannot reach the aim, but with His grace he is able to do everything. God, however, leaves it up to him which measure of grace he wants to acquire, which measure of grace he requests and wants to receive by opening himself. The spiritually reborn person, however, will not slacken in prayer for the granting of grace, and therefore he will constantly strive towards God and be seized by His love, which will never ever let him fall but constantly help his soul to ascend....

Amen

Translated by Doris Boekers