Source: https://www.bertha-dudde.org/en/proclamation/3296

3296 What is spiritual knowledge.... truth....

October 16, 1944: Book 43

To push people's thinking into a different direction against their will would be completely useless for their souls. They must make an effort to change out of their innermost impulse, only then will a change of thinking also take place, and only then is the truth to be conveyed to them so that they can examine it themselves, i.e. take a stand on it and, with a serious will, also recognize it as truth. It is a wrong assumption that a person's intellect cannot join the pure truth and that the person therefore cannot be held responsible because he is endowed by God with the gift of intellect which makes it impossible for him to accept the truth.... As soon as the human being uses this gift correctly, that is, as soon as he makes use of it in order to come close to the eternal divine, he will also have the ability to distinguish between good and evil with his intellectual thinking, and as soon as he now affirms good and denies evil he will also affirm pure truth because it is from God, just as he will deny error and lies as the work of God's adversary. And the recognition of truth as such and of error is also to be regarded as affirmation and denial.... The human being who wants the good will also intellectually recognize as good that which has its origin in God. But if his will resists a serious examination or if he is prejudiced against spiritual knowledge imparted to him, then his feeling for good and evil is still poorly developed and he will also resist accepting the truth. He also does not stimulate his intellectual thinking because he does not seriously take a stand but rejects it because he does not want to accept it. And then he cannot be instructed or changed in his rejection.... his will turns against it, and this decides. He is not yet mature for truth, otherwise he would desire it and hold on to it if it is offered to him. For the desiring one also recognizes it for what it is. The one who desires the truth also desires God at the same time, no matter how he imagines the eternal deity. He recognizes it and turns to it through his desire, for God and truth are one. But anyone who denies God also denies the truth, anyone who does not seek God also does not seek the truth, and thus he will never penetrate spiritual knowledge because it does not exist for him. There is a knowledge which eclipses all earthly knowledge, even if it cannot be proven, for knowledge is everything that gives enlightenment, be it in an earthly or spiritual sense. Earthly knowledge is enlightenment about earthly questions, spiritual knowledge is enlightenment about questions which touch the spiritual realm, only that the former can be proven, whereas there is no proof for the latter as long as the human being stays on earth.

(16.10.1944) Nevertheless, it is a knowledge, a wealth of thought, which must be valued higher than earthly knowledge.... spiritual knowledge is gained just as much as earthly knowledge, because intellectual activity must first have set in before thought material conveyed from within or from outside becomes the human being's property, because thinking about it is an essential part of the latter. Before it has not become conviction, it cannot be called knowledge. But then it makes the human being happy because it enlightens, because it pulls away the veil from things that were previously hidden from the human being. And a person can then call himself knowledgeable when he has solved questions and the result fully satisfies him, but only when he has found the result with the assistance of the divine spirit.... invoking God for enlightenment and right thinking. For even the wrong thinker can be convinced of the truth of that which was imparted to him in error. But if he has not called upon the eternal deity for enlightenment of his thinking, then he also never has the guarantee of standing in right knowledge, i.e. in truth. For God alone is the giver of truth, because He Himself is the truth.... God does not depart from His conditions under which He dispenses the truth.... But the first condition is the recognition of Himself. Anyone who does not recognize God, anyone who denies Him, cannot think correctly because he is under the spell of the one who opposes the truth. And until he turns to the giver of truth in prayer so that He will guide him into the right knowledge, his thinking will remain wrong and produce results which completely contradict the truth. And it will not be right with him, for God's adversary likewise fights with sharp weapons since he strives to suppress the truth and to completely blind people's thinking. And he will succeed where faith in God is lacking, where a being Which is loving, wise and omnipotent is not acknowledged, for God's adversary has great power over these people....

Amen

Translated by Doris Boekers