Source: https://www.bertha-dudde.org/en/proclamation/3336

3336 Spiritual arrogance.... humility - grace....

November 19, 1944: Book 43

Spiritual arrogance prevents people from recognizing the truth, for the truth is given by God to those who think themselves small and lowly, who stand in deepest humility and can therefore be appreciated by His grace. However, as soon as a person believes himself to be knowledgeable without having received the instruction from God Himself, he exalts himself, for the knowledge of man is small.... Even if he receives the pure truth in school he will only recognize it as truth if God Himself can work in him through His spirit. But God's spirit only works in the humble person who asks for the truth because he feels poor in it.... But anyone who believes himself to be knowledgeable does not ask for it, and anyone who believes himself to possess the truth does not strive for it. And this spiritual arrogance is a great obstacle for him, for he will not be able to recognize the truth if it is offered to him. But people who believe themselves to be called as proclaimers of the divine word are mostly spiritually arrogant. For they have acquired knowledge in a scholastic way by using their intellect, and they now believe that they are able to instruct their fellow human beings according to this knowledge. They feel spiritually superior to them and have often not yet established the bond with God which guarantees them right knowledge, i.e. truthful knowledge. Consequently, they are not taught by God and therefore not called by Him to the mission they have set for themselves. But if a true servant of God gets in their way, a person who is taught by God and called by Him to work for Him, then he denies him any authorization, which he, however, claims for himself. He does not want to give away the intellectual wealth he has acquired through study, but this intellectual wealth makes him spiritually arrogant, he himself claims an office which must be offered to him by God if he is to be entitled to administer this office. He lacks the inner humility which he receives from spiritual activity, for only through the latter does the knowledge he has received in school become comprehensible to him, it only becomes true knowledge as soon as he recognizes it as truth. The humble person who feels poor in spirit need not fear that he will walk in error, for the spirit teaches him because it can become effective in him. For God gives His grace to the humble.... He favours him with rich knowledge, He makes him able to recognize the truth, He makes him His servant, His representative on earth.... thus He appoints him to work for Him. But the knowledge of the spiritually arrogant person will never fully satisfy his fellow human being.... it is offered just as it was offered to him.... scholastically and intellectually thought through but not received from the heart through the working of the spirit in the human being. And therefore it cannot come alive either, it cannot awaken to life, but it is received as a word which only sets the intellect but not the heart into activity.... The spiritually arrogant person does not speak to the human being's heart, and therefore he will not have the success that a right servant of God has.... a person who is deeply humble and asks God for His grace....

Amen

Translated by Doris Boekers