3349 No knowledge, i.e. spiritual truth, without the will of man....

November 28, 1944: Book 43

The fact that spiritual knowledge is not imparted to the human being against his will is only advantageous for him, for then he would not use it properly and his guilt would only increase because he would then leave a gift of grace unused. He would also get into a state which would be equal to the compulsion of faith.... for knowledge would then force him to believe as soon as it is extraordinarily imparted to him, and a forced faith is worthless before God. Thus it inevitably first requires the human being's own will that God introduces him to truth, to spiritual knowledge, which is intended to promote his higher development. Therefore the knowledge will only become effective in him when his will demands it. He can certainly also acquire it beforehand through external transmission, through instruction by fellow human beings or through intellectual absorption from books and writings. But the will also has to be involved, the desire for truth has to dominate the human being, otherwise that good remains incomprehensible to him, thus it means no light for him. For if God were to impart light to the human being without his desire, then the striving towards God would be prevented but the human being would suddenly be placed into a state of knowledge, because divine wisdom.... the knowledge which corresponds to truth.... always means light for the human being. He would grasp everything, recognize the connection of all things and all events, and he would now also increase his degree of maturity.... thus he would inevitably become a mature being, but this would exclude his becoming perfect, for perfection requires complete free will. As soon as the human being is knowledgeable he is also permeated by light, thus flooded by divine strength; divine strength, however, can only be supplied to the beingness which consciously desires it and opens itself to the reception of strength. But the latter requires the will of man. If the will is not active, then also every supply of strength comes to a standstill, because God's radiation requires complete lack of resistance in order to become effective. But the human being is only then without resistance when he has placed his will completely under God's will, and that is a conscious activity of his will. Only then is an upward development possible, and only then will knowledge be felt by man as knowledge, as light and power from God. Thus knowledge cannot be imparted in a school-like manner, for even knowledge transmitted from person to person presupposes the human being's activity of will if knowledge is to come alive in him.

And therefore it is impossible to place the whole of humanity into a higher level of realization and thereby remedy the spiritual low, for this would happen against people's will and therefore would not result in their perfection either. And therefore truth, even if it is offered everywhere, will only assert itself sporadically, and that is where the will sets in and the desire to possess it. Knowledge against the human being's will only contributes to making him arrogant and domineering, for then it only touches the intellect but not the human being's heart, yet only where the heart and intellect are willing to let the knowledge take effect on them will the human being's transformation, his change into a being according to God's will, also begin. As long as the intellect alone processes the knowledge, this is only a body of thought that is inanimate from the spirit of God. It sets the activity of the intellect in motion and can also only be passed on again to the intellect of the fellow human being. The human being's will is only involved insofar as he strives for knowledge for the sake of earthly advantage.... He wants to be considered knowledgeable, to gain earthly goods and honour and fame with it and to outdo fellow human beings with his knowledge. And then knowledge, even if it is offered to him from a source which guarantees pure truth, can never contribute to the human being's ennoblement, for the heart remains uninvolved and the spirit in the human being does not stir, for it is unawakened, it still slumbers in deepest encasement. Then the knowledge, despite its content, cannot be addressed as spiritual knowledge because it was not imparted to him by the spirit within or he did not absorb with his spirit what was offered by the enlightened fellow human being. Mostly, however, the worldly-minded person will reject that spiritual knowledge because earthly success seems too small to him but he still strives for such. The working of the spirit can never be eliminated in the transmission of pure truth, of spiritual knowledge, and therefore the human being's will has to be active, otherwise the knowledge would be without strength and therefore of no significance for the human being's spiritual ascent. And therefore humanity walks in ignorance, and it cannot attain knowledge as long as it is not willing to possess and strive for it itself.... For the will is the first thing that causes God's grace to flow to the human being. But if the will is willing then the source of grace opens and the human being can constantly draw and take in the living water, the eternal truth....

Amen

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