Source: https://www.bertha-dudde.org/en/proclamation/3369

3369 Striving of the adversary of God to alienate people from Him....

December 16, 1944: Book 44

Spiritual development is so extremely important in earthly life and yet is mostly disregarded, and this is the work of God's adversary whose endeavour is to prevent people as much as possible from thinking about their actual purpose in life. Only active reflection leads people to the aim, it brings them to recognize their task in a short time. But as soon as the demands of the world approach him in such a way that they fully occupy his thinking, God's adversary will have achieved his aim of dissuading him from every spiritual thought, and then the human being will not do the slightest for his soul because he is not aware of its hardship. For in order to work on his soul he has to know that it is in a defective state, he has to imagine the cause of it, he also has to know about the consequences and recognize the former in a wrong earthly living.... Only then will he strive to change himself and thus tackle the work on his soul. But God's adversary tries to prevent all this by placing earthly life in the foreground and using every opportunity to entice the human being with what belongs to the world. And the human being all too willingly accepts worldly temptations, he allows himself to be lured and follows him by striving for the pleasures and goods of the world, by allowing himself to be completely captivated by the world. A person who still enjoys the world will never seriously think about the meaning and purpose of his earthly life, he will never care for his inner life but only ever pay attention to the external; he will enjoy life to the fullest and not miss any opportunity to help the body to enjoy itself while he will not think about his soul at all, and therefore he can never develop ascendancy as soon as he pays too much attention to the world, for it is part of him who wants to ruin the soul, who believes he can diminish God's might and strength and therefore also seeks to distance the human being from God. And humanity willingly follows him, it does not resist, it does not refuse but does everything God's adversary demands, and he believes himself to be over-strong in his power. People's will itself increases this power, the human being hands himself over to God's opposing power where he should offer resistance and can do so if he raises his thoughts to God and requests the strength from Him. For often enough it is held up to him what he should do and what he should refrain from doing, often enough his own task in life is presented to him and he is stimulated to think about it.... If he does not do so, it is his fault, for God truly does not lack opportunities where the human being can come to recognize his purpose in life. If he lets these opportunities pass he will have to answer for them, just as, conversely, he will receive grace upon grace if he strives to fulfil his task in life of his own accord and raises his thoughts to God. For God takes hold of every outstretched hand which appeals to Him, but just as He never forces the human being's will to incline towards Him if he strives towards His adversary....

Amen

Translated by Doris Boekers