Source: https://www.bertha-dudde.org/en/proclamation/3378

3378 Living beings.... Activity.... State of compulsion.... Free will.... Being of service with love....

December 25, 1944: Book 44

All beings are animated by the will to live, that is, every spiritual being strives to be active, because in the very beginning it was full of strength and able to use its strength without restriction. The state of inactivity is therefore painful for the spiritual being because it completely contradicts the being's true nature and destiny. For this reason it will always be effectively impelled into activity, yet in its constrained state, particularly in hard matter, it is prevented from doing so, and this causes the spiritual being great pain. Consequently, its weakness needs to be remedied first in order to make the being's state bearable, and the slightest flow of strength will spur it into becoming busily active and reveals life.... i.e., every living being, from the smallest plant to the highest evolved work of creation, the human being, is a recipient of strength and to various degrees capable of carrying out work, and thus life is within them. Every living being's activity, with the exception of the human being, is determined by God, and the living beings comply with their assignment in a certain law of compulsion, that is, they subordinate themselves to the divine law of nature, according to which every work of creation is assigned a task it has to accomplish. However, the spiritual being's urge to live is so strong that it does not oppose this law but fulfils its vocation because in so doing it will be allowed to become increasingly more active. For this reason, everything in creation exhibits diligent activity, everything demonstrates life, apart from hard matter, which is apparently dead, yet it, too, shelters life which so imperceptibly manifests itself to the human eye that it is scarcely noticed and therefore hard matter is assumed to be lifeless, although it actually isn't.

Yet the more a spiritual being has evolved the more its activity, its life, can be recognised by the human being, and this life within every work of creation should make him ponder the purpose of the whole of creation.... After all, the human being as such is capable of reflecting on this, while all other living beings still lack this ability. The human being, however, can largely be active, and of his own free will. Vital energy flows to him incessantly which he can use to work constantly, and thus he has already come considerably closer to the state of the originally created being and he can take advantage of the last stage in order to gain complete freedom and immeasurable strength so as to be able to actively create and shape again as it was his destiny in the very beginning. Yet the human being's activity on earth has to consist of being of service with love.... This alone determines whether the being will arrive at the true life. He can also misuse the ability to work in earthly life, by actively creating and shaping with unkindness, by using his vital energy to the detriment of his fellow human beings, for he has free will, he is no longer in the state of compulsion, coerced into a specific task, instead he has free choice but he will also have to be accountable for it and accept the consequences. A person misusing his strength will nevertheless not want to give it up, he will not want to end his earthly life; he senses that all strength will be taken away from him afterwards and is therefore afraid of dying, of losing his state of strength, whilst a person being of loving service is just as convinced that he will have even more strength at his disposal in the afterlife, so that he will gladly give up his earthly life for the sake of eternal life. The state of abundant strength always signifies life, but weakness always signifies death.... The spiritual being fears death and desires life.... Yet no life exists without God, and God is love.... Hence, the being has to love in order to be able to live. If, however, it ignores love then death, thus weakness, will be its fate....

Amen

Translated by Heidi Hanna