Source: https://www.bertha-dudde.org/en/proclamation/3550

3550 Responsibility for direction of thought....

September 16, 1945: Book 45

The human being's will itself determines the direction his thoughts take, and therefore he is also responsible for his thinking. Many different thoughts impose themselves, i.e., different spiritual emanations touch the human heart in the form of thoughts and want to be received. And now the human being's will has to become active and open his heart to the thought material which flows towards him, and he can now accept or reject.... i.e. linger longer with the thoughts he receives or quickly reject them. And this will corresponds to his nature, his spiritual state of maturity. And the more mature person will persist with good thoughts, whereas the still immature person takes pleasure in thoughts of a bad kind but would nevertheless also be able to accept good thought material, to overcome himself and eliminate the bad thoughts. All people are indeed tempted when the bad spiritual forces try to gain access and exert their mental influence. But their attempts fail because of the human will, as soon as the human being is good and does not like the mental emanations of the evil spiritual world. Although most people do not realize what thoughts actually are.... they believe that through intellectual activity they can assert their influence. They believe to generate them themselves through intellectual activity and would also be responsible for their thoughts with this idea, because even then the will would be decisive for the human being's direction of thought. And this will, if it is weak and undecided, can be strengthened through prayer for right thinking.... Therefore the human being is not defencelessly exposed to spiritual forces which want to cause him to think badly, but as soon as only his will is good, his strength will also be increased to defend himself against spiritual knowledge which is detrimental to his soul. For thoughts are the originators of deeds and thus also of the way of life the human being leads on earth. And therefore he should keep a watchful eye on his thoughts, he should always give account to himself in which direction he is urged by the thought material, whether it encourages good or evil action, and he should defend himself against the latter, if he is too weak he should take recourse to prayer, and he will always receive strength to resist, he will be guided into right thinking by the spiritual beings, which look after him and only await his appeal in order to be able to develop their strength and power, in order to resist the beings which oppress the human being and to impart the spiritual knowledge to him which comes forth from them and is good and valuable, because these spiritual beings are bearers of light and truth and their mental emanations, if they are received, guarantee spiritual higher development. And just as the human being's will is, so is his mental knowledge, for the will alone is decisive....

Amen

Translated by Doris Boekers