Source: https://www.bertha-dudde.org/en/proclamation/5726

5726 Strong faith.... Following Jesus....

July 18, 1953: Book 62

Follow Me and you will attain an ironclad faith.... A person's faith cannot come alive until he lives a life of love, until he takes the path I took Myself on earth, the path of unselfish neighbourly love.... You can certainly also acquire intellectual faith, that is, by way of logical conclusion gain a rational conviction of Me as Creator and Provider or of the One Who had allowed Himself to be nailed to the cross for you.... then you will also believe, yet such faith is not of much use to you.... it is merely a statement of facts which, admittedly, cannot be proven either but nevertheless will no longer leave you in doubt.... But what is a living faith?

A faith which lives and demonstrates or affirms its life through extraordinary works.... A faith which believes itself capable of doing extraordinary things in the firm realisation of also achieving them with My support.... A living faith demonstrates its strength, without doubting it takes My help for granted, and such faith enables the human being to achieve things which are regarded as miracles and yet are only the results of a living faith. And such faith can only be gained through a life of unselfish neighbourly love as I exemplified on earth, because love is the strength which achieves everything. Anyone who lives in love receives so much strength from Me that he wants to somehow put it into action, as a result of his activity of love he also feels My presence, and this realisation lets him bring about everything he is prompted to do by his heart....

Love and a living faith cannot be separated; this is why love should be preached to people first, so that they will attain this living faith, for intellectual faith is no substitute for living faith, since it will fail as soon as people are faced by great hardship, it will shrink, the human being will be of little faith in the true sense of the word, perhaps even giving up his faith because it lacks the strength of love. Fighting for and trying to attain a firm faith means doing ever more labours of love, to overcome oneself and change selfish love into unselfish neighbourly love.... This necessitates fighting against all longings, but his struggle will bring him great rewards, for anyone with a living faith no longer knows fear, worry and doubt, he feels safe and secure in Me in Whom he believes, he no longer feels lonely but takes every step with Me, Who lives in him and Who acts and works with him in every way.... Anyone with a living faith is victorious over life and death, for God's strength is at his disposal, he is in such close contact with Me that he will also always make use of My strength and achieve everything because he believes....

Amen

Translated by Heidi Hanna