Source: https://www.bertha-dudde.org/en/proclamation/6760

6760 Hearing God's word indispensable.... (I do no evil....)

February 12, 1957: Book 72

This, too, will become darkness for you if you close yourselves off to My words, if you believe you can do without My address.... if you thus go through earthly life without 'My word'. You are quickly ready with the declaration: "I do nothing wrong, I act justly and fulfil My duty...." but you believe that you don't need more, you may believe in Me as your God and creator but you distance yourselves from Me, you don't ask for My word, and this is because My word tells you to do more than you are willing to do.... because My word demands loving activity from you but you refrain from it because self-love is still too great. Therefore, if you claim to believe in a God then you must also listen to what He demands of you. And if you don't listen to Him then your faith is just a dead faith, and your assurance of faith in Him is then just an expression, they are words without life which are of no use to you for beatitude. And you who speak like this should seriously consider that the day of your end can come suddenly, and you should give an account to yourselves as to how you will be able to survive then.... For deep down you have not yet lost your faith in Me, otherwise you would not make an effort to live righteously on earth either. But it is only very weak precisely because you lack the strengthening which is granted to you through My word. You are already living in darkness but you can still procure light for yourselves on earth if you are not malicious. For again and again My word will be brought to you, and once it can only reach your heart it will also touch you like a flow of strength, and then it can become light in you. You all have to let yourselves be addressed by Me if you want to travel your earthly path with a benefit for the kingdom of the beyond, and that means that you have to intimately unite with Me when My word is brought to you in any way.... that you thus want to hear something from Me Myself.... For listening to an empty proclamation of the word without the will to hear Me Myself cannot be called 'listening to My word', and you will not gain anything for your soul from it either. And therefore, My word can only be heard by the person who believes in Me and in this faith expects My address. But even a dead proclamation of the word can cause a person to establish the bond with Me himself, a formal act can become a living event, which is why it is always advisable to visit the places where My word is proclaimed, for as soon as something is only received by the intellect it can also find its way to the heart, which is indeed a matter of free will but can nevertheless be possible. And therefore every opportunity should also be used where a person can find Me. And thus it is always blessed work which is done by those who try to spread My word. It is the sowing of a good seed which may indeed fall on different soil but nevertheless a seed can also take root and sprout.... A person should never believe that such work is in vain, for to have opened up the possibility for a single soul to find Me through listening to My word is a rescue work of utmost significance. If only the human being's senses are directed towards Me, then the desire to be addressed by Me can also awaken in him one day.... But only My word will impart to the human being the strength he needs to mature on this earth. Anyone who constantly closes his ear, who refuses to listen to the proclaimers of My word, will increase the darkness around him and soon no longer be able to recognize any light, for he will oppose Me Myself Who wants to impart light and strength to him....

Amen

Translated by Doris Boekers