Source: https://www.bertha-dudde.org/en/proclamation/6769

6769 About Baptism.... Baptism for adults....

February 24, 1957: Book 72

You have received the baptism of the spirit when you accept the living water from Me, when you refresh yourselves at the source of life and thereby receive strength for your soul.... You have to be baptised with spiritual water.... Then you are also members of My church which I founded on earth. You cannot acquire this membership through mere formality, this is why the baptism you perform is no guarantee that it will shape a person into a true Christian, it is at best considered the evidence of good will to guide a person to Me. But the return to Me has to be started and carried out by the person himself.... And likewise he only submerges himself in the spring of living water when My spirit has made the source accessible to him. Then he will have received baptism because he has joined My church consciously, and then he is reborn in spirit....

The purpose of your earthly life is your return to Me, and the act of return has to take place completely consciously, it can never be replaced by a formality. Your will has to turn to Me of its own accord, you have to seek the inner relationship with Me and request help from Me on your path of ascent. Thus all this can certainly be taught to a child, it can be encouraged to communicate with Me in prayer.... But only when the human being spontaneously does what he was taught.... only when he chooses Me voluntarily will he start to immerse himself in the source to receive the baptism of spirit.... For then My living water can flow to him, he can hear My Word and draw strength from it. Only then can he pray to Me in spirit and in truth, but then he will also be enlightened by My spirit and at the same time start a new life.

Thus the act of baptism is carried out the instant it is possible for Me to affect a person directly when he gives himself to Me.... For then he belongs to Me even if his path is still fraught with battles, with all kinds of temptations, but I now have a right to him and I will not allow My adversary to seize him again.... He is protected from this by the baptism of spirit which will have already helped him to establish his living bond with Me, since the living bond with Me through a prayer in spirit and in truth will have proved his willingness to immerse himself in the well to be embraced by My purifying and curative living water.

Until this inner act of baptism has taken place, external actions of baptism cannot result in a person's spiritual baptism, they will always remain a formality and cannot bring any benefit to the soul. Hence an act of baptism performed on adult people can equally be a mere formality and does not ensure the spiritual baptism yet.... whilst the inner, living bond with Me and the pouring out of My spirit can even come about without any outer formality.

I only ever evaluate the human being's will to join Me and his conscious endeavour to detach himself from My adversary.... And corresponding to this will the source, which provides living water for the person, can be made accessible to him. That is the consummation of the spiritual baptism, because from then on living water flows incessantly. Then every Word of Mine bestows light and strength to the soul, then every shell that still surrounds the soul will dissolve.... the ailing soul will heal, the weak soul will become strong, the baptism will result in a transformation, in a change of the spiritual sphere the soul now occupies.... It will consciously leave My adversary's realm and enter My kingdom, where it can now be enlightened by My spirit because its will accepts it, it has come to life and is thus also a suitable vessel into which I can pour My spirit. And with increased desire it will strive towards Me, it looks for unity with Me because it has recognised Me and the return to Me will be completed, it is and remains eternally Mine....

Amen

Translated by Heidi Hanna