Source: https://www.bertha-dudde.org/en/proclamation/6823

6823 Return to God necessitates sincerity of will....

May 6, 1957: Book 73

Anyone having made it his goal to travel his earthly path in accordance with God's will, can also always be assured of assistance on the part of God, because God only allowed him to embody himself for the purpose of aligning his will to divine will. And since, during this time on earth, only the human being's will makes the decision, this very will has already passed its test and thus God can now take care of the person in every way without exerting any coercion of will. As long as the human being is still undecided or even still adheres to God's adversary, the human being's will is indeed fought over by God and the beings of light, that is, it will be just as influenced by Him as by the adversary's side, so that it should freely decide....

But once the human being has freely decided to subordinate himself to God's will by living a way of life in divine order, then he will also have entered His sphere and God will no longer let him fall prey to His adversary. But his will has to be sincere.... The apparent fulfilment of God's will as a result of a church upbringing is not enough, nor will it suffice to carry out deeds of love which, again, are mere church requirements and are more or less fulfilled as obedience towards these demands.... Wanting to belong to God has to be an innermost endeavour, the inner fully-conscious surrender to Him must voluntarily have taken place.... thus he himself must have directed his will towards the One, Whom he has recognised as God and Father of eternity. And from this follows that the return to God is not a mass movement, that every individual person must have set out on the path by himself and therefore he also has to do everything necessary for it himself: to recognise God and to acknowledge Him and to appeal to Him for strength to be able to accomplish the return to Him. But he will not appeal to God in vain, for He knows of his will, of his sincerity and also of his weakness, He knows that it will not be possible for him alone, that he will need help.... But it is assured to him. He had lost his strength the moment his will had turned away from God, and he will receive it again when it turns back to Him.

And therefore an external formality alone cannot suffice, words alone cannot guarantee a truly God-devoted will, and belonging to a religious denomination cannot demonstrate this change of will, rather, it has to be proven by action, and this consists of unselfish loving activity without coercion and without law.... God certainly gave people the commandments of love, nevertheless love has to be practiced voluntarily, for even what is done as fulfilment of a commandment can be accomplished without the innermost will, which then will lessen its value. Therefore the attainment of beatitude, the return to God, has to be every person's very own affair, which he cannot pass on to other people and which no-one else will be able to accomplish on his behalf either. And even the deed itself is not decisive, only the innermost will is important.... which truly is obvious to God but which is also supported in every way. And whatever will then happen to you humans in life is only due to the influence of God or the world of light, which make sure that your will shall aim into the right direction, that it shall voluntarily submit itself to God and that it shall regard its return to God as its only goal.

However, once this act has been accomplished, once the human being's innermost thoughts are turned towards God and he makes an effort to live on earth according to God's will, then his earthly life will not have been lived in vain, and it will, with certainty, also result in freedom for the human being's soul. It will be able to detach itself from its tormentor, it will be able to strip itself of the shackles which kept it imprisoned for an infinitely long time, it is now on its path of ascent and no longer needs to fear God's adversary, who has no further power over the soul because God Himself will seize it, and will safely guide it upwards, for the human being's will has turned towards Him, from Whom he once had emerged as a created original spirit....

Amen

Translated by Heidi Hanna