Source: https://www.bertha-dudde.org/en/proclamation/6930

6930 The soul's process of development before embodiment....

September 29, 1957: Book 74

You humans have passed through many forms.... i.e., your real Self, your soul, had to go through a long process of development before it was allowed to incarnate in a human body.... And this process of development was the path through all the works of creation.... Dissolved into countless minute particles the soul had to animate each one of these works of creation and thus slowly mature, as soon as various particles had joined each other they had to constantly enter new forms, and all forms.... the innumerable works of creation.... contributed towards the maturing of these substances of soul until, finally, all particles were allowed to come together again and as a human soul enter and give life to the last form, the human body. Hence you all had to travel this path of development since due to your past fall into sin the separation from God became so great that the soul in its lifeless state, which was the result of its apostasy, would never have been able to overcome this vast distance from Him. It first had to be brought back to life. But life could not be granted to the beings which had become sinful.... they had to acquire it through being of service. However, the being would never serve voluntarily because it would have been prevented from doing so by God's adversary, whom it had followed into the abyss....

But it wasn't meant to remain eternally subject to death, it was meant to be given the opportunity to attain life.... and this 'opportunity' was the creation. God seized the fallen spirits from His adversary and made them serve Himself, He gave every work of creation its purpose according to natural law and made it fulfil this purpose in a state of compulsion.

As a result it had to be of service and, if only after an infinitely long time, thereby acquired a weak life which nevertheless enabled it to become constantly more active. For every being having once emerged from God's love was His emanated strength which wants to be active.... However, the beings which had joined God's adversary rejected God's illumination of love which is needed for living, thus for a being's activity, and therefore it fell into the state of death. And were it left to the being itself it would never be able to come alive again because its fall into the abyss made it completely helpless. For this reason God called a work into existence which at first ruled out the being's will for activity, which subordinated itself entirely to His will and which, through 'natural law', carried out the purpose He had assigned to this work, to the whole of creation.

His plan consisted of slowly bringing back to life what was lifeless, of giving it the possibility to be active again. And thus it was joined to the individual works of creation in tiny particles and through natural law obliged to get active again.... It was bound in these creations and unable to resist, it had to be of service.... but thereby was also able to reach the degree of development which gained it ever more freedom and finally also placed the spiritual being into the state of free will, from where it then has to decide whether it wants to continue its ascent or return into the abyss once more.... For God certainly helps the being to ascend but He does not compel it if it wants to descend. This decision of free will therefore takes place during the final stage of development on this earth.... when the soul is embodied as a human beings and can use its free will again at its own discretion.... Then the human being must recognise the great mercy of the former process of development and make conscious use of his earthly life, he must prove himself worthy and have the will that his final stage shall take him to the goal, he must strive whole-heartedly for his perfection and thus prove that he belongs to God; he must do whatever it takes so as not to fall again into the hands of the one from whom God's love had helped him become free throughout infinitely long times.... He must not live carelessly during this short time but again and again only remember the spiritual goal which will release him from all constraints, which signifies the reunion with God in light and strength and happiness.... And thus you humans were given earthly life for the sake of liberating your soul from a bondage which was placed upon you by God's adversary since time immemorial but which was its own fault and thus it will also have to remove its own share in order to gain its freedom and everlasting life....

Amen

Translated by Heidi Hanna