Source: https://www.bertha-dudde.org/en/proclamation/6998

6998 Listening to the word.... using the gifts of grace....

December 21, 1957: Book 74

You should not close yourselves off to the gifts of grace from above, for if you don't make use of them you will find it difficult to resist the world and its temptations because you lack the strength to do so, which you can repeatedly receive from My word. Don't believe that it doesn't matter whether I speak to you or not.... nor believe that you can receive strength elsewhere in order to be able to fulfil your earthly task, for this earthly task consists of overcoming the world.... matter.... and to mature spiritually, for which you absolutely need strength, because it is extremely difficult for a being which is still under My adversary's control to become free from him. And only I can give you this strength, for the adversary takes it from you and keeps you weak in order to prevent a return to Me. But I am always ready to supply you with strength in the form of My word. And since you humans only rarely accept it where it is offered to you, since you lack the faith that I Myself want to address you through those proclaimers, I have let further springs spring up in My love where the living water now flows towards you in all purity, where you may refresh yourselves and constantly draw strength from the water of life. And you should not pass by these springs but interrupt your walk and receive strength and reinforcement and only then continue on your way.... And then you will take every obstacle lightly, you will become overcomers and it will no longer be difficult for you to renounce the material world and its pleasures because you will exchange something else for it which will satisfy you far more than the goods of this world.... And it shall not annoy you when that which still belongs to the world is fatefully taken from you, when you are forced to make sacrifices, when obviously the world's pleasures are withdrawn from you, for then I only provide you with hidden help to detach yourselves, and I quietly urge you to where My word sounds, where a spring has opened, and I offer you something else for the loss you have suffered. It is by no means then a bitter fate which has affected you but a grace which you should only accept gratefully, for one day you will recognize it that only My love was active, even though it made you become fainthearted at first.... (21.12.1957) But once you have feasted on My word then your thinking will also clear up, the confusion into which you seem to have got will clear up, for one benefit of this greatest gift of grace, My word from above, also has a noticeable effect: you can explain all events around you, you know that they are only means to release you from the world and its dangers, you know that they are no coincidence but determined by Me and My will in order to help you. For as long as you humans regard earthly life itself as the purpose of your existence you will live wrongly, and then it will only serve no purpose.... But if you learn to recognize that it is only the means to an end, that you should wage the final battle in earthly life against everything that belongs to My adversary in order to come closer to Me, then you will also evaluate it as a gift of grace; and you can only come to this realization if you let yourselves be taught by Me through My word, either directly or through My messengers who receive My word from Me. Thus, first of all it concerns the knowledge which can grant you a certain realization if you willingly accept it. And this willing acceptance is 'acceptance of a gift of grace'.... If you now think about it and try to live your earthly life accordingly, this is 'using the gifts of grace'.... And it will certainly bring you success that you will mature in earthly life. For now you will also receive strength because you are willing.... It is solely a matter of your will, it is a matter of how your will adjusts itself when you are offered gifts of grace from Me.... But he has to decide freely, and therefore the human being can only ever be admonished and warned, the 'word of God' can be presented to him again and again, but none of My gifts of grace is compulsory, and therefore it is so significant how the human being decides on earth.... Yet he will also be helped in every way so that the decision will be easy for him and that he will make the right decision, for My love constantly seeks to save and to draw the souls upwards from the abyss into the kingdom of light, into My kingdom where there is eternal peace and bliss....

Amen

Translated by Doris Boekers