Source: https://www.bertha-dudde.org/en/proclamation/7348

7348 Free will.... Opportunity for ascent....

April 28, 1959: Book 78

Your will is not subject to compulsion, neither on earth nor in the kingdom of the beyond, that is why it is so difficult for you to arrive at perfection because spiritually you may not be influenced such that you effectively will be forced into implementing actions which will benefit your soul. Everything is based on free will, even though many people would much rather doubt than acknowledge this, but it is nevertheless the most important factor in earthly life and will remain so in the beyond. For against his will no human being will be able to become blessed, against its will no soul will attain enlightenment, otherwise all spiritual beings would have been redeemed by now. But free will is part of the being created by Me or I would have created something imperfect and that can never happen. The being was in My image, it was an emanation of My fundamental nature and anything 'divine' is unthinkable without free will. Free will was the cause of the being's apostasy from Me.... free will is also the basic condition of return to Me.... No side.... neither Mine nor My adversary's side.... will be able to forcibly influence a being into wanting and acting in a particular direction.... The being freely determines its own will and can only in this way attain perfection one day, but it can also remain far away from Me for an infinitely long time.

And if you humans think about this then you will also understand the battle on earth, for good as well as evil forces try to pull you over to their side by striving to influence your will with notions which you should take up by yourselves. Both directions, the light as well as the darkness, would like to win your will over for themselves, but neither can force you, in the final analysis it remains your own decision and therefore you can only be influenced by being informed of teachings, of My Word, of all pros and cons and then you will have to decide as to whether or not to accept these notions. And this free will concerns your innermost attitude.... and not always that which you actually do. You can also be prevented from implementing your will, but the innermost intention and thinking are decisive for the direction of your will, and accordingly your will affects your soul and promotes or prevents its perfection. But free will is a divine attribute, it identifies the human being as a being which once originated from Me, which I created as a totally free entity that was not intended to be different than its Creator and which would also have remained in this perfection had it not misused its free will.... but for which it had to have the capacity or the being could not be called 'free'. This is why the process of returning the spiritual beings is a work which will extend through eternities, because freedom of will is the crucial factor, since the being will never be forced to decide for or against Me.... It has to remain completely free. However, greater than great will be the bliss of the being which voluntarily finds its way back to Me one day.... which turns its will in the right direction so that it will return home to the One from Whom it once came forth in all perfection....

Amen

Translated by Heidi Hanna