Source: https://www.bertha-dudde.org/en/proclamation/8395

8395 Does man have free will?....

January 28, 1963: Book 88

I will never force a person's will to walk on right paths, be it in his conduct of life, in his attitude towards Me and the spiritual kingdom or even in his endeavour to verbalize the pure truth..... He always has complete freedom from Me but he should not abuse it. Thus you will also understand that the human being's freedom of will means everything, that it is the cause of the human being's spiritual state, of his spiritual blindness but also of his enlightened thinking, for he himself, i.e. his free will, substantiates everything. Thus his free will can strive for the deepest depths again, but it can also strive for the height, and accordingly it will be fulfilled. But the human being's free will cannot be taken away, otherwise he would only act like a machine, only guided by My will, and a deification into an image of Me would not be possible. Yet the latter is My goal which I have set Myself and which I will also achieve, for no matter how long it takes this free will will one day belong to Me and strive for nothing other than the being's final unification with Me.... But this is also the reason for the everlasting battle between Me and My adversary for the human being's will, for the human being's soul is won by whomever he turns to. Both I Myself and My adversary use all means because all coercion is excluded and I cannot deny My adversary the right to try everything because the being once followed him voluntarily.... And since it concerns the deification of all beingness which once came forth from Me as a creature, as a work of My love, wisdom and might, My wisdom devised a plan which consisted of the being's will entering into My will of its own free will, even though it was not forced to do so but could also think and act of its own free will.... And this insertion or subordination under My will had to be accomplished by love.... The being had to be so devoted to Me in ardent love that it no longer wanted to accept any other will than Mine and was immeasurably happy as a result. Thus I did not prevent the being when it voluntarily turned away from Me, because only this created the possibility to become a 'child' from a 'work' of My love, which voluntarily allowed itself to be subordinated to Me with heartfelt love for Me.... For this love also led to the highest perfection which the very being itself has to strive for and achieve in order to be able to work next to Me completely freely in light and strength, which I achieved from eternity.... I can certainly make all beings blissfully happy without limitation, but nevertheless it is something different whether the work of My love always just remains a 'work' or is once a being completely independent of Me and My will which is no longer determined by My will.... even if it does not resist it.... but that it has made itself completely free and yet now, out of its love, which gives it brightest light, wants and achieves the same as I Myself.... because this very love indissolubly unites the being with Me, which, however, is a self-aware, free, individual being.... an image of Myself. "Become perfect as your father in heaven is perfect.... " This possibility therefore exists that you become My images, that you deify yourselves, that you become true children of God, whom My will could not create, but who must fashion themselves into it.... Hence your free will is proof of divine origin, but it is also the path to highest perfection and you will then have shaped yourselves into gods in truth, who create and work with Me in infinity and are immeasurably happy. Free will is the main factor of the whole process of return, but only for the self-aware being, for as long as the being is deprived of self-awareness, when it passes through creation dissolved into countless particles, it no longer possesses free will, which I have bound for a certain time in order to create the possibility for the being to use its free will correctly again. As soon as the being is self-aware it will always be able to decide freely and will not be forced in any way, neither by Me nor by My adversary. But precisely then a great responsibility rests upon it, for its free will can be directed downwards again, which results in an infinite state of misery.... However, his will can also strive (direct) upwards without any change and highest bliss can then be his fate for eternity. And you humans often dispute this free will because your earthly fate is sometimes shaped in such a way that you clearly sense a strong power and therefore consider yourselves unfree..... However, it is not a question of whether it is impossible for you to carry out something, but only about your innermost will, how it is directed. It is not about earthly desire but only about spiritual goals which you can only achieve with a correctly directed will, because then you will also irrevocably receive the strength to accomplish what you want. And therefore you humans cannot shift responsibility away from yourselves with the objection that you do not possess free will.... that you are determined by your living conditions and your fate to your will and thinking.... Although the latter also contributes to you being able to direct your will correctly, for this is My constant endeavour, and therefore everything in life also comes upon you in such a way that it would be easy for you to give your will the right direction.... Yet you always have to decide for yourselves, and therefore your return to Me can also extend over endless times, and you may have to travel the path through creation several times.... precisely because you are free in your will and thinking.... Yet one day I will reach the goal of being able to draw you to Me as My children, and therefore My love will not rest until the beings created by Me will be able to work in supreme bliss for their own happiness, in free will, which is also Mine, because it is only ever determined by profound love and the love of all beings will one day belong to Me for eternity....

Amen

Translated by Doris Boekers