Source: https://www.bertha-dudde.org/en/proclamation/8636

8636 Human beings have free will.... abuse....

October 5, 1963: Book 91

The will of man is the decisive thing. He is free and remains free until the end of his life, and also in the kingdom on the other side it is the free will of the soul, which causes it to ascent or fall, and that is why this will also alone determines the fate of the soul in eternity. If you humans now doubt free will because you are often unable to carry out your free will in earthly matters, then you must first of all realize that 'free will' must be understood to mean your innermost will, which cannot be determined by anyone, neither by Me nor by My adversary, nor by earthly power or by a fellow human being.... You will always determine this inner will yourselves, even if it is impossible for you to carry out what you want. For you must not confuse 'will' with 'possibility of execution'. That is why you so often argue that the human being possesses free will. And because you have free will you also have to answer for the direction of this will. What you now undertake earthly is perhaps important for your earthly situation in life, but not for the fate of your soul, and therefore it is about the direction of your will in spiritual relationship, i.e., your inner life is to correspond to My will, then your will is right directed, and you fulfil your earth life purpose. But only few men walk on the spiritual level, but the others therefore deny free will because they cannot always carry out their earthly plans, and they even stoop to the assertion that man is a plaything of fate and cannot do anything of his own to change his situation in life. But that mostly fate is always only to serve as means to give man's free will the right direction, so that it turns towards God and therefore brings man on the spiritual level, that they do not acknowledge, and already this inner refusal proves free will. People's free will is misused far more than it is used, otherwise the spiritual low would not have occurred, but which visibly characterizes the end time. People do not make it clear to themselves that they are free-willing creatures, that they can turn their innermost thoughts in any direction and that they themselves determine through their will which thoughts find access. Because every man leads his own inner life, which can be determined from no side, but is free matter of will of every individual. But as long as men dispute a free will, they also shake off all responsibility from themselves and always make Him responsible for their doing and thinking, Who has created them, when they believe in a God and creator. But as long as they do not know about the meaning and purpose of their earth life, they also do not think about how they lead their life, because they consider earth life to be an end in itself, but not a means to an end, and their wanting and thinking is only earthly directed. Free will alone is decisive whether they reach their aim on earth, because free will must confess God as God and creator (confess his God and creator), and in free will man must fulfil the love commandments of God.... Then free will will take the right direction and also experience strengthening at any time, because the man, who lives in love, will also find to Jesus Christ and receive from Him the favours of a strengthened will and then his lot in eternity is also secured. Free will is abused because all bad actions result from man directing his will wrongly, that he still is at the will of him who has brought all disaster into the world. Also the apostasy of the beings from God had free will as cause, and the return to God must therefore again take place in free will, what can only happen when it takes the right direction, when the will again turns towards God, and now man is also seized by Him and he then also guaranteed to again return to Him, from Whom he once started as free, light-full being...._>Amen

Translated by Doris Boekers