Sensual Love - Marriage – Responsibility

In The Word of God are texts published and offered which Bertha Dudde was permitted to prophetically receive and record. One promise of Jesus Christ was (John 14.21): ‘Whoever has My commands and obeys them, he is the one who loves Me. He who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I too will love him and show Myself to him.’

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Please take special notice of the fact that God’s Words addressed to us are non-denominational. The contents of the publication by no means intends to attract members of any Christian religious affiliation nor to recruit members into any other religious affiliation.

Its sole purpose is to make the present-day Word of God .... accessible to all people. May this Word of God become a blessing to many people.

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Distribution of the proclamations is very much desired. Only complete and unaltered proclamations must be passed on.

Who was Bertha Dudde?

Bertha Dudde wurde am 1. April 1891 als zweitälteste Tochter eines Kunstmalers in Liegnitz, Schlesien, geboren.

Bertha Dudde was born on 1. April 1891, as the second oldest daughter of a painter, in Liegnitz, Silesia. She became a dressmaker and began to receive pronouncements from God through the ‘Inner Word’ on 15. June 1937.

“In a clear dream I was moved to write down my thoughts after devout prayer. Understandably this often gave way to doubt and inner conflicts until I was convinced that I was, myself, by no means the initiator of these exquisitely gracious words; but instead it was the spirit within me, in other words, the love of the Heavenly Father was obviously responsible for them and introduced me to the truth”.

“I was given knowledge of the spiritual world which far exceeded my elementary school education. I received and receive this knowledge as a dictation in a state of complete consciousness; I write down everything I am told in shorthand, in order to then transfer it word for word to clean copy. The procedure does not take place in a state of compulsion, for example in a state of trance or ecstasy, but in an absolutely level-headed frame of mind. However, I have to want it to happen and then I can receive these dictations voluntarily; they are neither bound by time nor place.”

“Now I only have one wish, which is to be able to make these gifts of grace accessible to many more people and in accordance with the will of God Himself to be allowed to do much more work in His vineyard.”

(Quotations from an autobiography from 1959).

Bertha Dudde died on 18. September 1965 in Leverkusen, Germany.

Published by friends of the New Revelation, Hans-Willi Schmitz und Wilhelm Wegers

http://en.bertha-dudde.org

Autobiography of Bertha Dudde

At the request of many friends Bertha Dudde wrote the following biography in 1953:

I have been writing messages received through the inner Word since June 15, 1937. In answer to the many requests of my friends I will give you a picture of my earthly life, a short explanation of what I received spiritually, and my own feelings about all this.

I was born April 1, 1891, the second oldest daughter of an artist of Liegnitz in Silesia, today's Poland. I had a normally peaceful childhood, with six sisters in our parent’s home. I learned the cares of life at an early age. The desire to make money to help my parents made me learn the trade of a seamstress. As the financial needs of my parents continued, so did the burden, and in this way I made myself useful.

My parents belonged to different denominations. Father was a Protestant - Mother a Catholic. We children were brought up in the Catholic faith but never experienced pressure or force to follow the practices of the church so that each child in later years was able to pursue their own chosen course.

I myself was religious but could not accept the doctrine of the Catholic system although I respected the church. I could not represent something on the outside that my inner conscience had not accepted. So I did not continue to attend church, heard little preaching and had no knowledge of the Bible. I did not read any religious books or scientific literature and did not join any other group or religious sect.

Anyone knowing the Catholic teaching knows what a conscious struggle one finds himself in when he wants to release himself from it. I was not spared from this either. But the question as to what is the Truth and where it is to be found, remained.

Often when I prayed the Lord's Prayer I would beseech the Lord to allow me to find His kingdom. This prayer was answered in June 15, 1937, as I prayed quietly and waited for the inner voice. In this attitude I persisted often, for a wonderful peace came over me and thoughts which came to my heart, not my head, gave me comfort and strength.

Still I did not know that these thoughts were given to me until, in a strange dream I experienced something which later proved to be the Truth and caused me to write down these thoughts.

So on a certain day as I listened inwardly a stream of words came to me, which I wrote down. This was the first message I wrote which started like this: "In the beginning was the Word, 'a Te-Deum' to the Creator of Heaven and Earth."

Then came doubt, …. did you write this by yourself? In short, I have wrestled, prayed and gone through many struggles, but again and again the words came to me like a stream, a wisdom, which made me tremble. Then God Himself took away my doubts. He answered me and I acknowledged Him as our Father, in His Word. My faith grew, doubt diminished, and I received and wrote daily.

The contents of the writings were beyond my understanding. Phrases, which I had never heard of or read about, strange and scientific expressions and references continually came to me. Then came unheard of expressions of the Heavenly Father's Love giving refuge and providing enlightenment to all the questions of life.

The Words came to me in the following manner: After sincere prayer and a short period of composure I listened inwardly. Thoughts then followed coming to my mind, clearly, distinctly, and the words flowed smoothly always three or four, one after another, like writing a radio announcement or a weather report, slowly so that I could easily keep pace, writing line after line.

Now I write the words in shorthand as a dictation without having any constructive or intellectual part in it. I am in no way in a 'trance', nor do I even form the sentences, but it comes to me one word at a time, neither do I understand the context while I am writing the words down.

After days, sometimes weeks, I transcribe the shorthand writings into longhand without changing or correcting a syllable. Each dictation takes about half an hour. I must stress that this could not happen forcibly or in a state of ecstasy. It all takes place simply and consciously, without any excitement or influence of my own will. I can interrupt myself at any time and finish the sentence after hours or days without reading the previous writing the dictated words continue again.

My will is under no compulsion, all that I desire is to serve God and do what His will wants me to do.

I can truthfully say that I was led into this Truth, and these concepts were, in every respect, foreign to me. It was only after years that I found confirmation of what I received when I came to know the writings of Jacob Lorber. No one can imagine my joy when I discovered the literature of Jacob Lorber; ‘The Great Gospel of John’ and ‘The Youth of Christ’. Then I understood that other people were also given the Word of the Lord, that God had spoken to His children at all times and that God will continue to do this in His endless love and mercy.

I found in Lorber's writings the same as was given to me. I often could not understand the Word that came to me, but in His love the Heavenly Father gave me the explanation. How wonderful are the innumerable manifestations in which the Father displays His exceedingly great goodness.

It became clear to me that my limited education due to lack of money, and my lack of time to read good books or visit performances, became my advantage. I was now able to concentrate on my work from early morning to late at night, and each day I received that precious spiritual Word without knowing for whom I received it.

It is because of my ignorance of the Bible and the Catholic doctrine that I accepted the Word from above without resistance. In my experience, an earnest Catholic or Protestant whose knowledge is rooted in dogmatic theories is too much bound to dogma to accept and embrace divine revelations without resistance.

Still, there are scientists at several faculties who earnestly discuss these divine teachings with increasing interest. Their interest not only concerns the irrefutable explanation of the origin of matter and the possibility of its dissolution, but also the principle of the wrong teachings of different religions, systems and confessions. In the messages I received, these errors are recorded and everyone is urged to give instructions concerning these doctrinal errors whenever there is an opportunity. But everyone is free to take the Lord's Word to heart or not. But whoever understands the spirit in the Father's Word and does not act accordingly increases the distance between himself and the Father even more. When he does not follow the warning Words of love he puts himself inevitably under the law. He will also, in the same measure, lack in grace by disregarding God's commandment of love.

In God's grace people are led anew to the Gospel, which emphatically points out the purpose of man's being. For the merciful love of God seeks to save all who still can be saved before the turning point comes. And it will come. The end-time which seers and prophets have proclaimed is now here. According to the revelations given to me, the Lord does not differentiate between His children. ‘Come ye all to Me’ sounds His call and blessed is he who hears His call and follows Him. God loves His children. He wants to make them all happy, even when they do not want to know Him.

Recorded November 22, 1953

Bertha Dudde

Bertha Dudde was permitted to leave her earthly shell on September 18, 1965 to return to the Father’s heavenly house.

Table of Contents

2461 - Immorality.... Unwritten laws....

2480 - ?resNotTranslated?

Sensual love

4674 - Love epitome of divinity.... reverse love....

0873 - Sensual love....

1459 - Love between one person and another....

2473 - ?resNotTranslated?

2778 - Temptation in form of earthly amusements....

3310 - Love.... wrong.... divine.... from human to human....

Marriage

1021 - Togetherness in love.... Easy earthly path....

4357 - Marriage.... In the presence of God and before the world....

4655 - "What God has joined together...." Connections blessed by God....

4834 - The right, lawful marriage before God....

6940 - God’s blessing for every action.... Marriages....

Procreation

0850 - Sensual frenzy.... begetting.... purpose....

2795 - Will for descendants.... Waiting souls....

4979 - Third, fourth, fifth and sixth commandment....

7010 - Act of procreation in God-remoteness occasion of unbelief....

Heredity and predisposition

2775 - Incarnation.... Instincts.... Preliminary stages....

1933a - Instincts of preliminary stages determine character....

1933b - Heredity.... Disposition.... Parents....

2078 - ?resNotTranslated?

2321 - Disposition.... Instincts of preliminary stages....

5257 - Not inclination but love determines the will....

5207 - Declaration of kinship feelings.... soul particles....

8306 - Sympathy and antipathy....

Education of children

2443 - ?resNotTranslated?

3607 - Right instruction of children.... will....

0428 - Explanatory note to no. 410....

7189 - Spiritual guidance from birth to death....

Responsibility

2536 - ?resNotTranslated?

7149 - Responsibility of parents and children....

8496 - Every man must answer for himself....

6127 - Fighting against oneself, desires and overcoming them....

6311 - Right love is life....

Immorality .... Unwritten laws ....

B.D. 2461 from August 30th 1942, taken from Book No. 33

General immorality accompanies the time of people's unkindness and the fact that people no longer show any consideration towards their fellow human being's feelings and thus no longer exert any kind of self-restraint is also a sign of spiritual deterioration. And a generation without manners and without meaningful morality is heading for disaster .... Admittedly, people find this incomprehensible, since they consider decency a mere human addition and that the times justify giving full expression to all instincts. And their points of view are encouraged by the completely wrong opinion that moral laws merely prevent people from enjoying life and therefore must be abolished. No nation will ever survive if it does not want to accept any laws as a guiding principle which give people moral stability so that they will live their life within the framework of a certain social order .... These are unwritten laws which people have nevertheless accepted until now, because they have all recognised both the necessity as well as the blessings of such laws and, for the sake of human order, have submitted to them without argument .... These laws are increasingly more forgotten or they are knowingly discarded by people because they prevent them from living up to their sensuality. This clearly shows a decline of spiritual development, for the more sensual a person is, the less he strives towards God; he desires the world, that is, everything that gives pleasure to the body, and for the sake of the body disposes of all consideration towards his fellow human beings. As a result, the human being falls prey to spiritual forces which had lived a life of uninhibited pleasure on earth, which indulged their cravings and thus had led a sinful life. These spiritual forces exert tremendous influence on these people and use them such that the human being pays less and less attention to the unwritten laws, that he unreservedly indulges himself in an easy way of life and that no limits exist for him than the fulfilment of his lust. This attitude towards worldly pleasures will never be conducive to spiritual development, for anything the body demands will always disadvantage the soul. Besides, spiritual aspiration will be laughed at and ridiculed, and this without all inhibition, because people will have lost all sense of decency and good manners .... Hence, the individual person's point of view will not be respected either but will be deemed hostile and therefore be discarded, often in the most shameless fashion. For immorality and spiritual deterioration go hand in hand. People indeed speak about being enlightened and, yet, they are less enlightened than ever before .... They speak of spiritual advancement and, yet, they remain far behind, for they don't understand it as the progress of the soul, instead, they only mean a wrong way of thinking, which they nevertheless find worth striving for. They try to construct a new morality for themselves which aids and abets an easy way of life and intend to portray it as ideal. And thus new laws will come into being and old laws will be revoked, and humanity will change accordingly and lose every guideline for a virtuous, God-pleasing life which is intended to improve the human being's soul ....

Amen

Translation handled by Heidi Hanna

2480 - ?resNotTranslated?

Sensual love

Love epitome of divinity .... reverse love ....

B.D. 4674 from June 21st 1949, taken from Book No. 53

The most sublime feeling is and remains love .... But not everything that you humans understand by love is to be recognized as love .... For love can also be a perverse one which cannot claim to be sublime. Love is the divine principle, thus it is actually the epitome of divinity, it is something that cannot be defined, it is the essence and characteristic of God, it is the great power which is inexplicable to human beings and which caused everything to come into being because it has a creative and enlivening effect. It is therefore the original being of God, it is something radiating from God, which is found in all His creations and should come to full development in the human being. Right love draws upwards, it seeks union with eternal love, the original source of life and all strength. Again, it is only possible to grasp this in people in whom true love has come to fruition, otherwise this remains an incomprehensible concept because people can certainly feel the feeling of love in their heart but usually give any desire the name 'love', which, however, is only a wrongly directed love, a desire for union with things which appear desirable to the human being. But such a wrongly directed love is not strength-giving, whereas right love is strength in itself at the same time, which again can only be made understandable to a loving person. For only a loving person can recognize this strength because he not only lives an earthly life but also a spiritual life, thus he seeks contact with the kingdom where right love is emanated and the strength of love has a more spiritual effect insofar as it is used for loving activity, thus it certainly stimulates earthly activity but never seeks to achieve earthly success with it but unconsciously strives for spiritual ascent. The strength of love can achieve everything .... Anyone who brings love to its highest development is able to work miracles because he is filled with divine strength for which nothing is impossible. The fact that people cannot prove this to themselves is due to their limited willingness to love. They could provide this proof at any time, yet the most sublime feeling, pure divine love, which is completely selfless and only seeks to please, this love is alien to people, and thus the union with eternal love, which results in the supply of divine strength in abundance, is only rarely established. For it is understandable that everything which conforms to God's original nature, which is love in itself, can also develop divine abilities, because the human being is a part of God which only has an anti-divine relationship with Him through its own will. If it changes its will .... thus it shapes itself into love, which it previously lacked, then it takes on all divine characteristics again which it originally possessed and lost through its own fault. As soon as God's thinking creature, the human being, realizes what it actually is, as soon as it recognizes its belonging to God and tries to make itself worthy of it, it approaches the original source of strength again, for eternal love recognizes its will and draws it towards itself. But then the human being is also active in love, for the supply of strength expresses itself in activity in love, because God and love are one and, where God is present, it cannot be active in any other way than in love. This means as much as approaching God and receiving strength in all fullness. Love is the most sublime feeling which can move a person, for it is divine emanation into the heart of a person who is of good will .... Love which turns to earthly things, which are therefore still to be regarded as matter, is not strength-giving but strength-sapping, and since the human being has no spiritual supply of strength he uses the strength of life to gain what his wrongly directed love desires. Thus he gains nothing but loses, because what he gains is transient and he forfeits imperishable values which he should create for himself with his vitality. Right love makes the human being happy,

(22.6.1949) right love is not a demanding but a giving love, it distributes without wanting to receive and yet constantly receives the more it distributes. For right love is a united working with God and therefore must also be capable of everything, thus it will always be victorious, i.e. stronger than any other strength or power, it will conquer evil, it will appease anger, it will achieve everything because it is patient and long-suffering, and thus even God's adversary will not be able to resist the strength of divine love and one day declare himself defeated, because he, too, will long for God's love and surrender to it without resistance, just as all spiritual beings sense God's love and allow themselves to be redeemed by it by no longer resisting it ....

Amen

Translation handled by Doris Boekers

Sensual love ....

B.D. 0873 from April 19th 1939, taken from Book No. 17

So today, for the strengthening of the spirit, you shall receive one more proclamation concerning love, and namely from a specific point of view. People often describe something with the word 'love' which, in itself, is indeed love too, yet it is far removed from what is preached to people .... the practise of which shall be the human being's first and last task. It concerns the love of the senses, which you so often want to understand as the concept of love. Yet you should know that you are more likely to destroy true love if you don't resist sensual love, for it is a game of deceit by the adversary. It is, as it were, his means by which the human soul only too often falls into his trap. The human being completely submits himself to the control of evil if he does not resist his physical lust. This is the love which endeavours to possess, yet it will never ever be able to refine the human being and therefore cannot lead to union with the highest Entity either. So the human being must be very much on his guard that his soul and its progress will not be at serious risk due to purely physical longing .... he has to consider that it is far more difficult to suppress this lust once he has become addicted to it, and that all love on earth which purely applies to earthly interests therefore can never be right before God .... for love which is not giving but merely aims to fulfil earthly desires is likewise set to accomplish earthly success and consequently not intended by God. For God only considers a heart's innermost feeling. If this is truly selfless and only ever wants to give love, regardless of its own advantage, such deeds of love will also result in the reward inherent in them .... they will lead to heartfelt union with the divine Saviour ....

Amen

Translation handled by Heidi Hanna

Love between one person and another ....

B.D. 1459 from June 7th 1940, taken from Book No. 24

What you human beings call love is a feeling of togetherness which God wants and therefore need not be denied before Him. God Himself has planted this feeling into your heart in order to make you happy as well as to bring Himself closer to you, because deeply felt affection for another human being must simultaneously be love for God, since the former is God’s living creation after all and thus not only is the living creation the object of this deep affection but also the Creator Himself. Hence you show the Eternal Creator the same love which you give to His living creation. However, this love should be giving and not desirous, or the desire should be the same as love ....

God created His living beings for mutual happiness, one should serve the other, hence give to him what he considers to be desirable himself, and if he asks for love from him he should also give love. This is what the Lord wants, Who would like to give His love to His beings in the same way and therefore also requests to be loved by them. If the human being only looks for worldly advantage his love will not be true since it will arise from selfishness which is not of divine origin. In that case the adversary will have placed the feeling into your heart to weaken your will and to take notice of your body’s desire. Then everyone will try to take but not to give. And then love will have no beneficial effect either. Because it is the love for the world, the love of the senses .... it is not a feeling wanted by God but the way of the adversary to make you fall. Then you will erroneously give the instinct, which dominates you, the name of love, but instead it is desire and selfishness and not unselfish love which is gladdening.

Those who originated from God should find one another again and jointly strive towards God in order to support and guide each other on the path of ascent. And this love should express itself in the longing for each other, the human being should experience the other person’s presence as God’s most delectable gift with radiant happiness, his heart, full of gratitude, should praise the Creator, Who will send him a ray of His light of love. And their mutual love should give rise to good thoughts and cause good actions. This love is entirely in accordance with God’s will, it causes happiness and elation .... it does not demand but gives .... it is from God and leads back to God .... it knows no boundaries and will continue to exist for eternity. For if it is of God it cannot be restrained, it will always and forever mean happiness and joy and remain unchanged since it is something spiritual which emanates from God, which does not affect the body but the human being’s soul and thus it will not be felt by the body but by the soul. Love is the strength which benefits the unification of the spiritual beings and therefore meets with God’s complete approval ....

Amen

Translation handled by Heidi Hanna

2473 - ?resNotTranslated?

Temptation in form of earthly amusements ....

B.D. 2778 from June 18th 1943, taken from Book No. 37

You should not think that the opponent will bypass you even if you strive towards God .... His influence is unrestricted as long as the human being's will is weak. Only a strong will can offer him the resistance which he cannot overcome. The will is always decisive as to whether he gains control over a person. But if the will weakens his influence becomes stronger again, and the temptations approach a person in the most varied of ways. For this reason he must constantly struggle, he must constantly appeal for strength and grace, for strengthening of his will, he must constantly be on his guard so as not to succumb to the temptations of evil, he must watch and pray .... for the prize is worth the battle .... The world and its enticements approach the human being time and again, it is the adversary's most effective means to cause the human being's downfall, for everything which belongs to the world separates the human being from God. He cannot possess God and the world at the same time, he must sacrifice one if he wants to win the other. The world, however, only offers illusive goods which are phantoms that make a person only temporarily happy and which crumble into nothingness. They have no lasting value but still destroy spiritual values, that is, they distract the human being from spiritual striving, and this is a regression on the path of development. The opponent constantly intends to detach the human being from God, therefore he repeatedly approaches him in the form of worldly amusements, he entices him with worldly pleasures, he tries to turn his mind to them and thereby desert God. And if a person does not oppose him with a firm will he will succumb, and the opponent will have won his game. The human being's body enjoys the experiences but the soul gets into difficulties, for to the same extent as the person enjoys earthly pleasures the soul has to go short. If the soul can become stronger than the body then it will succeed in making the person feel discontented; these are the inner admonitions and warnings which are imparted to the person through the inner voice, if only he pays attention to them. Then he will make every effort to overcome his inclination for the world and with increased determination strive spiritually again. And this determination will also give him the strength and the grace of being able to achieve it.

But the voice of the world is frequently stronger than the inner voice, in that case the latter will fade away unheard, he will throw himself increasingly deeper into the whirlpool of worldly pleasures, he wants to enjoy himself and gets caught in the opponent's nets of lies, who will tie the human to himself ever more firmly by offering him the pleasures of the world and making him totally unreceptive to spiritual possessions. He has bound his will and the person will find it very difficult to release himself from him, for the human must turn away from him of his own accord and desire God before the strength and grace can take effect in him. And therefore beware of the temptations by the world! .... Consider that God's adversary will approach you time and again and that only your will is able to banish him. And in order for this will to become strong enough, you must watch and pray .... Pay attention to the danger which constantly lies in wait for you in the shape of worldly temptation, and constantly request the strength from God to withstand them, for every fall is a spiritual regression, and every overcoming will bring you closer to the goal. What God offers you is incomparably more valuable and can never ever be compensated by worldly goods, worldly pleasures or amusements. Be vigilant and know that you are constantly put under pressure by God's adversary, who intends to make you fall .... Therefore appeal to God for strength and strengthening of your will so that you can resist every temptation ....

Amen

Translation handled by Heidi Hanna

Love .... wrong .... divine .... from human to human ....

B.D. 3310 from October 28th 1944, taken from Book No. 43

No request goes unheard at the ear of the heavenly father, which rises up to Him from the deepest heart. And every thought of God gives strength and grace .... For His love is constantly with those who struggle for inner peace, who want to belong to Him and have to struggle and fight against the challenges of the world. But strength will be sent to them if it is needed .... God has placed love in the human being's heart, He has made him capable of this feeling, which is no longer earthly but divine if it takes the right direction. Love is the desire for unity, and this desire can be for the still immature spiritual, for matter or other pleasures of the world which pull down, which do not ennoble but degrade the soul, and then it is a wrong love which is to be fought for the soul's sake. This love is not divine, for a divine love strives for the luminous height, it strives for union with mature spiritual beings, it only seeks to make happy but never earthly possessions. Right love can also apply to all things, but only in the redemptive sense that it wants to help where help is needed. Right love can also awaken from person to person, if the giving, wanting to please principle always prevails, even if the person feels his own happiness in it, because right love must please because it is divine. The desire for union must also characterize right love, only this union can take place physically or also spiritually. A merely physical union can mean a danger for right love if the person is not strong enough and the giving love changes into a demanding one. Spiritual love, on the other hand, is and remains divine and will never be able to pull a person down, for this love is a merging of souls, a union for the increase of spiritual strength .... This love is God-willed, for it promotes the soul, because both desire is directed upwards and they now also travel the path together. Yet physical love must always be sacrificed to this spiritual love, i.e. the desire of the body must be overcome, the human being must only want to give but never want to possess; he must be willing to sacrifice if he can help the other person with it, he must fight a battle with himself so that his love will remain a true, divine love, so that it will remain a purely spiritual one which lifts up to the ascent. Unselfish neighbourly love always demonstrates the right love, and as long as two people's love for each other consists of unselfish service it is divine and blessed by God .... For He created people for each other, He brought them together so that they should ascend together, and He will bless every covenant which has pure, redeeming, divine love as its basis .... But they must protect this love as the most sacred good, so that it remains pure and divine until the end of life ....

Amen

Translation handled by Doris Boekers

Marriage

Togetherness in love .... Easy earthly path ....

B.D. 1021 from July 24th 1939, taken from Book No. 19

The longest path on earth is not difficult to travel if the human being doesn't have to cover it alone, for all distress and trouble are easier carried as a twosome. A lonely wanderer bears all burdens and troubles by himself, he has no loving heart to speak to, no one to lift him up if he is in danger of breaking down, and no one whom he, in turn, can reassure and support in difficult times. And many an earthly wanderer's fate consists of the fact that they always and forever walk alone even though they are surrounded by countless people. They exclude themselves from the world and reject all consolation and active help. And thus they have to cover an arduous, very long earthly path in constant isolation. Natural law connects people, natural law requires togetherness since it is, after all, the foundation of continued existence for creation and its living beings.

Everything in the human being longs for its alter ego, the human being naturally feels the instinct to bond with a similarly natured person, in every human heart dwells love which wants to express itself towards this other self, and therefore the union between a man and a woman is an irrevocable law ordained by the divine Father Himself. The foundation for all unions, however, shall be profound love, each one shall endeavour from the bottom of his heart to serve the other, to treat him with love and to start a relationship which utterly complies with divine will. Then God's blessing will also rest on such a union, travelling the path through earthly life will be easier for both because their love for each other will help them carry all difficulties, and this love also guarantees that the Father is likewise present where pure love unites two people. For the eternal Deity's activity will be noticeable there, pure love will refine people and turn their eyes towards heaven, they will recognise God, the Lord, by virtue of their inherently active love which is divine after all, and from this realisation they will draw the strength to overcome all difficulties in life .... They are walking with God at the same time .... in blissful togetherness they have become aware of the fact that God has to be present where love exists, and this realisation makes them blissfully happy, since then the human being will know that he is safe under the Father's loyal guard ....

Amen

Translation handled by Heidi Hanna

Marriage .... In the presence of God and before the world ....

B.D. 4357 from June 29th 1948, taken from Book No. 51

You have to find each other in love otherwise a union is not blessed by Me. Marriage is togetherness; it is a living together in most heart-felt harmony. Marriage is a state which cannot be lawfully created but its prerequisite is always profoundly unselfish love which, once it is kindled within the heart, can never be extinguished again. Because the right kind of love unites the hearts, it is not a physical love which looks for fulfilment in the intoxication of senses, it is not a demanding love. Ever-giving and happiness-imparting love is the foundation of a marriage which is blessed by Me.

Marriage is a sincere community of two people whose hearts feel pure love for each other .... A marriage like that cannot be undone because true love can never cease. And this marriage will take place as soon as two people commend themselves to Me for the blessing of their bond. Then they are husband and wife before Me and they shall remain together until death separates them. Anyone who gets married in this way will always have a sense of belonging to the other person even if external circumstances separate them. My blessing will rest upon them because the most sacred feeling, having its source in Me, was the cause of the relationship, which is the primary condition for a marriage intended by Me .... But pure love is rarely to be found on earth these days, although marital bonds are nevertheless still formed. This is not against My will because humanity should reproduce itself, given that countless souls are awaiting their embodiment in order to cover their last stage of development in the world of matter. Hence the marriage between two people has to be given an externally recognisable form, a structure which incorporates certain laws, obligations and rights. Without them people would contravene My necessary order too easily and thereby jeopardise their children's correct education which, however, is of utmost significance for their spiritual development. The legal form of the marriage ceremony is therefore in accordance with My will, but whether My particular blessing rests on it depends on the degree of mutual love between both husband and wife, whereas it depends on My blessing whether a wedding ceremony is being conducted before people or in My presence.

If a marriage ceremony is conducted for other reasons without deep mutual love, then the relationship will certainly be valid before the world, and I would not withhold My support if it is requested, but it is not a marriage in the true sense of the word which is pleasing to Me, it is not the state of union wanted by Me which, due to love, becomes an act of happiness that will be blessed by Me. Because the giving principle will always be predominant in the presence of pure love, consequently I, Who Am love Itself, will never be excluded from a marriage like that, and My spirit will govern the people and work in those who step before Me as husband and wife and ask for My blessing ....

Amen

Translation handled by Heidi Hanna

"What God has joined together ...." Connections blessed by God ....

B.D. 4655 from June 1st 1949, taken from Book No. 53

What God has joined together, man shall not separate. What I have blessed must therefore remain indissolubly united for all eternity. But how can My blessing be recognized? Not an earthly bond guarantees My fullest approval, a spiritual agreement of both parts must obviously be recognizable if people want to claim My blessing and believe themselves to be in possession of it. People who are spiritually of different kinds, who do not find themselves in the same spiritual striving, can indeed likewise enter into a union which also has its earthly justification, but they are by no means to be regarded as united by Me, even though they believe to fulfil all conditions through ceremonies and religious actions which are intended to secure My blessing for them. I certainly consider the union to be closed and never approve of a separation, yet I reserve the divine blessing for Myself and distribute it to those who approach Me together in prayer, who want to travel their path of life together with the same striving for perfection, for maturity of soul and with the same love for Me, Whose commandments they want to fulfil and Who is their aim on this earth. Consequently, many marriages can be considered concluded, but only a few are blessed by Me. In order to be united forever before Me I make demands on the will of both partners that they want to belong to each other for time and eternity, that one wants to be the support and staff of the other, that they therefore love each other without self-interest and are driven by the desire for union to enter into a bond which does not consist of external formalities but of intimate communion physically and spiritually. The desire for union will be all the greater the deeper the spiritual harmony of the souls is, which is therefore expressed in the same thinking, the same acting and the agreement of words and speeches which have Me as their content, thus testify to spiritual communion. These are therefore also destined for spiritual cooperation by Me and will consequently be able to be completely certain of My blessing if they offer themselves to Me for spiritual cooperation. And the blessing will be easily recognizable which rests on those people who work together for Me and My kingdom, for they will not suffer any hardship, they will be fully satisfied spiritually and earthly, and I will obviously be with them in every adversity and danger. But such a bond must not be severed, even if it is not earthly sanctioned, thus earthly it would be very easy to dissolve .... For what I join together man shall not separate .... Do you know why I brought you together, why I allowed your paths to cross when I made it possible for you to come together and yet spiritual agreement was recognizable? Thus you may not separate again on your own authority or carry out a separation which could withdraw My blessing from you if I did not prevent you from carrying out your plan. A separation may only take place if I Myself separate you for the sake of your soul's salvation, if I, in order not to endanger your salvation, take each one of you into My care as long as spiritual differences arise, thus an agreement no longer exists that it no longer allows for spiritual cooperation. But then this union will nevertheless not be dissolved, because what I unite can never be dissolved by people and because My blessing will rest on every union which was concluded in spiritual striving and found My approval ....

Amen

Translation handled by Doris Boekers

The right, lawful marriage before God ....

B.D. 4834 from February 10th 1950, taken from Book No. 55

Marital togetherness absolutely necessitates God’s blessing otherwise the marriage may well be lawful on earth but not in heaven. Anyone joining together on earth without believing in the Creator and Provider of all things, in the God and Father of eternity, will not be able to claim God’s blessing. He does not acknowledge God, and thus God will not acknowledge a bond either, even though it was legally joined on earth, i.e. all required formalities for a marriage ceremony were complied with. Only when both step before God with the plea to bless their bond, when both acknowledge God as their Lord, to Whom they will be striving in love, can they be assured of His blessing, for God is present where He is desired. He is effectively witness to a marriage which is based on love for one another .... And thus it is quite understandable that only few marriages are able to make the claim to be joined before God, since not even a ceremony in church will replace the fulfilment of God’s required terms. Because a church ceremony can also be performed by people who marry without love for the sake of earthly advantages, which will not ever be blessed by God.

Marriage is a sacred institution which was set up by God for the procreation of the human race as well as for the mutual maturing of souls who are attracted to each other by love. However, marriage should not be seen as a businesslike union which is to be entered into only to indulge in sensuality or to attain earthly advantages. Marriage is not a state which can be arbitrarily finished or changed either. Anyone who is lawfully joined before God, i.e. who had begged for God’s blessing with mutually agreeing will, remains eternally joined before God and can only be detached by death and experience a temporary separation. But for the most part such marriage partners also unite with each other in the spiritual kingdom and jointly strive towards ascent. The unification of spiritually like-minded souls on earth as well as in the beyond is the greatest joy and goal, and anyone having joined together through love will remain joined for all eternity. But there are only few such right, lawful marriages before God .... And for this reason profound happiness and spiritual agreement is rarely to be found on earth, because due to their sensuality people do not attach any importance to it but are content with purely physical sympathy which, however, can never be called deep love and will never last either. Only those who sincerely request God’s blessing will enter into a right, lawful marriage before God, and they will live in harmony of souls until their physical death and also in eternity ....

Amen

Translation handled by Heidi Hanna

God’s blessing for every action .... Marriages ....

B.D. 6940 from October 9th 1957, taken from Book No. 74

All blessings have to come from God Himself in order to take effect. A human being’s blessing will only ever be a ‘blessing’ for another person when God is called upon, that is to say when this blessing is given in His name. And therefore you humans may also contact Him yourselves if you want to receive His blessing because your plea that God should sanction your planned action will also gain you His caring help in every situation of life. God has indeed chosen His servants on earth who shall impart on His behalf the gift He Himself wants to give to people .... who speak to people on His behalf since He cannot speak to them Himself due to their freedom of will. And His representatives are also able to implore God to bless his fellow human being, to direct the results of his actions such that they will benefit the person. But this is entirely under God’s control, hence only God alone can give His blessing and the human being can only do so on His behalf, with other words in the name of God. This is why every human being is also able to request God’s blessing for his undertaking without those whose office makes them feel entitled to give blessings. Because much of it is a mere formality, and the inner state of mind is not greatly observed anymore. A person with an inner connection to God will no longer do anything without first having prayed for God’s blessing, and God’s blessing will also be assured to him ....

However, the conferring of blessings which has become a formality, which is mechanically carried out, which is tied to customs, will always just remain a formality and have little effect on people, or many things which will never correspond to God’s will would have to find God’s approval. For instance, formal marriage ceremonies are also blessed, for which God would not give His approval and which He would prevent if He did not observe the free will of people. Marriages take place for worldly, materialistic reasons which do not deserve the description of ‘marriage’ .... Unions are entered into which do not show the prerequisites required for a good marriage before God .... However, the blessing of the church is not denied to such unions, but whether God Himself will bless such a marriage remains to be seen .... even though an ecclesiastical blessing need not always be ineffective, when both the person conferring the blessing as well as the recipient have established sincere contact with God, thus when God Himself is petitioned for His blessing by all participants. Hence only this sincere contact with God is decisive as it proves the human being’s willingness to be blessed by Him. God will always be ready to direct everything for the benefit of a person’s soul, and He will also know how to direct worldly events such that they result in a blessing for him, if the person prays for God’s blessing himself.

But people’s entirely unblessed beginnings will not result in much benefit, just as the purely formal blessing cannot be considered a divine privilege, a ‘blessing of God’. Only what is prayed for spiritually and in truth and carried out can be of value .... that is why every heartfelt prayer for God’s blessing will be granted because it is God’s will that the person should enter into heartfelt union with Him and his blessing will only evolve from this bond ....

Amen

Translation handled by Heidi Hanna

Procreation

Sensual frenzy .... begetting .... purpose ....

B.D. 0850 from April 5th 1939, taken from Book No. 17

What people resist the most is the acceptance of the teachings of a civilized way of life, which means renouncing all bodily sensual intoxication that does not have the will to awaken a new life as a prerequisite. This urge is so strongly developed that it can test the greatest will to resist, but very few people fight against this desire of the flesh. They give in to the physical urge and strive for everlasting satisfaction and thereby cause so much damage to their soul, for they can no longer be purely spiritually active where the will to overcome this desire is so weakened. The entirely natural process of the human being's procreation is combined with physical comfort by the divine creator in wisest insight in order to repeatedly induce him to procreate and thereby give the souls awaiting embodiment the opportunity to enter into existence on earth. This is the sole purpose of the union of man and woman and should be well considered and, through strict restraint and self-mortification, every sensual intoxication should be controlled as far as possible. Instead of this, one tries to avoid the greatest earthly task and gives oneself unrestrainedly to bodily desires, even to let these soon become the mainspring of life and thereby prepare an insurmountable obstacle for the soul, which does not let it find its way upwards. It is held to earth by this desire of the body and cannot swing upwards of its own strength, again and again it sinks back and has to struggle immeasurably due to the body's urge to fulfil its desire. The human being's organs do not absolutely need the desire to be satisfied but the human being can very well educate himself to abstinence and to overcome his desires, for the desire increases the more it is satisfied and can also be tamed to the same extent if the will is strong and the human being is aware of the damage he causes to the soul when the body is completely satisfied. But people don't want to accept such things, they don't want to impose any restrictions on themselves and therefore rage against their own soul in order not to let the body live in want .... And they completely disregard the actual purpose of their body, to beget human beings again, thereby not only harming themselves but at the same time denying the souls which want to embody themselves entry into the human body and thus preventing the new birth ....

Translation handled by Doris Boekers

Will for descendants .... Waiting souls ....

B.D. 2795 from July 3rd 1943, taken from Book No. 37

Countless souls are waiting for embodiment and thus new generations have to arise time and again. Human beings have to be born all the time so that souls can occupy their bodies during their final period of development on earth. Hence people’s willingness is always necessary for the embodiment of a soul, and at the same time it is also an act of love for the unredeemed soul if people offer it the opportunity for its final incarnation on earth. Only the will to awaken a new life should be the reason for a union between a man and a woman; without this will the bodily function, which is only intended for the awakening of a human life, is unlawfully performed. Many sins are committed in this respect, i.e. the divine will is not taken into account, the body is not educated to carry out its correct task and subsequently many souls wait in vain and cannot incarnate even though they have the degree of development which permits an earthly embodiment. These souls remain close to earth and try to persuade people to unite, especially people who are in love, since love has to be the motivating force for a union to bring forth new life. Love between two human beings is essential to give the awakened soul during its short time on earth the opportunity to achieve the kind of maturity which will result in its entrance into the realm of light. A loveless union provides the opportunity for embodiment to those souls whose bad instincts are still particularly strong and who, as a result, have to struggle considerably during their earthly life to overcome these instincts ....

The human will to have children is, however, mostly due to love for each other, and it is of great advantage for the incarnating soul if this love prevails because the spark of love leaps into the new-born being and it can gain spiritual maturity on earth much easier. Nevertheless, the effort to avoid descendants can be harmful to the souls who are willing to incarnate, in as much as people’s sexuality adds to the same urges in the new being whose soul consequently constantly has to fight against them during its earthly life. Souls who cannot incarnate nevertheless stay close to people and trouble them, i.e. they try to influence people to unite for the purpose of procreation. Understandably, in that case physical desires will always be stronger since the souls only try to influence people along the lines of their inclination, they just want to transfer physical lusts to get the opportunity for their own embodiment. Consequently, people who unite sexually without love shoulder a tremendous responsibility as they are surrounded by souls who want to incarnate, and their lust attracts equally disposed souls who use these uninhibited moments to occupy a newly created being which now starts its earthly path of life as a human being. And such souls are mainly predominant because only few souls entered life as a result of love and a conscious will for descendants. For this reason human generations will become consistently less spiritual because there is little love between people who were also born without love ....

Amen

Translation handled by Heidi Hanna

Third, fourth, fifth and sixth commandment ....

B.D. 4979 from October 4th 1950, taken from Book No. 56

‘You shall keep the Sabbath Day holy ....’ This commandment is meant to make you conscious of the fact that you are indebted to Me, that earthly life was given to you for a specific purpose, that you should sincerely strive to make contact with Me .... that you should cross the bridge to Me, that you should leave the world behind and, through contemplation, heartfelt prayer and silent dialogue with Me, move yourselves into the spiritual kingdom: .... That you thus keep a true Sabbath Day, that you take a period of rest from the rushing and racing of the world, in which you certainly live but which should not turn you into slaves. In Me alone should you recognise your Lord, and it is Me Whom you should serve and thus you should frequently stop for an hour of rest, when your thoughts are with Me even when you perform your earthly duty and are constantly active. The more you can detach yourselves from the earthly world, the more often you connect with Me in thought, the more convincingly will you recognise Me as your God and Father of eternity and thus, by fulfilling this commandment of keeping the Sabbath Day holy, you once again simply fulfil the commandment of love for Me. But your love shall also apply to your neighbour. Who, however, is your neighbour? All people with whom you come into contact .... your love shall belong to all of them .... When I, through Moses, gave people the Ten Commandments it was necessary to make people particularly aware of their mistakes and bad habits, because their love had grown cold for all people in their surroundings. Even the children no longer practised love, it was a state of wickedness, depravity, and selfishness .... For this reason the commandment of love for your neighbour had to be presented to them in every detail. They ignored all divine order, and thus they had to be given several commandments which, indeed, are all included in the commandment of love for your neighbour but which also need to be observed by people today if they don’t want to infringe against love.

You shall honour your parents, offer them the love of a child and always be obedient to them. You should always remember that they, with selfless love, are preparing you to become human beings and thus enable you to live earthly life for the purpose of higher development, that they were given this task by Me, that you should thus repay the innate love they give to you and which is motivating them to physically and psychologically take care of you. You owe them your life and thus should honour them and return their care for you until the end of their life. Then I, too, will look upon you with pleasure and give you My love because by loving your parents you show a warm and loving heart which will also love Me, once it has recognised Me as the eternal Father from Whom all living creations emerged, who He wants to shape into His rightful children. Only love will turn you into My children, and anyone who loves and honours His parents will also love the Heavenly Father and be blessed by Him ....

Amen(04.10.1950) ‘You shall not kill ....’ This commandment also fulfils itself if your neighbour is looked upon with love. Because love will never damage him and even less endeavour to take his life. It does not merely concern the human being’s life on earth which the heartless person intends to take; it concerns the opportunity of development which can only successfully change the human being into a child of God on earth. You therefore burden yourselves with an irresponsibly severe guilt when you violate a human being’s life, when you forcibly end it and by doing so unlawfully rob the soul of My gift of grace. You are committing a double sin, against your neighbour as well as against Me, as in fact every offence against the commandment of love for other people is an offence against your love for Me, because you also indirectly refuse to love Me, Who created your neighbour. To end an earthly life should never be endorsed even if honourable motives give cause to it. Because once again it is decisive that the soul only received the body’s life for the purpose of higher development. You should not consider earthly life, the life of the body, as the most important and consequently only take the body’s life into account. But far less should you deem earthly life so unimportant that you think you may end it arbitrarily. The person who unlawfully takes another person’s life will be pursued by an inconceivable vindictiveness on earth and even in the spiritual kingdom and, furthermore, due to such acts of hatred and heartlessness he will lapse into deepest darkness himself for he will have devoted himself to Satan who, in order to prevent all higher development, endeavours to destroy the life that I awakened. He has transferred his willingness to sin to the person and thus has used him to commit an evil act which, however, the person could have refused to commit of his own free will. He was not forced to sin .... But when earthly rulers bring force to bear, when a human being acts in self-defence in order to protect his own life, when his inner being resists an act of most blatant heartlessness and yet is unable to oppose earthly law, the attitude of the person acting against this commandment will always be taken into account. However, if the person violates the commandment wholeheartedly he will be held fully responsible because he ignores My commandment of love and belongs to My adversary ....

Amen

Third, fourth, fifth and sixth commandment ....

‘You shall not commit adultery ....’ This area is particularly significant because it incorporates everything in relation to carnal desires. It concerns the sensual orientation, the active expression on the sexual level. Indeed, I Myself gave the right for this with the Words ‘Be fruitful and multiply ....’ I Myself created humanity such that the bodies of a man and a woman long to unite, nevertheless the final purpose of the latter is just procreation. And since the human being has free will it is up to him to control himself or to fully express himself without self-control. What on one hand is blessed by Me can, on the other hand, be a most welcome opportunity for the adversary to entice the person into sin, although he will always be conscious of it because every sexual activity, every fulfilment of carnal lust pulls the human being down and even places him below the animal, which only acts out its instinct in accordance with natural law. But the human being has his freedom of will because he should learn to control himself, because he should suppress his body in order to help the soul to ascend. The sensual instincts are the greatest obstacle for the spiritualisation of the soul. And yet I created the human being such that carnal desire can pester him greatly if he allows himself to be controlled by it .... if he has no will to resist the temptations which are always caused by My adversary. The commandment I gave to you, not to commit adultery, is a serious one .... And adultery is every impure way of life which in truth signifies an unlawful conduct against My law of order .... a misuse of the natural process of procreation for the purpose of awakening human life. Two people should find each with other pure, unselfish love, and a subsequent conception as a result of such love will never be a sin because it complies with My eternal law of order. However, all sensual passion without love is of utmost danger for the soul, which will lapse into spiritual darkness and only with utmost difficulty will be able to lift itself out of it. Carnal desire is selfish love to the highest degree which stifles all unselfish love for a fellow human being, because nothing is sacred to such a person, he does not honour and respect his fellow human being but merely takes advantage of him .... He takes what does not belong to him, and thus sins against the commandment of love for one’s neighbour in many different ways. Anyone whose soul genuinely endeavours to ascend also knows that he should not enjoy life entirely uninhibited because he will feel that his soul is pulled down and that it will have to make an incredible effort in order to lift itself up again. A right kind of marriage will never find My disapproval or I would not have created humanity to reproduce itself, however, boundaries can easily be exceeded, and every excess is a breach of the marriage wanted by Me through natural law .... the coexistence of man and woman for the purpose of humanity’s reproduction .... But I know people’s nature, I know their weakness of will and My adversary’s extremely powerful influence .... I do not condemn those who sin but I Am giving them the commandment for their own benefit, and anyone who follows it will also love Me and his neighbour, he will travel the path of ascent easier than those who give free reign to their bodily instincts at the expense of their soul ....

Amen

Translation handled by Heidi Hanna

Act of procreation in God-remoteness occasion of unbelief ....

B.D. 7010 from January 4th 1958, taken from Book No. 75

Every thinking human being would have to come to the conclusion that a relatively short time-lasting existence on earth would be meaningless and pointless if the 'I' of the human being existed only for this short time .... if it began at the moment of birth and ended at the hour of death .... He would have to .... if he acknowledged a creator .... regard him as very small-minded, who only for the sake of a whim lets beings come into being for the sake of trivial earthly concerns and pleasures. Or he would have to .... if he only regarded himself as an arbitrarily created product of nature .... ask himself why intellect and free will are inherent in him. For such thoughts would make it appear doubtful to him to be only such an arbitrary product of nature. Through intellect and free will, man differs from all other creations of nature. He could therefore conclude that there is a creator spirit, Who also possesses intellect and free will .... thus wisdom and power. And had he arrived at this thought he would also try to fathom the meaning and purpose of his earthly existence and not be satisfied with the assumption that he was only created for the sake of earthly life itself. Every person could come to this conclusion by simply thinking about it if he has not already gained this realization and believes in a God of love, wisdom and omnipotence from Whom he himself emerged. Yet many people are conceived in utmost distance from God .... by people who do not kindle a spark of love within themselves which gave them a light, who are still completely under the control of the adversary of God and now also implant their anti-divine attitude into the child which is brought into the world by them against their will and whose soul, surrounded by the densest shells, grows up without light and love. It is true that the nature of a child does not always have to correspond to that of its parents; a soul can also embody itself in it which consciously takes up the struggle with the dangers of this world .... but the parents' attitude is usually transferred to their children, and then people are born who only regard themselves as arbitrary products of nature and have no connection whatsoever with the one Who first gave His approval for their creation, because the will of those parents is also free and their nature justifies the birth of children. But even those children do not lack the ability to think and free will again .... so that there is also a way for those people to get out of the darkness into the light .... And those people also have the spark of love within them from God, it is also possible for them to ignite it. And divine graces also flow to them .... But truly, these people live in greatest darkness who only see their purpose of life in earthly life itself, who think they have passed away at the moment of death and who don't want to recognize and acknowledge any power over themselves, for they don't use the gift of intellect either, they don't even seriously want to fathom the truth or they would irrevocably change their way of thinking. And thus it can also be seen that the act of procreation is the adversary's weapon which often brings him victory in the battle for people's souls, for it drives people to unrestricted sensual pleasure and he will find no resistance. People give themselves to each other without restraint, yet not in love but only in sensual intoxication, which rarely enables any other than a dark soul to be convinced and this darkness is usually expressed in the fact that all prerequisites for faith are missing, which is the adversary's intention. But arrogance can also darken a soul in which the foundations for knowledge were already present, if the intellect, in arrogance, deems itself capable of fathoming even the greatest secrets .... Then the adversary has also achieved his aim of making the human being unbelieving and confusing his thoughts ....

Amen

Translation handled by Doris Boekers

Heredity and predisposition

Incarnation .... Instincts .... Preliminary stages ....

B.D. 2775 from June 15th 1943, taken from Book No. 34/35/36

The incarnation of a soul can take place when all substances, which have taken the earthly path within the many diverse creations and are thus developed, have joined together. The soul substance of every work of creation has to be present in order to incarnate .... i.e. the human body becomes the cover for a soul which contains all works of creation in miniature within itself. The previous infinitely long earthly progress has resulted in the unification of all these substances who then await their last embodiment. They will be assimilated as soul into the human outer shell to experience the last stage of development. This incarnation is of varied duration due to the different substances’ state of maturity, which have had a certain amount of freedom during their preliminary stages already albeit they had acted under compulsion in accordance with God’s will. However, in the last stages before embodiment as human being this compulsory condition was gradually eased so that certain instincts could be lessened or even increased. This subsequently resulted in a higher or lower degree of maturity which, in turn, determines the duration of the last embodiment as human being. As soon as all soul substances have united as a human soul they strive for the last embodiment on earth, because they know that the human shell is their last physical cover and that they can be free from all earthly restrictions afterwards. For that reason the soul will only spend time where it is offered an opportunity to incarnate. Understandably it will incarnate where people’s nature adapts to its own degree of maturity, i.e. where people have the same instincts and attributes that match its own nature.

However, this does not exclude that a differently inclined soul would not try to incarnate with unfamiliar natured people in order to hasten its embodiment. But then it often has to struggle with added difficulties during its earthly life as its nature is not taken into account and it is unable to fulfil the expected requirements. Nevertheless, since the soul knows the path of its earthly life in advance it is not stopped if it makes this choice itself, since it has the resources at its disposal to achieve its final maturity in every embodiment. Due to its earlier many diverse shapes it has every aptitude within itself at various degrees and can increase or reduce them at will. Thus it is not incapable and the strength to do so is likewise given in accordance with its will. However, if it strives half-heartedly it will remain in the same state of maturity prior to its incarnation as a human being, in that case the incarnation has not resulted in higher development. Although at the time of death it will shed its physical cover but its desires and instincts, which it was meant to overcome during its earthly life, still connect it to the material world. Therefore it has not taken full advantage of its earthly incarnation, and when it realises that it has wasted the right to become a child of God and can no longer achieve it either, it experiences an indescribable state of remorse; even though it still has infinitely many opportunities in the beyond to arrive at the contemplation of God. Yet one day an incarnated soul has to give account before God how it has used earth’s opportunities and what spiritual progress it has achieved at the time of death, because the embodiment as human being is a mercy that cannot be valued highly enough; it is a gift which the human being should cherish appropriately by doing whatever advances his development because he cannot return to earth again once he has left it ....

Amen

Translation handled by Heidi Hanna

Instincts of preliminary stages determine character ....

B.D. 1933a from May 25th 1941, taken from Book No. 28

The current stage of human existence is more or less the same as the state of the spiritual substance within every external form, namely the substance will always have to fight the oppositions which are most powerful within itself, therefore the human being has to fight against evil instincts within himself during his earthly existence. These are exceptionally well developed the more opportunity the spiritual essence has had to indulge itself during a preliminary stage. These instincts of the preliminary stages have left their mark on the spiritual essence, i.e. the human being has to fight particularly resolutely against such instincts .... while the human being who previously had completed his task willingly and consequently is already in a certain state of maturity will enjoy an easier life.

The will to serve liberates the substance correspondingly even while it is still surrounded by a form. And this now submissive substance will live in a form which outwardly also shows the being's willingness. Hence the soul's degree of maturity can be assessed by its external shape. In the embodiment as a human being only those substances of soul unite who share the same nature; but accordingly will also be the fight on earth because many substances of soul united and influence the being in much the same way as in the previous form. The sooner the being can learn to overcome the imperfections the less it will resist and can already become patient, willing and active during the preliminary stages .... However, if it holds on to an instinct within itself it will also have to suffer it as a human being and this determines his character ....

Amen

Translation handled by Heidi Hanna

Heredity .... Disposition .... Parents ....

B.D. 1933b from May 29th 1941, taken from Book No. 28

The human being's course of life corresponds to his nature, i.e. faults and imperfections adhere to his soul from which it should free itself during its earthly life. These faults and imperfections are not the same in every person because every substance of soul has previously lived in a different external form in which certain good or bad peculiarities had developed to a greater or lesser degree. Consequently people's nature will be quite different too and likewise require different methods of teaching to promote what is good in them and to overcome what can be regarded as inadequate or bad. It would now be completely wrong to assume that all souls are formed alike at the moment of their embodiment on earth. There are in fact many differences and the human being assigns these differences between the beings to 'heredity'. Outwardly it may indeed appear as if the children would have to accept a certain burden during the course of their life, namely peculiarities of their being which can either be helpful or a hindrance to their spiritual development but for which they could not be held responsible, because they reason that their 'genetic make-up' is not their own fault and that it therefore requires more strength to combat and to overcome these inborn defects.

The human being has to combat all his defects and improve himself to acquire maturity of soul. And if specific instincts are predominant in him he should understand that human nature is not determined by parental disposition but that the human being had allowed precisely those weaknesses and imperfections to become part of his nature during the infinitely many embodiments before the human stage, during which the being felt comfortable and did nothing to liberate itself from such faults and flaws. And now on earth it may well have the will to do so but it has a certain weakness. It considers its deficiency as its just right because it regards them as its inheritance without fault of its own. And yet it was its own volition to join people whose nature resembles its own during the time of its earthly life.

Precisely this similarity of nature had attracted the soul seeking incarnation, consequently one generally speaks of heredity even though the physical parents had no share in the nature of the souls in their care during the time on earth. Hence every soul has to deal with the task of higher development itself. This task can never be done by another human being, not even by the physical parents. Likewise, the parents are not responsible for the disposition of their children even though it may appear as if the children have to endure parental heredity. Every being is responsible for itself, although the human being as such should be educated to improve himself as long as he is still in the care of his physical parents, because every person has to accomplish the work on his soul himself otherwise he will not be able to liberate himself from his past guilt of sins ....

Amen

Translation handled by Heidi Hanna

2078 - ?resNotTranslated?

Disposition .... Instincts of preliminary stages ....

B.D. 2321 from May 3rd 1942, taken from Book No. 32

The human being's disposition does not release him from having to justify himself for his actions and thoughts. For every person has strength and grace at his disposal to overcome every bad inclination if only he wants to do so. Besides, the soul brought characteristics into its human embodiment which it certainly could have discarded during its previous forms and as a human being is now allotted tasks which correspond to its present disposition, i.e., which offer the soul the opportunity to emerge victorious from its battle against this disposition. Yet in order to succeed free will always has to become active and this, too, will be strengthened by God in accordance with its attitude towards Him. If a person musters the will to appeal to God for help in his battle against himself, against his own weaknesses and faults, then the strength to release himself from them will indeed flow to the person. Admittedly, this requires a considerable struggle but it cannot be spared to him, because during its preliminary stages the soul had exceeded its designated limits .... i.e., the spiritual substance which stayed in already less restricting forms used this lack of restriction to the absolute limit. It effectively developed its instincts to the highest degree which it then, in its embodiment as a human being, has to reduce again and this requires greater willpower. Likewise, the spiritual substance can have tempered itself during the preliminary stages, hence not made full use of its designated limits, with the result that it now has a less difficult battle of higher development on earth. But the disposition has at all times been taken into account through the living condition in which the being, according to its inclination, also has the opportunity to master them. Indeed, many a person seemingly has to fight harder, yet nothing impossible will ever be expected of him since unmeasured strength and grace is always at his disposal, but it has to be requested by him, because the soul has used its previously granted freedom in the wrong way and this does not relieve it from its responsibility ....

Amen

Translation handled by Heidi Hanna

Not inclination but love determines the will ....

B.D. 5257 from November 19th 1951, taken from Book No. 58

It is left up to all of you in which direction you turn your will, even though you are indeed advised by My Word what end result you will achieve by any direction of will. Yet My Word does not force you either, since you can also accept or reject it again depending on your mentality and your love. For love determines your will .... You will always love whatever it is you strive for, irrespective of whether it is good or bad; your desire is directed towards it, and this is how your will is .... good or bad. You will always feel love for what you desire, but whether this love is rightly or wrongly directed is determined by your spiritual development. Now you can certainly raise the objection that love has been placed into the human being, that even love for evil arises from the heart and that the human being is thus a victim of dormant cravings within himself. And up to a point this objection is justified .... that all instincts and cravings which during the individual preliminary stages in the law of compulsion had not yet been overcome are latent in the human being, that the human being therefore brings them into his earthly life in order to then defeat and completely discard them. These characteristics are thus present in the human being and therefore also arouse the cravings. They want fulfilment and often become so powerful in a person that they completely control him. The fight against such cravings is often difficult, but this is why I endowed the human being with intellect, so that he can think about his feelings in order to take appropriate action against them.

It is wrong to say that the human being must act in accordance with his inclination .... admittedly, if he had been created without intellect and felt instinctively impelled. But since he is offered ample opportunity in earthly life to acquire knowledge, since he has a guiding principle in My commandments of love, since he has a still, small voice within himself which admonishes and warns him, which always draws his attention to My will, and since he is now able to think about everything, it is solely up to his will to wage battle against himself when necessary, when his cravings resist what he, according to his inner realisation, should do .... The fact that he is unable to do so is not applicable, for a sincere will also guarantees him a gift of strength, nevertheless, a weak will is unsuccessful .... And only one thing is necessary again in order to strengthen a weak will .... faith in Jesus Christ .... It is true that especially people who are still badly afflicted by characteristics from their preliminary stages don't believe in Jesus Christ, however, by merely rationally thinking about it they already express their will to ascertain the truth, and they will be helped to find a correct solution .... However, where the question about Jesus Christ is unhesitatingly dismissed, where no effort is made to find an answer, that is where the will is obviously turned downwards, and that is where the human being indeed falls prey to the forces from below, yet it is his own will and not the fault of his inclination. For the human being can direct his will in both directions or one could not speak of free will. And every person can and should sooner or later question his task in earthly life .... This is why he was given his intellect ....

Amen

Translation handled by Heidi Hanna

Declaration of kinship feelings .... soul particles ....

B.D. 5207 from September 9th 1951, taken from Book No. 58

Secret connections often exist between people which they are unable to explain to themselves and which have their reason in the composition of the souls. For souls can meet very similar souls through the way they are formed, and this similarity gives rise to a feeling of kinship in the human being which, however, he is unable to explain with his intellect. And this is why such feelings can never be scientifically explained, instead they are merely spiritual feelings which are expressed and whose cause can only be explained spiritually .... Every soul certainly contains the whole of creation, yet just as creation has the most diverse creations within itself, just as the animal world reveals an inconceivable diversity, so human souls are also different in kind, because the composition in every soul is different, which also makes the diversity of people understandable who, despite outwardly approximately the same design, differ from each other in character and emotion and can also be recognized by this deviation. Yet such souls can also meet in earthly life which would show an obvious similarity if the human being were able to see spiritually, for the soul's form and nature can only be perceived with spiritual eyes. But the souls themselves feel their kinship and therefore feel extraordinarily drawn to each other, but this is not to be confused with a purely physical urge for a connection. The spiritual togetherness is recognizable in obvious agreement in people's thinking and feeling, in harmony in the spiritual field and in the same striving, in a feeling of connectedness with each other which need not be expressed physically. These souls are attuned to each other, they do not fight each other and are always ready to help each other, they feel their sameness and are inclined to believe that they have led a common past life, and yet it is only the soul particles joined together in the same proportion which produce this unison and need not have been absolutely connected. But they once belonged to the same circle of fallen angels and followed the same course of development, which also spanned the same length of time, which is why the striving towards each other is explainable. For the same course of development also shapes the souls in the same way, and if such souls meet in earthly life, where the consciousness of the ego is also developed, then the first signs of recollection also appear in them, however so faintly that they only suspect a certain connection, which they, however, often explain to themselves wrongly. In earthly life the soul is deprived of the recollection of its pre-stages, yet sensations remain. The same soul substances of the souls recognize each other because they have integrated themselves into the whole in the same relationship, and this recognition can then become conscious to people and now awaken the kinship feeling. The soul of the human being is so wonderfully artfully put together, and countless tones can sound in it, as on a precious instrument. A harmonious harmony now sounds like one tone and is already a foretaste of the union of like-tuned souls in the beyond, where the constant union with like spirits belongs to beatitude in the spiritual kingdom, which can therefore already begin on earth, but is merely an experience of the souls, not of the bodies. It should be noted that soul ties are of a completely different nature than physical ones, that the harmony of souls has completely different reasons and cannot be traced back to a living together as a human being in an earlier development, for even if this assumption were correct, that souls from an earlier embodiment meet again, the feelings of a harmony of souls are to be justified completely differently, and this explanation would always be a false conclusion. However, every soul will find its partner once, but always then as a supplement to its self, even though every soul retains its individuality. But then the soul will already have reached a different stage of development than on earth, and then it will also have penetrated knowledge to such an extent that it can recognize all correlations and that it can see spiritually what could not be made comprehensible to it on earth. And the union of souls which complement each other is indescribably blissful and also gives the souls increased strength to work and thus to fulfil their task in the spiritual kingdom, and the souls strive ever more and more towards union with God in order to find supreme bliss in this union, which will never end ....

Amen

Translation handled by Doris Boekers

Sympathy and antipathy ....

B.D. 8306 from October 22nd 1962, taken from Book No. 87

Every spiritual question you ponder shall be answered, for I want you to be enlightened, but you should always request the light from Me directly. Thus I want to explain which spiritual currents you are subject to in association with your fellow human beings and how these currents affect you. You should know that all people are bound by My adversary as long as they are still unredeemed, that they are enslaved, and, according to their state of maturity which solely depends on their degree of love, also influenced by My adversary, that they more or less succumb to his influence and show this in their nature. Understandably, similar kinds of character will attract each other, that is, a human being will always seek to interact with people who exhibit the same disposition. For he finds these people agreeable, he finds them sympathetic, whereas people of an entirely opposite nature are repugnant to him, that is, they are antipathetic. Hence, this is the nearest explanation which surely everyone will understand. However, some people's souls are already more mature when they start earthly life as a human being, who, during their preliminary development in the state of compulsion had subordinated themselves more willingly to all demands, whose resistance has already diminished to a point that they start their life as a human being in a higher state of maturity and thus also reveal more love .... Love will always have a beneficial effect on a fellow human being and will even pacify another person's very immature spiritual substances, which explains that the former radiates a feeling which is equally described as sympathy and which affects the other person very positively, because such a person is not met with resistance and the influence of less mature people will also always be favourable and, occasionally, even increase their degree of love. Love awakens love in response .... and only entirely immature people will be antagonistic towards a loving person, but then he will also feel disagreeably affected by them .... Besides, all people move within a sphere that corresponds to their maturity, which is felt by a sensitive fellow human. If this sphere is dense due to adverse beings, the person will still be completely subject to the adversary's influence and will also have an off-putting effect on those who are already further advanced in their development .... no harmony will be possible because the person will resist currents which are in opposition to his endeavours and feelings ....

Thus sympathy and antipathy can only be explained with spiritual currents, for every person has his own sphere in which he is comfortable, and everything that does not correspond to this sphere affects him disagreeably .... Only a few people are so anchored in divine love within themselves already that their emanation is so strong that even immature souls can feel touched by it, and thus don't offer the former any conscious resistance. The differences of character traits, also being due to the preliminary embodiments, determine the degree of people's affection or dislike among themselves .... That which one person has long cast off already, can still be present in another to a large extent and also cause a feeling of inner resistance .... But if love has become more dominant in a person he will patiently endure the other person's failings and bad habits and try to influence him in the most favourable way, which in truth is doing the other person a service, it is a work of neighbourly love of greatest importance .... A person's sphere of love can have an invigorating effect on the next person and awaken love in him again, and since love is the only means of release from all evil you should even love your enemy, then your life on earth will truly be a blessing for your environment .... You should not withdraw from people you do not find agreeable, instead, try to exert a favourable influence on them .... only avoid them if they are openly hostile towards you, for then they are being used by My adversary in order to make you fall, in which case the time for changing their attitude has not yet come for them. Then your association with them can only be detrimental, for they will not accept anything from you, regardless of whether you want to help them in a spiritual or an earthly way, for the adversary himself is behind them and, feeling it, you should leave them alone and appeal to Me for protection from them. The spiritual being in you, your soul, is more or less affected by currents coming from your fellow human beings, and, as soon as your soul has gained a higher degree of maturity, it will also be pestered by My adversary who uses those people who still belong to him, and then the soul's resistance will be only too understandable, because it has detached itself from the enemy and doesn't want to associate with his followers either ....

However, if the soul itself is very loving it can succeed in influencing an immature person so favourably that he will surrender, and then a great work will have been accomplished by love, for which nothing is impossible .... For love is a power which no person can resist forever, it is just that such love is rarely to be found among people on earth .... For this reason it is difficult to love the enemy but not impossible, otherwise Jesus would not have preached about the love of one's enemy, which requires a high degree of love, but which will also result in great spiritual gain, both for the giver as well as the recipient ....

Amen

Translation handled by Heidi Hanna

Education of children

2443 - ?resNotTranslated?

Right instruction of children .... will ....

B.D. 3607 from November 20th 1945, taken from Book No. 46

The distance from God decreases as soon as the being voluntarily strives towards Him. The will alone is enough to come closer to Him as soon as it is serious, for God's love seizes the being in the state of free will, which uses this will in the right direction. Power flows to the being and it now also becomes active according to God's will .... the human being who has a will turned towards God is active in love. God only requires the change of will in order to then help him in his ascent upwards. For God now showers the human being with His grace .... He creates opportunities for his soul to mature, He gives him strength to work with love and is always helpfully at his side, always bearing the human being's spiritual well-being in mind, so that the soul will release itself from its last material shell. And therefore the human being's will has to be directed towards God from the beginning of his embodiment, so that his earthly life will be fully utilized and he can achieve the richest spiritual success. And therefore the human being must be given the knowledge of the highest and most perfect being to Whom his will should turn .... He must be instructed so that time will not be lost until the human being has attained the recognition of the eternal deity through his own reflection. Although it is also necessary to think through and examine the imparted knowledge, the thoughts must be directed to the spiritual realm from an early age, and this happens through instruction about God as the creator and shaper of all things .... about His will and the human being's relationship to God. The human being is then still free to decide. He can also give his will the right direction as a child, he can strive towards God and already be seized by God's love in his earliest youth, so that his upward development will proceed much more easily and he will possess greater strength of resistance in later life if the decision is required and he is to weigh up through his intellectual activity what is truth and what is error. The will, which strives towards God, also provides him with the strength to make the right decision, it provides him with the power of knowledge, for God's love will never let him go. The human being can indeed first direct his will towards God in later life, as soon as the knowledge was not imparted to him as a child, but then his struggle for truth will be more difficult and much time will have been lost which he could have used for the benefit of his soul. And therefore it is a great blessing if the children are instructed correctly, for the knowledge of both powers .... of God and His adversary .... is necessary in order to be able to decide in favour of one of the two powers. And therefore it is a crime against the youth to let them wander about in ignorance or to want to deprive them of their faith in God, the eternal creator and father, even as a child .... God certainly guides people so that they will still attain knowledge in order to be able to decide freely, yet the soul has to overcome far greater resistance and its ascent is more difficult. For the will first has to be turned towards God before the human being can receive the strength he needs in order to liberate himself from the one from Whose will he emerged and Who also placed His will, which is turned away from God, into the beings which His will called into life using the strength from God .... Only the will turned towards God reduces the distance from God and guarantees the complete bridging of the gulf which separates the being from Him due to its former apostasy from God ....

Amen

Translation handled by Doris Boekers

Explanatory note to no. 410 ....

B.D. 0428 from May 23rd 1938, taken from Book No. 9

Thus walking on earth is nothing more than a transition into the eternal regions, and again and again it is man himself who determines his own condition in those regions. If he has spent his life on earth in constant striving for spiritual goods, he will never have to fear that life in the other world will be a burden for him .... he will never have to fear the hour of death and will only leave the valley of the earth to swap it for heavenly realms, which will appear incomparably lovely to him.

But the inner return to God must have taken place .... the union with the highest Being must have preceded if man is to reach this state of mind, which guarantees him a complete dissolving of his covering. In the other case, however, the human shell will not separate so easily from the soul .... Although the soul has left it's earthly body, it is still not free ....

The spirit's covering still clings to it .... it is not completely free, but still prevented by the same fetters as on earth to be able to swing freely up into higher regions, and this state will then be the same as the state on earth, because the soul in the beyond still walks in the same ignorance and obduracy .... it is often unconscious that it has already left the earthly valley .... Therefore your spirit always finds the sphere equal to itself, and when the soul has already reached the state of maturity on earth, then it also, at the time of bodily death, immediately enters light-filled spheres ....

It then does not first have to go the endlessly long way of struggle in the hereafter, which is similar that of the earth, but cannot be overcome as easily as on earth. Do not fall therefore into the temptation to believe that over there the possibility still remains for you to mature the soul .... This is far more difficult, and unspeakably remorseful is the recognition of the unused time on earth. So it is always more advisable to remember the hereafter with horror as an unfinished being and then to restlessly strive for the greatest possible perfection already on earth, than to indulge in inertia in the hope that one can make up for what has been missed here ....

Life on earth with all it's misery and suffering is nothing compared to the struggle of such imperfect souls in the hereafter; for you are not given such possibilities as on earth .... Your struggle will be far more difficult until all human earthly things have completely separated from your spirit and then your spirit has reached the degree that it can be absorbed into a new kingdom of light. Thus it is to be understood that the state of the human is passed on to the soul until it has reached the degree of maturity determined for it ....

Amen

Translation handled by Alida Pretorius

Spiritual guidance from birth to death ....

B.D. 7189 from October 17th 1958, taken from Book No. 76

Through the valley of life you are led from birth to the hour of death, and you can certainly reach your aim if you would follow without resistance the guidance that looks after you. But your guides must in no way determine you to follow them. They will always precede you and also try to influence you to follow them, but always without coercion. And therefore they will often experience that their protégés leave them, that they go their own ways and do not keep to the loving instructions. But they will not remain without care, again and again they will receive admonitions and warnings from their spiritual guardians so that they can place themselves under their protection again at any time and are safe if they voluntarily listen to them. Whether hostile oppressors try to incite people into resistance, whether people themselves allow their resistance to break through .... their guardians' love applies to them throughout their earthly lifetime and is only ever concerned with their salvation, with the right conduct of life, with the fulfilment of divine will, with a way of life in love .... which will certainly lead to the aim .... to union with God. Help is therefore given to them from the beginning of embodiment until the death of the body. And yet, so many people fail because the will is free, because it turns far more towards where God's adversary has his kingdom, where he rules, where he enticingly offers his goods for sale, which are far more appealing than spiritual treasures to which their carers would like to guide them. Man himself determines what becomes his property .... But God constantly helps him to be offered the goods which alone can make him eternally happy, and the human being can reach his aim on earth because he is helped from the spiritual side just as much as he is harassed or seduced by opposing forces .... He himself is not at a disadvantage but he creates both advantage and disadvantage for himself in free will. And thus he also thereby testifies to the degree of opposition he stands in, he himself testifies to his own relationship with God, his attitude and degree of maturity. But he can change at any time if only his will is willing. For his helpers support him with love, patience and perseverance, and only the human being's will turned towards God gives them the right to actively intervene, and his salvation is assured ....

Amen

Translation handled by Doris Boekers

Responsibility

2536 - ?resNotTranslated?

Responsibility of parents and children ....

B.D. 7149 from June 20th 1958, taken from Book No. 76

You start your earthly existence as a human being in complete ignorance. The soul is still shrouded in spiritual darkness because it first has to reach a state of self-awareness before it can get started with dissolving its dense surrounding cover. It can already do this without having received particular knowledge, for it can express its good feelings at a very early age even though it does not act in relation to a certain amount of realisation. But the human being always has to be cognisant of himself otherwise his thoughts and actions could not be appraised. Such a child develops its spark of love early on; it is good, because it is motivated to do so from within .... whereas another child in the same state of self-awareness gives in to bad impulses within itself, even though it feels a slight sense of wrong doing inside itself. In both cases one cannot as yet speak of realisation, but the spark of love is placed into every human being, and children's initial behaviour is therefore only different because their souls react differently to inner urges, but every child is nevertheless conscious as to whether its behaviour is good or bad .... once it has reached the stage of self-awareness.

And now the child slowly receives knowledge too .... it gets acquainted with the laws of order, that is, it begins to understand increasingly more, and it will also experience the effects of good or bad on itself .... it is taught the concept of good and bad, and again people will react differently as they grow into adults, depending on whether they kindle the flame of love in themselves and allow themselves to be influenced from within. And accordingly their realisation will either grow or the soul's initial blindness will remain, for the knowledge given to the person from outside need by no means become realisation, rather, it only becomes it when the human being's love brings the knowledge to life .... Knowledge can certainly satisfy the intellect, yet it will always merely be a deceptive light without strength to illuminate the human being's soul, and therefore the soul continues to stay covered by layers. The human being, however, will be held accountable from the moment he is aware of himself, from the moment he is able to hear the voice of conscience .... thus, when his perception of good or bad has awakened within him, which can happen sooner in one and later in an other child, but which is a prerequisite for its responsibility of its actions. Yet the weakness of a soul which has to give up its earthly life at an early stage is always taken into account. The degree of maturity as well as the knowledge the human being was given so far will always be considered. For complete realisation cannot be applied as a criterion, since this can only be gained through love.

The human being, however, is assessed according to his love, and this can be ignited into a flame in every person, but the spark of love can also be stifled, and that always also indicates adverse thinking and doing, which appear as soon as the person becomes conscious of himself as a being which can use its will and does so in line with its soul which is wicked and unwilling to love and which will also close itself to any given knowledge .... thus 'realisation' does not stifle this bad inner instinct. Only when a child can be influenced to do something good can this wicked compulsion disappear and the voice of conscience express itself more noticeably again, too.

For this reason parents carry an extra large responsibility, they should do everything to awaken love in the child, they should encourage it to carry out small helpful tasks and thus cultivate a sense of helpfulness in the children and stifle their excessive selfish instincts .... For as soon as the spark of love has been kindled it will also spread, and the soul will no longer be shrouded in darkness, the heart will become enlightened by itself, and then the child will already think and act consciously which will soon also result in the light of realisation, once it is given the appropriate information .... For love is everything .... and every human being is capable of love, because God Himself has placed into every human being a spark which is part of Himself in order to lead him from the state of death back into the state of life ....

Amen

Translation handled by Heidi Hanna

Every man must answer for himself ....

B.D. 8496 from May 14th 1963, taken from Book No. 89

The human being has to take responsibility for his earthly way of life, for his speech, thinking and actions, for he has received the gift of intellect, the gift of thinking, from Me and can therefore also weigh everything up as far as it corresponds to My will .... This applies in particular to his attitude towards the teachings which are supplied to him on the part of fellow human beings, which touch spiritual areas .... Because as soon as something is presented to him earthly he also adjusts his thoughts to it and accepts or rejects, and that often with great eagerness, as soon as he expects some advantages from it. Man is able to think and is now also to use this ability. And if spiritual material is now supplied to him, he should also subject it to an examination in order to be able to accept or reject it justifiably .... But then he should not just rely on his fellow human being's advice but take a stand on it himself, for he himself will have to answer for it, and then he will not be able to pass the blame on to his fellow human being who advised him to think and act the way he did .... Every man bears responsibility for himself .... because every man can think .... And if he is not sure of the correctness of his thinking, then he should take the way to Me Myself, but not rely on the fellow human being, whose thinking can be just as wrongly directed .... And a great injustice is committed by the man who believes himself called to have an effect on fellowman, that he imposes his views on him .... so that the latter is to accept without contradiction what the latter offers him. A person can certainly be instructed, but he must always be free to accept these instructions, for the person himself must decide and be responsible for his decision, but he cannot pass on the responsibility to those who have instructed him, and they must never determine a person to accept the teachings. Freedom of will is the great factor, which is determining for the perfection of a man. And every curtailing of free will is a wrong, a sin, which I cannot accept without demanding retribution for it .... And again it must be pointed out that on the part of a teacher first the commandments of love are to be emphasized and only the fulfilment of these commandments is to be demanded, because then man's thinking will also recognize brightly and clearly what is true and right and man then decides for it of his own accord .... But to accept a teaching but to eliminate a life of love can never lead to spiritual success .... even if that teaching corresponds to truth .... But unloving people will never be able to pass judgement where truth and where error is .... And that is why ultimately not the intellect of man decides, but the love of the heart .... Where this is missing no right judgment will be able to be passed, but then also the acceptance of a teaching without contradiction is of no use, for it is completely worthless for the soul .... That is why I first demand the mental opinion about that spiritual material, which is imparted to a man from outside. And if the teaching of love is now presented to him and he also thinks about it, then already a small light can be kindled in him, and he can make an effort to live out love .... And this alone brings the soul to maturity .... Who therefore seeks to stimulate his fellowmen to love, he will be blessed by me. But who imparts spiritual knowledge to them with the demand to accept and acknowledge it without contradiction, he does not act in My will, because he causes fellowmen to think inertly and these now believe to be relieved of their responsibility, to be able to pass it on to those who taught them. One day this excuse will not be valid before Me because I have endowed all men with the gift of the ability to think and this is now also to be used when it is about the salvation of souls, especially then when you eagerly think of everything earthly whether and how it could be of use for you. No man once takes the responsibility from you, therefore also give no man the right to have a determining effect on you when it is about the welfare of your souls. Because also about this a light is given to you by Me when you listen to My word, which sounds to you from above, which I send to all who are of good will ..... I will do no compulsion to you; I will always just explain everything to you and give reasons, but always leave it up to you to accept or reject My word. Because I want that you perfect yourselves on earth. And therefore I also want to enlighten you about everything wrong, so that you do not let yourselves be determined to think and act in the will of fellowman, but to first check yourselves whether and how you act and think right before me, who has created you so that every man must also bear the responsibility for himself and his soul's salvation.

Amen

Translation handled by Doris Boekers

Fighting against oneself, desires and overcoming them ....

B.D. 6127 from December 6th 1954, taken from Book No. 66

Kill your body if you want to give life to your soul .... This is not to be understood that you should ill-treat your body, that you mortify yourselves or disfigure yourselves, for such only testifies to a defective intellect, an aberration of human thinking and a disregard of what I as creator have given you, it signifies a disregard of the work towards its creator .... What I ask of you is that you kill the desires of the body, that you overcome yourselves, that you don't fulfil the desires of the body, which only apply to its well-being, and thereby cause your soul excessive damage. This fight against bodily desires is truly difficult, it demands your entire will to renounce, it demands a voluntary renunciation, a denial of that which seems appealing to you. It is truly a struggle for which you need strength, yet this strength will come to you if only you are serious about your perfection .... if you truly intend to reach the aim on earth, to become perfect. For your perfection depends on the state of your soul but not on the state of your body. And the body and its passions were given to you for the testing of your will .... For the time on earth the body therefore comes to the fore, it wants to assert itself in its demands, and all its desires and cravings are suitable to displace the soul's desire, for again and againit comes forward and seeks to determine the human being's will, to grant it fulfilment. The soul, however, cannot express itself obviously, and if it makes itself known in the form of thoughts these thoughts are quickly suppressed again, and it requires great strength of will to listen to it and to neglect the body for its sake .... This requires strength of will, thus the human being must fight against the desires of the flesh, against everything that is beneficial to the body but detrimental to the soul. I call you to this fight against yourselves, against your desires .... I call upon you, for it is only the struggle of the soul against the body .... But the soul is imperishable, and one day it will have to accept its fate according to its state of maturity, which, however, is a very low one if the human being considers the body first and lets the soul starve .... Fight the battle against your desires, kill your body, only give it what it needs to sustain its life .... but turn everything else to your soul, which can only mature if it is thought of more in earthly life than the body .... I will bless such a battle, and it will certainly require all your willpower in the beginning but it will also always become easier the more you overcome yourselves, for I constantly provide you with the strength to overcome if only you seriously want to do so yourselves .... and then you will surely reach your aim ....

Amen

Translation handled by Doris Boekers

Right love is life ....

B.D. 6311 from July 14th 1955, taken from Book No. 68

The law of order is love, the epitome of blessedness is love, and God in His primordial substance is love .... And everything that submits to this law will be blissful and united with God. And that means to be in possession of strength and to stand in the light of truth .... It means to be able to create and shape as a divine being in supreme wisdom and to be able to rule over worlds and their inhabitants which are handed over to the care of a being which has become perfect through love, which can now work on them in a redeeming sense. Perfection can therefore only be achieved through love, and perfection includes the uninterrupted reception of light and strength from the original source .... from God .... Such a state of perfection cannot be approximately described to the human being on earth as long as he himself is not close to this perfection .... He can still reach it on earth, for every human being can live in love .... Yet no human being is forced to do so, and only few voluntarily strive towards this aim, for their wrongly directed love prevents them from doing so, and this wrongly directed love is therefore the wall between light and darkness, between beatitude and torment .... between fullness of strength and complete weakness and inability to do happy things .... Where love is still wrongly directed neither light nor strength can enter, for wrongly directed love is the most effective means of God's adversary to prevent the return to Him and thus to make the source of strength inaccessible to people .... Misdirected love is the inherited evil which has afflicted people since Adam's fall and from which they will not be released until they call upon the one for help, Whose love was rightly directed and Who calls upon all people to follow Him .... He taught people where to direct their love, He proclaimed the right gospel to them when He walked on earth, He exemplified right love to people, and He died on the cross for the strengthening of people's will in order to show them what right love is capable of and what it results in .... the resurrection to eternal 'life' .... For life means to be able to work and create in possession of light and strength in supreme bliss, because the eternal source of life now continuously emanates light and strength onto a being which has completely joined Him through love. This source of strength has been made accessible to you humans through Jesus' death on the cross. But you have to practice love yourselves in order to reach that source which now continuously nourishes you, which gives you eternal life in bliss .... Therefore fight against selfish love, against the wrongly directed love which only knows as its aim everything that belongs to the adversary of God .... fight against it, for it only brings you death .... But ask Jesus Christ to help you live in the love He preached .... Ask Him for strength and fortification of your will, join Him and follow Him, and your earthly path will safely lead into the valley of life, for this is why He died on the cross, so that you can be given the strength for this which you, as fallen beings, lack as long as you are still in the bonds of the one who is God's adversary .... Jesus Christ will release you from these bonds, Jesus Christ will lead you the way to God, to the final union with God, which He Himself had already found on earth .... For the man Jesus lived a true life of love on earth and thereby shaped Himself into a shell which God Himself could now occupy .... in order to suffer and die for people so that they might attain eternal life ....

Amen

Translation handled by Doris Boekers