Love - The Highest Commandment

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

Love for God – neighbourly love – selfish love - What is love?

4000 - Bible message is teaching of love.... Jesus' explanation.... Transcripts....

4128 - 'Only he who remains in love remains in Me, and I in him....'

7648 - God as a loving Father....

8032 - What is love?.... Changing selfish love into neighbourly love....

4961 - Love for God and one's neighbour....

5963 - Love 'He who remains in love remains in Me....'

6121 - The right amount of selfish love.... 'As yourself....'

8584 - Love for God is demonstrated through neighbourly love....

7811 - Love one another....

7294 - Fighting selfish love....

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

0873 - Sensual love....

6360 - Social contributions....

8576 - The meaning of earthly life.... Kind-hearted activity....

1829 - Fulfilment of duty....

5927 - Following Jesus.... Living a life of love....

8678 - The most important commandment has to be fulfilled: Love....

6086 - Earthly task: Fulfilment of the commandments of love....

8626 - People lack love and faith....

7708 - True neighbourly love: Passing on the divine Word....

7709 - God's love.... Last days....

Love for God – neighbourly love – selfish love - What is love?

Bible message is teaching of love .... Jesus' explanation .... Transcripts ....

B.D. 4000 from March 16th 1947, taken from Book No. 49

You must be taught by the spirit within you or you will remain without knowledge. But it can only become active if you live a life of love .... And therefore My mission as a human being on earth initially consisted of conveying the divine teaching of love, for the human being's compliance with it first had to change him such that it enabled the spirit within him to become active and only then were further spiritual instructions possible. However, at the time of My life on earth people had so much diverged from love that they had to be informed time and again and in ever greater detail of the consequences of their heartlessness and the commandment of love had to be constantly preached to them, and I was only able to initiate a few into profound knowledge. Yet it would not have been wise on My part to impart this knowledge to people in general, because without love it remains dead knowledge without result. And therefore it was My will that My disciples' transcripts were preserved in such a form that they indeed lack profound knowledge but nevertheless contain the teaching of love, and anyone who follows it will also penetrate into deeper knowledge if he seriously desires it.

I Myself have certainly shared an abundance of knowledge on earth, yet I also knew My listeners' hearts, I was aware of their degree of love, their will and their realisation of My Personality which made them accept the knowledge they were offered as the only truth. I also instructed My disciples and through pouring out My spirit after My ascension I enabled them to impart to their fellow human beings the same information they received through the spirit, and thus people who were brought the Gospel by My disciples were well taken care of, but since a life of love is always a prerequisite in order to understand profound spiritual knowledge and derive the blessing from it, the commandment of love was intended to be passed on to future generations and was therefore written down by My disciples on My instructions, so that it would be preserved as I had taught it on earth. And My way of life, which was meant to serve as an example to all people, was also a subject of the transcripts which, as My disciples' legacy, were left to humanity but which are missing more profound knowledge because this is My will. For anyone who wants to draw the knowledge from the Scriptures, which indeed include My Word, but who is without love would not know what to do with it, because spiritual knowledge is the light which is only kindled through love, which can only burst into full radiance when the human being's spirit awakens and then enlightens the person from within. Academically imparted knowledge is only valuable if it can be examined and assimilated in order to become intellectual property, but this is only ever possible with the spirit's assistance, which therefore makes love indispensable.

What is therefore more understandable than that I Myself on earth as well as in the transcripts, which came about according to My will, only ever taught love and that the commandment of love must only ever be presented to people first and foremost? What is more understandable than that the human being cannot be admonished often enough to comply with this commandment in order to attain psychological maturity? All further knowledge is just the result of a life of love and will be imparted to each individual person as is beneficial to him. For as soon as his spirit has become active he can receive unlimited knowledge, since the degree of wisdom he wants is determined by himself, and then he will no longer need to accept it from books but it will be offered to him directly from the spiritual kingdom which, however, can only be understood by a person who has awakened the spirit within himself through complying with My commandment of love, which will never be comprehensible to those who live without love and try to gain their knowledge from books. This is just dead knowledge, only the spirit will give life .... only love will grant complete understanding ....

Amen

Translation handled by Heidi Hanna

'Only he who remains in love remains in Me, and I in him ....'

B.D. 4128 from September 22nd 1947, taken from Book No. 50

Love has to come alight in you if you want to be united with Me. Only he who remains in love remains in Me and I in him. And thus you must feel impelled by your heart to give love to your fellow human being, to make him happy and gain his affection, you have to be in constant harmony with him, you have to be a friend and brother to your neighbour, you have to share joy and suffering with him and always endeavour to ease his fate on earth, and you must always be willing to guide him correctly in spiritual matters, because the most important and most pleasing activity of love is to save or benefit his soul. If you are impelled by love, that is, if you feel urged from deep within yourselves to carry out works of love, I Am closely united with you, for the feeling of love already shows that I Am taking possession of you, it is an overflowing of My strength of love to you, which is the result of your will turning towards good, thus an unconscious turning towards Me.

I can certainly draw all of you to My heart, I can instantly kindle love in you and in that case win all of you over for Myself, if I wanted to do so .... however, in that case I would have no living creations as My image but only judged beings without free will as a sign of their divinity. But I want to work and create with perfect beings, I want to give them ultimate happiness because My love for them is infinitely profound, and I can only do so if they have reached a particular degree which people should and can reach on earth. And this is why I must constantly admonish you to be eagerly active in love, because I want to be united with you in order to be able to work in all fullness within you and thus increase the strength of your love, so that you become divine beings yourselves, as was your destiny in the very beginning.

I want to be as one with you yet you must accomplish this merger of your own free will .... And this is why you have to practise love yourselves, you must constantly make an effort to do good works, you must change your feelings if they have not yet come alight as love within you, you must want to be good then you will also be able to become it, for I will bless such a will and give you strength to implement it. You must want to be united with Me and I will come to you and take possession of you with the intention of never letting go of you or allowing you to separate yourselves from Me again. For My love is so profound that it will not rest until total unification has taken place, because this was the original state, because My living creations came forth from Me, because they are strength from Me which inevitably has to return to Me again ....

Amen

Translation handled by Heidi Hanna

God as a loving Father ....

B.D. 7648 from July 15th 1960, taken from Book No. 80

For the majority of people I Am the distant, inaccessible God, providing they still believe in Me .... But they have no bond with Me, they look for Me in the distance, they indeed see in Me their God and Creator but not their Father .... they have not yet established the relationship of a child with its Father and therefore dare not address Me like a Father nor do they expect help because they exclude My Fatherly love and only see in Me a punishing God, a merciless Judge Who condemns them without pity if they don't live in accordance with His will. People do not know about My greater than great love for them or they would approach Me trustingly and communicate with Me .... They don't know that they came forth from My love and that My love belongs to them despite the fact that they became sinful .... They are still distant from Me and therefore cannot be permeated by My strength either, because then they would have to turn towards Me devotedly .... because they would have to seek My presence and muster the will to be accepted by Me as My child ....

And it is difficult to convey this knowledge to them .... for I Am and will remain an unattainable Being for these humans, Which stands sky-high above humanity and has little or no contact at all with them. They don't believe in a correlation between the Creator with His living creation, they feel and are indeed isolated as long as they don't lift the isolation themselves and try to join Me. I, however, want to be the Father of My children; I want to be close to people, so close that they will be able to hear Me. But this first requires the human being's free will to be in contact with Me. The human being, too, must want to approach Me, he must abolish the vast distance between us himself by his very will to be in contact with Me. And this resolve can awaken in the human being if My love is proclaimed to him time and again, if I Am presented to Him as a supremely perfect Being Which is pure love and Which wants to give His great love to His living creations in order to make them happy. I must be presented to people as supremely perfect, and perfection includes an abundance of love for My living creations. Only when the human being can believe in My love will his love for Me ignite and he will yearn for contact with Me ....

And then he will also feel like My child and long for the Father in order to intimately communicate with Him. He will no longer feel any inhibitions, he will speak to Me like a child speaks to its Father, and he will also feel My love and therefore approach Me trustingly .... And then I can be present with him, then the vast distance will have been abolished, then the child will also be able to hear My voice because .... if it strives towards Me .... it has become love itself, which causes the unity of the child with the Father .... And as soon as you are able to portray Me to your fellow human beings as their God and Creator, as a most loving Father Who only desires to be united with His children again as it was in the beginning .... as soon as you present Me as a God of love, people will lose their immense shyness in regards to Me and trustingly turn to Me when they are in trouble. They will receive My help and then try to come ever closer to Me, for then they will be seized by My love and gently but steadily be drawn upwards. And one day the union will take place too, for once the human being has felt My love he will not detach himself from Me again but ever more eagerly strive towards Me, and the vast distance will finally have been overcome, with the human being no longer only seeing in Me his God and Creator but his Father, to Whom he will then take his path and with certainty also reach his goal ....

Amen

Translation handled by Heidi Hanna

What is love? .... Changing selfish love into neighbourly love ....

B.D. 8032 from November 4th 1961, taken from Book No. 84

And time and again you are reminded to live a life of love. For love is the strength that redeems you, love is the path which leads to Me, love is My fundamental element, and therefore anyone who lives in love is intimately connected with Me, because he inevitably draws Me, Who is love Himself, close to himself .... But what does it mean to live a life of love in accordance with My will? ....

You should change selfish love, which is your nature at the beginning of your incarnation as a human being, into selfless neighbourly love, that is, you have to change the demanding, wanting-to-own love into selfless, giving, wanting-to-please love, which alone can be called 'divine love'. For My adversary knew how to change this divine love within you into the opposite, how to instil the desire for anti-divine things, he knew how to arouse longings in you humans which you sought to fulfil; he has lowered selfish love into your heart, and you have to try to change it again during the time of your earthly life into divine, selfless love.

And thus you should practice unselfish neighbourly love; you should think less about yourselves and take a personal interest in your fellow human beings' fate instead .... You should make people happy and emanate sincere love, for only this love is divine; it is the love which connects us again in time and eternity. For this reason people's attention should repeatedly be drawn to their earthly task of shaping themselves into love; time and again they should be reminded of My commandments of love, and at the same time they should be informed of the effect a life of love has for the human being's soul, they should also be given the reason why I require love from people .... it should be explained to them that they had fallen into the abyss because they had rejected My love, because they had left My order, because they had placed themselves outside of My flow of love and thus also turned their nature into the opposite. People have to be instructed of the fact that strength of love also guarantees 'life', whereas without love the being is dead albeit it lives an illusive life as a human being .... They should know that they live on earth in order to acquire eternal life for themselves, and that eternal life also requires a degree of love which necessitates a conscious struggle against selfish love. The human being should know that the 'love' I want should only ever be understood as the selfless, giving and wanting-to-please love. And if he now aims to change his nature into love he will then also soon experience the effectiveness of divine love .... he will learn to understand everything, he will become enlightened, he will emerge from spiritual darkness, he will arrive at the 'understanding', he will be permeated by My spirit and be able to teach, for his inner realisation will give him the ability to transfer it to a fellow human being, although he, too, first must have reached this enlightened spiritual state due to his deeds of love in order to muster the understanding for it .... in order to recognise the conveyed knowledge as truth.

Love has to result in a clear spiritual state, otherwise the fulfilment of My commandment of love will only ever be feigned by words but the evidence will fail to materialise itself. Love comes first, love is the Divine, love is the fire which irrevocably will also radiate light .... Thus wisdom has to be recognisable where true love is practised, so that a person's reasoning is correct, so that an inner light is kindled within him and he then will also speak with wisdom, because the spirit in him expresses itself, because I Am able to speak through him Myself and My Words are truly light and life and provide evidence of most profound wisdom. And thus the effect of a life of love has to be identifiable, for 'whoever remains in love remains in Me and I in him ....' and thus My spirit works wherever I can be, and this expresses itself such that you will truly no longer doubt My presence ....

Amen

Translation handled by Heidi Hanna

Love for God and one's neighbour ....

B.D. 4961 from September 2nd 1950, taken from Book No. 56

Whatever you want people to do to you when you suffer adversity you should also do to them .... That is the commandment of neighbourly love, which is the most important commandment for you because it includes the love for God at the same time. For whoever loves his neighbour like his brother also loves the Father above all else, Whose child is the neighbour. And thus you humans know what you ought to do in order to become blessed, for these two commandments are the epitome of My will, the fulfilment of which is your earthly task. If you pay attention to these two commandments of love for God and your neighbour you will be unable to commit a sin but will live to please Me, and I will bless you in turn by increasing your realisation and wisdom, light and strength. Yet you humans also know that you are repeatedly approached by the opponent in order to push you off the right path, in order to make you desert Me. And therefore he will try to prevent you from arousing My favour .... He will try to stop you from loving Me and your neighbour and time and again persuade you to transgress these commandments of Mine. He will make you conscious of the fact that you are more important, that you should think of yourselves first and thus let selfish love dominate, so that you will have no understanding for your fellow human being's hardship and neglect Me in favour of your own endeavours .... earthly possessions, which are temporary.

And thus you will have to decide, you will have to choose Me or My adversary .... you will have to fulfil My commandments or perish in selfish love, for My adversary only wants your ruin. But the love you give Me and your neighbour will make you happy, for this love is truly strength and increases spiritual possessions. Your one and only purpose in life is to help your fellow human being, for selfless neighbourly love is the right means of release for your soul, it is the purchase price for eternal beatitude. In the spiritual kingdom, however, love is natural, whereas on earth it is an effort to rise above oneself, because selfish love still constitutes a strong counterweight which, however, is wrongly directed love and locks the entrance to the kingdom of the blessed spirits. Love comes forth from Me and leads back to Me again, but anyone who is without love has voluntarily excluded himself from My circuit and is therefore at risk of falling prey to the one who is entirely without love because he is My opponent. That is why he has to be fought, love shall be practised and therefore My commandment always be complied with; you shall shape yourselves into love through selfless labours of love so that you will correspond to My fundamental nature, so that you will liberate yourselves from your enemy's bondage, so that you will unite with Me and be eternally happy ....

Amen

Translation handled by Heidi Hanna

Love 'He who remains in love remains in Me ....'

B.D. 5963 from May 21st 1954, taken from Book No. 65

In unity with Me you find your peace of mind. Your longing is satisfied as soon as you know yourselves to be as one with Me, if you have united with Me through love or heartfelt prayer sent to Me in spirit and in truth. Prayer is the will for unity with Me, activity of love, however, is the fulfilment, for 'He who remains in love remains in Me and I in him ....' Love is the most important .... and everything that is described as the maturing of the soul, the return into the Father's house and eternal beatitude depends on deeds of love .... And if you always only keep these words in mind 'He who remains in love remains in Me and I in him ....', if you always only remember that I Am Love Itself, then you will consider the fulfilment of My commandments of love to be the most important thing, and then you will endeavour to live a life of love in order to be thereby eternally united with Me. Love is everything .... it is redeeming strength, it is light, it is the divine principle, the centre of eternal order .... If a human being exists without love then he has completely left this order, his thoughts and activity are completely in opposition to God, he is spiritually blind, that is, he is ignorant, and he is unredeemed in the hands of the adversary who wants to exclude him from all happiness ....

I Am Love Itself, heartlessness is My adversary .... and anyone who therefore desires to be united with Me, who wants to attain Me must live a life of love, for then I must also be with him, because love is and has been My fundamental substance for eternity. I certainly bestow unlimited blessings, I certainly grant you what you don't deserve and don't strive for by yourselves, yet all My gifts of grace only intend to achieve one thing, that you shape yourselves into love, for even if I would like to bestow everything upon you .... you would nevertheless remain dead without love, without love you would remain judged beings .... you would only ever remain My living creations but never ever be able to become My children. Only love can accomplish My living creations' deification, only love can unite us, otherwise you will always just lead a miserable existence as isolated beings outside of Me. And this is why the first and most important commandment is to love God above all else and your neighbour as yourself .... And your spiritual state on earth as well as in eternity one day depends on your fulfilment of this commandment .... This is why I instructed My disciples to go into the world and proclaim My divine teaching of love to humanity .... this is why I Myself exemplified to people on earth a life of love and sealed My teaching of love with the death on the cross, which I suffered on behalf of My fellow human beings because of My greater than great love .... because I recognised their infinite hardship and wanted to help them.

And as long as you humans ignore these commandments of Mine you will be unable to achieve beatitude, no matter how profoundly you humble yourselves in the dust before Me, pleading for My mercy .... My love for you cannot be exceeded any more and I want to win all of you over for Me, yet My bliss only consists of your reciprocated love, and you must grant this to Me voluntarily .... And your appeal for mercy has to be based on your desire for Me because you love Me .... and because you realise how far-away you still are from Me. You must try to reach Me, you must want to achieve unity with Me, and therefore you must live a life of love yourselves or unity will never be possible to achieve. Consider the fact that with every deed of love you draw the eternal Love Itself to yourselves .... but that It cannot enter your hearts if they are still completely contradicting God's fundamental nature .... You only unite with Me through love, and that is what you ought to bear in mind and seek to fulfil the commandment of love as the most important .... you ought to know that no human being can become blissfully happy without love.

Amen

Translation handled by Heidi Hanna

The right amount of selfish love .... 'As yourself ....'

B.D. 6121 from November 27th 1954, taken from Book No. 66

Making a sacrifice on behalf of your fellow human being is true unselfish neighbourly love .... in that case you love your fellow human being more than yourselves. And if you give to him what you find desirable yourselves then you also love him as you love yourselves .... I only require this neighbourly love, i.e. this, too, has to be voluntarily practised in order to result in spiritual blessings for you .... However, if you are also willing to make sacrifices, if you voluntarily go without in order to give to your fellow human being, then this neighbourly love will be far more valuable and as a result the soul's achievement will be far bigger .... The human being is granted a certain amount of selfish love because it is needed for the fulfilment of earthly tasks, so that the human being can sustain his physical life, so that he can give what the body requires to himself in order to be able to live his earthly life .... It is just that this selfish love should not be exaggerated, so that the person does not consider his fellow human being .... so that he only ever gives to himself and thereby directs his love wrongly .... This is why I added the Words: 'as yourself ....'

And thus the human being will be able to use this guideline in relation to his thoughts and actions .... he must, if he wants to fulfil My will, consider his fellow human being in the same way as he considers himself. And depending on his heart's willingness to love the human being he will then find it either easier or more difficult to comply with My commandment. But anyone who considers himself less important than his fellow human being will have an exceptionally loving heart, and he will very easily attain perfection .... Yet everything is left up to you .... I certainly gave you the commandment of love, but someone who doesn't want to fulfil it will ignore the commandment .... whereas a person who loves will not need My commandment. Only love which becomes spontaneously active without having been prompted by commandments is the right kind of love. But a human being whose attention has been drawn to My commandment of love can also carry out deeds of love without being inwardly prompted, by at first merely being encouraged to do so as a result of this commandment .... until the spark of love within him ignites increasingly more and makes the person happy when he kind-heartedly helps his neighbour.

Nevertheless, only what is motivated by love for his fellow human being will be assessed .... Love your neighbour as yourself .... Everyone possesses love for himself, and rightly so, but it must not exceed his love for a fellow human being which, however, is the case if a person ignores his fellow human being's adversity by believing that he cannot share anything with him because he doesn't own much himself .... He shall also share the little he has with him and it will not cause him any harm, for if he is motivated by love he will be richly rewarded .... since the measure he uses will be the measure he will receive from Me Myself .... A loving person, however, will not think about it first, he will also give at a loss, and his reward will be truly great in heaven .... For the more he sacrifices, the more he pleases his fellow human being, the richer he will become .... He will be permitted to receive much love and be united with Me because he has changed himself to love ....

Amen

Translation handled by Heidi Hanna

Love for God is demonstrated through neighbourly love ....

B.D. 8584 from August 11th 1963, taken from Book No. 90

I always keep telling you the same: take care of your fellow human being in his adversity .... help him, irrespective of whether he suffers spiritual or physical distress; practice unselfish neighbourly love and you will fulfil the purpose of your existence. For you only demonstrate your love for Me when you give love to your neighbour, who is your brother. I Am a Father to all of you; I long for your love which should apply to all My living creations who have emerged from Me. Your fellow human beings very often suffer hardship, and it will mainly concern spiritual difficulties in which you should help them, for earthly difficulties will come to an end but spiritual adversity continues and will always require help, regardless of whether they are on earth or in the kingdom of the beyond.

Spiritual adversity largely consists of unkindness and therefore the soul's imperfect composition which, however, should mature in earthly life through love .... Hence, if you love your neighbour it can awaken reciprocated love and encourage the other person to change his nature if he wants to emulate you, if you are an example to him by living a true life of love .... Giving love is the greatest help .... but you should also make the Gospel known to your neighbour, that is, you should also describe his Creator and Provider as a God of love Who is everyone's Father and therefore wants to be called upon as a Father ....

You should only ever try to impart spiritual knowledge to your fellow human being, and you will help his maturation if you offer everything to him with love. Yet you should also support your neighbour in earthly adversity and thereby likewise inspire reciprocated love, for love is strength in itself and will never remain ineffective unless your neighbour still completely belongs to My adversary, then he will reject you and not experience the results of love. And you will only ever mature through actions of love .... consequently every opportunity should be used by you to act with love .... And notice should be taken of every hardship suffered by your fellow human being, you should not pass him by indifferently and leave him in distress, for then you are heartless yourselves and do not fulfil your earthly purpose which solely consists of accepting your fundamental nature again, of becoming the love you were in the beginning.

The commandment of love will always be the first and most important one, and the Gospel which teaches you to love God and your neighbour will always have to be proclaimed to people .... However, you will never show love to Me if you ignore your neighbour, no matter how strongly you are moved by your emotions .... True love for Me can only be expressed in loving activity for the next person. And thereby you also prove your love for Me. But anyone who is half-hearted and indifferent in his love for his neighbour will never feel true love for Me, for how can a person love Me Whom he cannot see, if he ignores his brother whom he can see ....

Love between people has grown cold in the last days, and therefore they are also very distant from Me Who, as Eternal Love, can only unite with a person through love .... And this is why the spiritual adversity is so great, for to be heartless also means to be without faith, without knowledge and without strength .... Furthermore, it means to still be subject to the power of the one who is devoid of all love and who will always stop people from acting with love .... but who also wants your downfall by keeping you away from Me. And he is the one you have to resist, you have to try to contact Me and you will only ever attain this through loving activity .... For this reason I say 'What you do to the least of My brothers, you have done to Me ....' I Myself consider your love for your fellow human being as love for Me ....

How else would you be able to demonstrate your love for Me? .... If you believe in Me and that I, as a Father, grant love to all My children, then you also have to return My love as children, and then you also know that all you humans are regarded by Me as children, that you are all the same .... living beings who originated from Me, and you have to love one another and move towards Me together .... But one also has to carry the other, you have to protect the other from suffering harm, you have to help him in all kinds of difficulties, you have to stick together and establish this true relationship between brothers and then strive towards your eternal Father together. Only then will you have the kind of love for each other which I require of you humans, because you are the same in your fundamental substance .... because you came forth from the divine strength of love.

And once the relationship between you humans has changed, once all your thoughts and actions are determined by love, you will also become more perfect, you will become again what you had been before: living creations permeated by love which only ever work for each others beatitude .... For where love exists there also has to be a receptacle for this emanated love, irrespective of whether I Myself as the primary source, or you as terminals of My strength of love re-emanate this love .... there always has to be a vessel into which you can radiate your love ....

And thus on earth this vessel is your fellow human being .... the person next to you to whom you give your love, which you receive from Me .... For you cannot give anything that you wouldn't have received from Me first .... I nurture the spark of love in you such that My love enlightens you consistently more and inspires loving actions, and this work will apply to your neighbour again, for you will be inclined to be constantly of assistance once My love is able to enlighten you.

And your activity of love for your neighbour demonstrates to Me that you accept My rays of love, that you open your hearts and grant entrance to Me and My love .... it demonstrates to Me that you are committed to Me in love again or you would keep your hearts closed and I would be unable to work in you. And you will always mature providing you don't lead a one-sided life but always consider your fellow human being and take a personal interest in his physical and psychological circumstances, providing you try to lead him on the path to Me and also support him in earthly adversity if he approaches you and requests your assistance. You are living together for the purpose of mutual maturing. And you will always be given the opportunity to carry out actions of helpful love .... You just have to be of good will and allow yourselves to be guided always in view of Me, your God and Creator, Whom you acknowledge as a Father and to Whom you show the love of a child .... Then you will love each other as brothers and benefit each other .... And then your soul will mature on earth and achieve its goal: through love it will unite with Me, the Eternal Love, and then you will be blissfully happy forever ....

Amen

Translation handled by Heidi Hanna

Love one another ....

B.D. 7811 from January 30th 1961, taken from Book No. 82

One law applies to all of you, that you shall love one another and thereby also prove your common bond with Me. And even if you are bothered by the thought that you have no inner bond with your fellow human being whom you should love, you shall nevertheless remember his soul which is still subject to the constraint of the body, and you shall know that the soul belongs to Me even if its will is still opposing Me. For you are all My children and therefore shall consider your fellow human being as your brother and strive towards the Father together. Love shall unite you, then you will demonstrate that you are children of the same Father. And this love shall stop you from every suspicion or judgment of your neighbour, love shall help you bear his every weakness and fault; you should only ever bear in mind that his soul can still have a low degree of maturity and the human being therefore behaves as he does, even if you dislike it. You should not pass harsh judgments for then you will also motivate Me to judge you in the same way, for not one of you is without fault, not one of you has as yet reached a degree of maturity which excludes imperfections and weaknesses, and yet I endure you with greater than great love and patience and don't pass harsh judgments upon you. And therefore I gave you the commandment: love your neighbour as yourselves .... If you fulfil this commandment of neighbourly love then you will spread a merciful veil across his faults and weaknesses, and you will only ever try to help him and only ever awaken mutual love in him if you let him feel your love.

With these Word I address all those of you who are still inclined to expose your neighbour's faults, for thereby you demonstrate your own lack of love which subsequently gives you no right to judge your neighbour. And by doing so you become sinful yourselves, for you contravene the commandment of love .... Therefore, if you want to be My children you must also make an effort to fulfil the Father's will, which only ever wants you to love one other or else you belong to My adversary, who is devoid of all love and always tries to influence you into opposing the law of love. And do you love your brother if you are angry with him? If you emphasise his flaws and weaknesses, if you judge him harshly? You must learn to endure his weakness and help him .... Then you will carry out My will, and then your conduct will also result in blessings, you will gain him as your friend, he will take your example to heart and will want to emulate you, and his inner being will be full of love for you as well, for love awakens love in response, and then you will also prove that you are the children of the same Father, Whose nature is pure love. And then My love will embrace you ever more closely and your hearts will become increasingly more willing to love, so that they will pass this love on to the next person and then you will indeed be My true children, as it is My will ....

Amen

Translation handled by Heidi Hanna

Fighting selfish love ....

B.D. 7294 from February 27th 1959, taken from Book No. 77

You only should possess a small amount of selfish love and you will find it easy to fulfil My commandments of love for God and your neighbour. Selfish love cannot be small enough, for this alone prevents the human being from performing selfless neighbourly love which is, after all, the most important thing in earthly life if the soul is to reach perfection. But selfish love clings to every person as a legacy of the one who is devoid of all love, who loves himself above all else or he would not have become My enemy and adversary, who lays claim to everything himself and wants to take all authority away from Me. He alone wants to possess, and every kind of selfish love is a demand for possession, hence an acceptance of his plans and a distancing from Me, Who is love Itself. As long as selfish love still prevails within the human being he will not care about his neighbour nor change his nature into love, which first of all requires curbing his selfish love. And so you humans can only ever be informed of the fact that you are still subject to My adversary's influence as long as your selfish love is still predominant, and that should motivate you to fight against yourselves .... Your should always oppose you own wishes with your fellow human being's hardship and try to consider your fellow human being consistently more and do without for his sake. Then your soul will progress greatly, in fact, only the degree of your selfish love enables you to assess the state of your soul, and you should never believe that your work of improving your soul is right as long as you haven't overcome your selfish love, which is the best indicator for your soul's maturity. But you can rest assured that I will help you overcome yourselves if only you have the sincere will to achieve this degree of maturity where your neighbour's fate is closer to your heart than your own. Then you will also receive strength, because I bless every sincere will and help you not to weaken in your determination to become perfect. However, without this fight against your selfish love it is not possible, without this fight you will never selflessly take care of your neighbour, you will never experience the feeling of love which wants to please as long as you are still imbued by desiring love, which is My adversary's share. And he will keep you enchained until you have freed yourselves by being victorious over your selfish love, which is a major advantage for your soul and which can only mature if the human being eagerly improves himself, if he constantly tries to fulfil My will which is always merely expressed in My commandments "Love God above all else and your neighbour as yourself ...."

Amen

Translation handled by Doris Boekers

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

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

Social contributions ....

B.D. 6360 from September 20th 1955, taken from Book No. 68

How often do you humans rely on the fact that you will receive help, and how often is it possible for you to offer it in turn, for no-one can rely on himself alone, everyone needs the help of his fellow human beings, just as everyone gets into situations to help another person. Yet people endeavour to achieve complete independence from their neighbours and also to rid themselves from giving help .... They try to lawfully regulate what should be a voluntary service of help, and everyone tries to derive the greatest possible benefit for himself again from this regulation .... What would be extremely highly valued for every individual person's soul as unselfish neighbourly love is changed into an involuntary duty, and there is no benefit for the soul as long as all voluntary activity of love is excluded.

According to human estimation all earthly hardship could be averted from people in this way, and this is no doubt also the intention of those who feel responsible for people's serious difficulties since they cannot be concealed and burden the latter .... And as long as unkindness prevails amongst humanity even these endeavours are a blessing in as much as people will not perish in misery .... Nevertheless, it cannot solve people's spiritually low level, for this requires activity of unselfish neighbourly love .... People have to be touched by other people's hardship to kindle the love in them .... There has to be the kind of adversity amongst people that will stimulate a kind-hearted person into actions of love .... Help can be rendered in every respect to a fellow human being through words of comfort, through caring sympathy, through active assistance .... Yet human life, above all, relates to the overcoming of matter .... the transformation of selfish love into selfless neighbourly love.

The human being should let go of what is desirable to himself in order to give it to a fellow human being who is in need of it .... This is why wealth is unevenly distributed, precisely in order to motivate this will to give, since a person can learn to overcome matter at the same time and thereby make the greatest gift to himself by detaching himself from material possessions in order to alleviate a fellow human being's hardship .... Only what is voluntarily relinquished will reap a rich reward for a person, for only free will demonstrates love, whereas all other contributions a person has to make are entirely devoid of love, indeed, they are more likely to harden a person's heart as he suppresses in himself the will to give in the belief of having done enough for other people's well-being. Yet no matter how much people try to ease economic poverty in this way .... the human being will still be affected by hardship in other ways, on the one hand for his own benefit, but on the other hand in order to move a fellow human being's heart into providing help .... in order to touch it, so that the spark of love ignites, so that love will not grow completely cold amongst people ....

And precisely those people with very hardened hearts are frequently affected by non-material problems, so that they have to take a different path if they are to be helped: their pleasure of earthly possessions will be taken from them .... what they did not want to give to alleviate other people's hardship they will then no longer be able to enjoy themselves .... Material belongings will now lose their value, and blessed is the person who deals with this in the right way .... who now voluntarily relinquishes it in order to give it to needy fellow human beings .... Blessed is the person who ultimately acquires his fellow human beings' love as a result of good deeds, which alone will follow him into eternity .... Then his hardship will not have been unsuccessful for his soul ....

Amen

Translation handled by Heidi Hanna

The meaning of earthly life .... Kind-hearted activity ....

B.D. 8576 from July 31th 1963, taken from Book No. 90

Time and again I want to inform you of the circumstances relating to your process of earthly life as a human being, because this knowledge makes you live your life responsibly, as soon as you believe in it. It can also be presented to you and met by complete unbelief, yet during your earthly life you will repeatedly get into situations when you will reflect on the purpose of your existence, and then such thoughts will indeed arise in you time and again and you will remember the conversations which were intended to provide you with an explanation. And every thinking person will also reflect on it and, depending on his will, come to the right conclusion. I simply don't want the human being merely to deal with worldly issues but I want him to drift into an area which is unverifiable and yet cannot be denied, if it is seriously thought about .... For only if the human being travels this path intellectually will his course of life be successful for his soul, the maturing of which is the meaning and purpose of earthly life.

Hence it is essential for the human being to be repeatedly reminded of the fact that he is not just living on earth for the sake of acquiring an outwardly good living standard and riches .... Although by and large he will not want to believe it nor can he be forced into believing it but he will nevertheless dwell on it occasionally and then also be able to change his mind, so that he will intellectually occupy himself more with the realm which cannot be proven to him. And then it will depend on his general way of life whether he will become a believer, for as soon as he does not disregard kind-hearted activity, as soon as he is prepared to help and is of good will, he will also learn to believe and advance in his development. This is why fellow human beings shall only ever just be encouraged to carry out deeds of love, which can often already be achieved by being a good example .... Then unbelief will also diminish, for love will invariably awaken a living faith. Hence it is absolutely necessary to live a life of love in order to attain faith ....

Love between people, however, has grown cold and hearts will have to be touched in order to become willing to love, for every human being has the ability to love, since I instilled in him a tiny spark of My spirit for his earthly life .... And the willingness to love can, in turn, only be aroused by great adversity, by serious strokes of fate affecting people where one person depends on the other and a willingness to help comes to the fore, providing a person is not entirely hardened and therefore My adversary's follower, who subsequently will be hopelessly lost when the time for the maturing of his soul comes to an end. Earthly life is at a standstill without love, the soul cannot gain anything and remains in its previous state, if it doesn't descend even further into the abyss from which it had already worked its way up and just had to cover the final ascent. Without love it cannot move one step forward, and no human being can be forced to love, it is a matter of free will but the only option to reach the goal on earth for the soul to become perfect and change into its fundamental nature again.

And so the divine teaching of love has to be proclaimed time and again, people's attention must be drawn to the commandments of love for God and other people, time and again they have to be touched by adversity and misery so that their spark of love will ignite and turn into a bright glow. And this is why I keep educating teachers for Myself on earth who preach love to their fellow human beings, who proclaim My will to them and try to introduce them to the kind of knowledge which can only be gained through living a life of love .... This is why I send the disciples into the world again during the last days, so that they will proclaim My Gospel which I convey to earth Myself .... Time and again I work visibly and remarkably in order to be believed, because people have greatly distanced themselves from belief already and no longer visit the places where My Word is proclaimed, and because even there My Word has lost its strength if the preachers of My Word are not spiritually awakened .... People shall come alive, they shall learn to gain a living faith, because only then will they strive towards Me and learn to love Me and then also advance in their development .... Without love, however, they will achieve nothing on earth .... No matter what is done, it always has to be based on love or they will be dead works .... You humans should know all this and question the motives of what you say, do and think .... And only if you are urged by love will everything you think, speak and do be good before My eyes and gain you a higher degree of maturity .... But everything is futile without love .... For you only live on earth for the sake of changing your life into a life of love, and only this is and will remain your goal, so that through love you will unite with Me, the Eternal Love Himself ....

Amen

Translation handled by Heidi Hanna

Fulfilment of duty ....

B.D. 1829 from February 24th 1941, taken from Book No. 27

You should never be content just to fulfil your duty but should do more than that, you should voluntarily accept a task which people do not expect you to do but which you should do for love .... only then will you be lovingly active and only this effort will be valued and bring you blessings for eternity. People who dutifully carry out their earthly work believe themselves to have done enough. In that case their life is in fact a life of fulfilment of duty but nevertheless it is not a conscious service of love .... Whatever a duty demands to be done invariably corresponds to worldly objectives. Anything that has a refining influence on the soul will neither be demanded nor carried out as a duty but it always has to be done in absolute freedom of will, and this is why a soul's progress can only be spoken of when the person works above and beyond his duty and will not stop such kind-hearted activity.

However, anything the human being accepts for himself or imposes on others as an obligation only has earthly value, since neighbourly love need not necessarily be the driving force of fulfilling a duty. There are, as a rule, human laws which intend to uphold worldly order, the fulfilment of which are therefore effectively necessary in order to combat people's weak will, for many people would not carry out what they are duty-bound to do if a sense of duty had not been cultivated in them. Everything they do is thus somehow or other conditional and results in some kind of earthly benefit. An earthly way of life which only shows an endless string of deeds, all of which fit into the category of fulfilment of duty, by no means have to result in a psychological state of maturity, for precisely this fulfilment of duty prevents people from being truly lovingly active.

Although the fulfilment of duty cannot be portrayed to people as wrong or unnecessary, it nevertheless poses a certain danger for the human being's soul, for the more he uses it as a guiding principle of human life, the more significance he attaches to precisely this duty and the more he believes himself to be exempt from true activities of love, for he deems his time sufficiently used and yet spiritually he stays behind if he fails to love, i.e., despite being fully occupied by duties, he is not urged by love to do 'more' .... to help his fellow human beings both spiritually and physically with deeds which are never demanded by people and therefore love can never become a duty either. Fulfilment of duty on its own certainly ought to be recognised in an earthly way but it is of no importance for eternity, thus the human being must do his utmost and try to be helpful of his own free will. He should not be content with fulfilling his duty but of his own accord do 'more' .... he should give and help with love, so that his soul will find salvation, which only ever benefits from what the human being does of his own free will and in selfless neighbourly love ....

Amen

Translation handled by Heidi Hanna

Following Jesus .... Living a life of love ....

B.D. 5927 from April 12th 1954, taken from Book No. 64

You all should take My conduct on this earth, My life, as an example, which was purely a life of selfless neighbourly love .... Try to follow Me and only ever try to live a life of love too, then you will take the same path and surely reach the goal. I descended to earth because people were taking the wrong paths which never led upwards but only ever took them further down. And for this reason I showed you the right path and called upon all people to follow Me on this path .... And I instructed people because they failed to realise why a life of love would enable them to ascend, why they were weak and without strength and how they could remedy this weakness .... I informed them about the strength of love and gave them the evidence of truth about My teaching by proving My strength and thereby also the result of a way of life in love, as I exemplified it on earth .... I knew about people's great spiritual hardship but I also knew the means to remedy it, and thus I made a constant effort of persuading people to apply these means .... The hardship of the last days is the same, and so are the means whose use will guarantee that the human being can ascend from the abyss .... Yet people ignore what I taught them .... they don't follow Me because they don't believe in Me and My teaching. They are leading an earthly way of life which is far apart from Mine; they completely ignore love and are therefore not taking the path of ascent .... For without love there is no connection, without love there is a broad gulf between you humans and your God and Father of eternity ....

Only love bridges the gulf, only love is the path to the Father's heart, and only love is the strength which lets you take the ascending path that requires strength and effort. Anyone who refuses to take the path of love will never be able to lift himself out of the abyss, and My hand cannot take hold of him to pull him up either, for he would never take hold of it as long as he is without love .... He has to follow Me of his own free will, for I do not exert any coercion if a person still resists Me. Love tolerates no compulsion yet it redeems those who are held captive .... I can only instruct you humans and strongly admonish you to practise neighbourly love, showing that you want to be able to emulate Me, so that I can help you because you have the will to follow Me. This is why you should always bear My way of life in mind and make every effort to be like Me, and then you will surely experience My help, for anyone who keeps his eyes on Me will also receive the strength to take the path of following Jesus .... and he will indeed reach the goal of being united with Me ....

Amen

Translation handled by Heidi Hanna

The most important commandment has to be fulfilled: Love ....

B.D. 8678 from November 19th 1963, taken from Book No. 91

You, who want to serve Me, will repeatedly be reminded of the immense spiritual darkness which necessitates My Gospel to be carried into the world, which alone is the true light that can penetrate the darkness providing it is offered in all purity, just as it once originated from Me and is now conveyed to you from above to earth again. For only truth is the true light .... but what became spoilt will only ever intensify the darkness. However, the reason why the darkness is so extensive is because many lies and errors were added to the spiritual knowledge which guaranteed the most brightly shining light when it came forth from Me.

And so it is necessary that people are correctly instructed, that they receive clarification about areas which so far were closed to them or were not truthfully brought to light. It is only important that people change their nature to love, that they overcome their selfish love and change it into selfless neighbourly love .... And this important teaching, the fulfilment of My commandment of love, was placed into the background whereas other teachings came to the forefront and people's endeavours were pushed in the wrong direction. Commandments are being observed and fulfilled which are utterly immaterial and don't lead to any kind of advancement for the soul. And love is being put aside which simultaneously means that the light cannot shine brightly, that it only glows faintly .... that people's realisation, their knowledge of truth, is therefore poor .... that they exist in a spiritually darkened state, that they have an entirely wrong view of life, that they only ever strive for material possessions because no inner light is shining for them, which can only be kindled by love.

If all preachers preached nothing else but love .... if people were only ever encouraged to give up their selfish love and practise selfless neighbourly love .... truly, then they would also live in the light of realisation, they would recognise the irrelevance of earthly commodities, they would establish the right kind of relationship as of a child to its Father, for all this results in selfless, divine love .... Instead people are given misguided teachings, they are obliged to perform deeds and customs which can only be valued as external formalities and can never result into changing the state of the soul, because I only value what results in a living relationship with Me .... and this living bond with Me can only be established through kind-hearted activity. And therefore I will continue sending My messengers into the world to proclaim the Gospel of love to people .... And I Myself will always convey the pure Gospel to you who want to accept it and pass it on .... For by way of divine love, which you ought to practise, you will attain a living faith, you will arrive at the inner certainty that I Am close to you and that you can associate with Me directly. And by way of the light, which was kindled in you by love, you will also receive the kind of knowledge which corresponds to the truth, you will no longer live your earthly life in a blind state but possess truthful knowledge regarding the reason for your life on earth and the goal you are supposed to reach .... hence also regarding the earthly task you ought to fulfil.

And as soon as you know the truth you will also achieve spiritual progress, your earthly life will not be in vain, you will become more and more perfect .... which, however, is only the result of receiving the pure truth from Me. And this is what you much search for and desire, then you will also partake of it .... Then you will always be considered by Me, and then My adversary will have lost all claim on you, as soon as your nature has changed itself into love again, as you were in the beginning ....

Amen

Translation handled by Heidi Hanna

Earthly task: Fulfilment of the commandments of love ....

B.D. 6086 from October 22nd 1954, taken from Book No. 66

Every one of you was given a task, and every one fulfils it according to his will, for every human being's will is free. But to know your task is a prerequisite, and this knowledge is conveyed to you through My Word .... which subsequently can indeed be heard and adhered to but also be dismissed .... the consequences of which, however, you will have to bear yourselves. Anyone who complies with the requirements of My Word fulfils My will, hence also his earthly task, and therefore this person can also speak of spiritual progress. Yet even the earthly-minded person should know that one day he will have to be answerable for his failure .... that he was not offered the Word as a message of My will without reason .... that he must also heed it if he wants to fulfil his earthly task .... He must know that his life will not last forever and that he ought to utilise his short life on earth for eternity. And to utilise it means to first fulfil My commandments of love .... by doing so he will then become worthy of My love and receive the strength to improve his soul .... to accomplish the psychological work which is the purpose of his earthly existence. Every one who endeavours to live in love will also know that he was not placed on earth arbitrarily or without reason but that this is connected to the attainment of a goal, and he will sincerely strive towards this goal .... towards unity with Me ....

However, anyone who disregards love, who only tries to achieve for his own advantage, closes his own entrance into eternal life .... for he lacks love, which alone is the key to happiness. He also lacks realisation, he doesn't know anything about the meaning and purpose of his earthly existence nor does he accept an explanation about it. Fulfilment of My commandments of love for God and ones neighbour will assure that the human being gains realisation, and anyone who uses My commandments as a guiding principle for his life on earth will have to become enlightened. He cannot go astray; his path will infallibly lead into the spheres of eternal bliss, for he utterly submits himself to My will, he leads his life within My eternal order, he is in constant contact with Me and therefore receives strength in abundance. And he, in turn, will only use this strength for implementing deeds of love again, for he will be impelled to do so by My spirit which is in direct contact with Me and unable to influence him in any other way than in a good way .... Thus he will fulfil his earthly task by trying to integrate himself as well as his fellow human beings with the eternal order, by trying to establish the eternal order within himself and, in line with his realisation, also help his fellow human beings to submit themselves to Me and My will, so that that they, too, will establish this contact with Me and achieve the purpose of their earthly lives ....

Amen

Translation handled by Heidi Hanna

People lack love and faith ....

B.D. 8626 from September 25th 1963, taken from Book No. 91

People keep distancing themselves from Me ever further, they want to believe less and less, for since they don't live a life of love they cannot attain a living faith either and a dead faith is completely worthless, because they will easily relinquish it completely when they have to profess whether they are for or against Me. For people will have to make this decision, irrespective of whether it will be demanded of them by the earthly authorities or as a result of harsh strokes of fate, when only the right decision can provide them with help in earthly adversity. Without faith they are lost, for then they belong to My adversary, who wants to destroy humanity's every faith in a God and Creator. Only a life of love will result in a living faith, and then there will be no further danger of falling prey to My adversary. For a living faith establishes the connection with Me and any hardship can be resolved because the human being believes in My power to do so, and also because he is convinced that My love will determine Me to help. Yet people who utterly lack faith in a Being Which is full of love, wisdom and power can be called poor and miserable. For even if they are quickly helped by My opponent in earthly calamities their souls will nevertheless be irrevocably lost, for they have abandoned all contact with Me and are therefore hopelessly subject to him. And many people will have to expect this destiny of being completely controlled by My adversary and will also have to share his fate at the end of the earth, so that they .... when he is placed in chains .... will be banished again into the creations of earth and must travel the path through these new creations once more.

Yet this happens in accordance with the will of every individual soul, and nothing can be done for their salvation other than to keep proclaiming the Gospel of love to people, to tell them what will await them if they live without love and therefore also without faith. Time and again people shall be called; time and again they shall be invited to turn their back on the world and to step into spiritual spheres .... Time and again they shall be reminded of the purpose of their earthly life so that they cannot claim to have been entirely without knowledge. Admittedly, they will pay no credence to your words but they shall not be left without warning either, for I will continue to cross their path and by means of misfortunes try to change their thinking .... since the possibility of changing their will still remains until their death and no opportunity shall be missed. And thus there will be a never-ending struggle for every soul My adversary wants to keep. And if you, My servants on earth, only succeed in persuading your fellow human beings to believe in a God and Creator from Whose Power they originated .... if you only succeed in motivating them to carry out deeds of love, then there is also the possibility that they will learn to gain faith, that they will seriously think about it .... especially when they have to recognise the fleeting nature of earthly things and begin to long for everlasting possessions.

Every change of mind can denote salvation for these human beings, and a person can still change his mind until he dies. This is why you, My assistants, should leave no stone unturned in order to awaken in people the belief in a loving Power Which wants to regain all people for Itself .... You shall also inform them of the fact that you are in direct contact with this Power and that It conveys comprehensive spiritual knowledge to you which clarifies the human being's real purpose of existence. There is always the possibility that a person will respond and listen to you, and in that case he is already saved for sure, for as soon as I Am able to speak to him Myself he will feel affected by it and form an opinion .... This is why you are repeatedly summoned to work diligently; this is why I won't stop seeking to attract the love of souls which are still distant from Me. This is why people often suffer great earthly hardship in order to motivate them into performing kind-hearted actions for their fellow human beings. And then it is not hopeless, for every deed of love connects the human being with Me and at the same time disconnects him from My adversary. If only people would believe that only love can deliver them from the enemy of their souls .... that love would also grant them realisation and could gain them a living faith, even in the Redeemer Jesus Christ. And a living faith in Him signifies definite deliverance from sin and death .... Love, however, has grown cold and therefore faith has also vanished, and no person can become blessed without love and faith, without love and faith My adversary is still dominating his soul and it cannot enter the life which lasts forever ....

Amen

Translation handled by Heidi Hanna

True neighbourly love: Passing on the divine Word ....

B.D. 7708 from September 24th 1960, taken from Book No. 81

You cannot accomplish a greater work of neighbourly love than unselfishly distributing My Word, the Gospel, which your fellow human beings have to know in order to travel their earthly path successfully. Spiritual work is not valued by fellow human beings because it doesn't generate earthly success, yet as soon as you are spiritually active, expect no earthly rewards and only impart to your fellow human beings what I Myself offer you from above .... you are truly doing works of neighbourly love which extend into eternity, for they are helping the souls to mature, they can prepare them for entry into the kingdom of light when the soul discards its earthly body and has to leave everything behind .... Then it will have spiritual possessions to take across into eternity. You shall provide and bestow upon others just as I have bestowed upon My disciples the bread of heaven, the water of life .... This is the greatest gift of love which you can give to your fellow human beings .... it is true neighbourly love if you unselfishly carry out the tasks which are necessary to pass on My Word, for I Myself want to address people through you, since they are unable to hear My voice directly.

People are suffering great adversity, for they only use their earthly life to acquire earthly profits and yet shall consider their soul, which ought to mature during their earthly life. Whatever you therefore undertake in order to lead your fellow human beings onto the path of faith .... whatever you undertake on My instruction in order to proclaim the Gospel to them is selfless neighbourly love and blessed by Me. You yourselves are not yet aware of the great gift which you receive from Me every day, you are as yet unable to estimate its value and its significance or all of you, who know about the working of My spirit, would eagerly distribute what is sent to you by My love and grace.

You don't realise that you are able to scatter seed which can bear glorious fruit .... you should not leave the seed unused, and you should always rely on My help, for where you get into difficulties My angels and guardians are ready to help and protect you, so that you can just do your spiritual work in order to bring help to those who won't find the right path without you. For there are still many I want to address through you, and to do so I only require your will to be of diligent service to Me .... I accept your service, for I Am only able to speak through a human mouth, given that people's state is already too unspiritual as to speak to them in any other way, and their freedom of will has to be upheld. Yet you shall derive strength from the fact that I promise you My support as soon as you are just willing to take care of your neighbour's spiritual adversity. There is not much time left, and the Words I speak to you will sound increasingly admonishing; however, you only need to entrust your will to Me and then you will also conduct yourselves in accordance with My will. And everything will sort itself out if you commend yourselves to Me with complete trust and only ever let Me reign.

Thus, all of you who are of service to Me, accept My blessing and work tirelessly in My vineyard, for the day is soon over and the night is approaching .... a turning-point is coming earthly and spiritually, the time of the harvest is coming .... the day of Judgment is approaching .... But first I still want to win souls over for Me, and you shall help Me and consider your neighbour with love .... You shall work for Me and My kingdom, you shall proclaim My name in the world and testify to My working in you, so that people will be able to believe and become blessed ....

Amen

Translation handled by Heidi Hanna

God's love .... Last days ....

B.D. 7709 from September 26th 1960, taken from Book No. 81

You all ought to make use of My love, you ought to know that you have a loving Father Who takes care of you and also grants you joys if they help you to become perfect. My love for My children is never-ending, and all of you who strive towards Me are My children, if you want Me to be your Father. And My love will never stop giving itself away, it will give you everything you need in an earthly as well as a spiritual way. And thus it is up to yourselves to make use of My Fatherly love, you need only open yourselves and allow yourselves to be spoken to by Me and surely, you will not remain empty-handed. For I still have much to say to you, because time is coming to an end and because everything will come to pass as it is proclaimed in Word and Scripture. And you shall inform your fellow human beings of this .... although you will not often find receptive hearts which want to listen to you and believe you.

Nevertheless, the adversity of the time demands mentioning what will shortly come to pass .... And anyone who believes shall be saved, anyone who does not believe and does not prepare himself for the end will perish, i.e., he will meet his judgment when I establish My eternal order again .... when the end of this earth has come. And you humans approach this time with giant strides. And even My love cannot delay the end, because My love includes all spiritual substances, even those spirits which are still bound and shall start or continue their evolutionary process. The fact that people generally fail and make no use of their earthly life in order to mature their souls is their own fault, their free will, and consequently the reason why I cannot divert from My plan of Salvation and leave the still unredeemed spirits in pain. But I will truly still do everything possible to help people find a way out of their spiritual adversity .... I will keep talking to people through you and refer them to the time which lies ahead of them .... I will come to them openly as well as secretly and allow them to recognise Me so that they cannot say that they have not been warned.

And anyone who thus professes Me, who tries to fulfil My will, can also rest assured that he belongs to My Own, that I grant him My love, that I will protect and take care of him until the end of the world .... until the battle has come to an end which is still to come to you humans: the battle of faith, which will be provoked by My adversary because he will rage amongst My Own until the end in order to make them desert Me again. His goal is to destroy the remaining faith which still exists amongst humanity. But this faith is by and large rather weak, and that is why I want to strengthen it by means of My direct communication, so that the faith will become firm and persevere unwaveringly when My name is confessed before the world. Whomever I can address Myself to .... be it directly or through My messengers, will gain a living faith and no threats will frighten him, because he has recognised his Father and cannot let go of Him anymore.

But anyone without a living faith will surrender it for the sake of earthly things, and he will even lose his life to My adversary .... he will be like a reed waving in the wind and blessed is he if he can still lift himself up with your help, if he allows himself to be taught by you and still finds his way back to Me in the last hour. For I will accept anyone who still comes to Me in the last hour, because I don't want you to go astray, because I want to grant eternal life to all of you. This is why My Word shall still be eagerly spread, this is why I want to address you time and again, I want to speak through you to people Myself who usually open their hearts to Me voluntarily. But you can knock at their heart's door on My behalf, and if I then come Myself and they open their door to Me I will also speak to them Myself and they will be very happy. For My love will never stop, and anyone who gives his love to Me will receive gifts in abundance from Me, I will make him very happy in a spiritual and earthly way, for then his soul cannot be harmed anymore, then it will be devoted to Me and will never be able to detach itself from Me either .... For its love applies to Me and is warmly reciprocated by Me, and it will be and remain blissfully happy forever ....

Amen

Translation handled by Heidi Hanna