Souls In The Beyond Part 1

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

Blessed or wretched condition in the hereafter, depending on the life - The dead rest? Is there a reunion?

2767 - Belief in the soul’s life after death.... God’s mercy....

3699 - Belief in the immortality of the soul.... Truth....

5441 - Descriptions of the beyond only illustrative and comparative....

4801 - Blissful condition of mature souls and the state of imperfection in the beyond....

3316 - Different spheres in the spiritual kingdom....

6054 - Fate in the beyond corresponds to thoughts and wishes on earth....

5801 - Worthlessness of earthly knowledge in the beyond....

4455 - Gathering spiritual treasures on earth.... Regret in the beyond....

5554 - The blessing of spiritual knowledge in the beyond....

7490 - The soul's fate after physical death....

7126 - Knowledge of the blissful as well as the wretched state....

5332 - The state of souls in the beyond.... Misguided belief - unbelief - love....

5323 - Justice.... Recompense in the beyond....

5877 - The short phase of earthly life decides the fate in the beyond....

2553 - Are the dead resting?....

8991 - The doctrine of the soul’s sleep....

5365 - Reunion in the beyond in the kingdom of light....

6312 - Reunion in the beyond....

4781 - Reunion in the beyond in a mature state....

7458 - Think often about the hour of death....

5277 - The helping hand of Jesus Christ.... Deliverance from the abyss....

5901 - Bringing the Gospel to souls in the beyond.... Love....

5024 - ‘Whoever loves his life shall lose it....’

5000 - It concerns eternal life....

Blessed or wretched condition in the hereafter, depending on the life - The dead rest? Is there a reunion?

Belief in the soul’s life after death .... God’s mercy ....

B.D. 2767 from June 7th 1943, taken from Book No. 34/35/36

God's mercy shows you a path which, if you walk this path, will inevitably result in progress. No gift from above is as beneficial as the offering of the divine Word because it gives you the guiding principle for your earthly way of life and informs you of God's will. Implementing the divine Word is spiritual progress and thus the meaning and purpose of life on earth. Humanity's spiritual poverty, its disturbingly low emotional degree of maturity, is not acknowledged by people, they do not believe in spiritual higher development on earth because they are psychologically and physically only attached to earth. All their intentions and efforts purely aspire towards the acquisition of earthly goods, and the perfection of soul as the purpose of earthly life is considered to be a mere fantasy or imagination which came forth from human will itself and cannot be proven. Only few believe in life after death but only this belief makes the necessity for higher development on earth understandable, because only then all of creation makes sense .... namely to serve the higher development of the spirit .... But since this belief is lacking in people, since they negate the soul's life after death, they do not recognise a spiritual purpose of creation either, they merely regard everything from the point of view that earthly life itself is meaning and purpose and that everything simply exists to serve the body in order to provide it with the greatest possible comfort. And this attitude does not improve the human degree of maturity but is more likely to reduce it if the human being does not receive help, if God's love does not intervene with His mercy and enlightens him. And this mercy is now flowing to them yet it is not understood by many people or they would be highly delighted and able to accomplish their struggle on earth with increased resistance. But human beings are spiritually blind .... they do not know the purest truth from heaven and only have eyes for the world, they understand all worldly things but lack the inner urge to look beyond these to know the hidden things because no one can provide them with the evidence of life after death ....

(Break)

Translation handled by Heidi Hanna

Belief in the immortality of the soul .... Truth ....

B.D. 3699 from February 27th 1946, taken from Book No. 47

The death of the body is not the end of the soul. People fail to realise and believe this and therefore do not evaluate earthly life in accordance with My Will. They more or less only care for the needs of their body but not for their soul .... they behave irresponsibly towards their soul because they are not certain of its existence and of its immortality. For that reason they have to be taught about the immortality of soul first if your efforts to modify their way of life should be successful. But a belief in this also requires their own reflection which requires their own will and which cannot be compelled. The immortality of soul makes the meaning and purpose of earthly life understandable, and only then is it possible for the human being to change himself, to regard the life of the soul more important than the life of the body.

Humanity is confronted by two major dangers .... disbelief in the soul and its immortality, and misguided teachings. The latter are a hindrance to spiritual ascent even to those who believe in the immortality of soul, because they portray a wrong image of the eternal Deity and because people usually neglect to implement one thing .... to establish a sincere relationship with Me either mentally or by means of the right kind of prayer .... Only this will guarantee their spiritual ascent because then I will be able to become effective Myself. Thus My servants’ most important work on earth relates to the eradication of misguided teachings and the awakening of faith in a continuation of life after death .... And people will have to listen to My servants if they want to be successful during the brief time on earth which remains to them before the end. They will only be able to obtain completely truthful explanations where such are sent down from heaven; they can only be taught about the soul’s life after death and the teaching of Christ by Myself either directly or indirectly, but then their faith can become a convinced one that will stand firm against all contentions, which ensures spiritual ascent and brings the soul everlasting life in blissful happiness. Otherwise the fate of the soul is unhappiness, because it will never cease to exist and yet it is in a state in eternity which it has voluntarily created for itself due to its disbelief and an earthly life in opposition to My Will.

Anyone who firmly believes in the immortality of the soul will start the work of improving his soul much sooner, but the person who believes that his life will end with the death of his body remains indifferent and lethargic or totally incapable and unwilling. You, My servants, cannot describe to them the soul’s continuation of life seriously enough, even though you cannot prove it to them. Yet with serious thought the human being can come to the inner conviction that you spoke the truth because I Myself will help them to recognise the truth providing they genuinely want it and do not refuse to listen to you. Earthly life takes on an entirely different meaning for the believer; he no longer perceives it as an end in itself but only as a means to an end and reproaches his own way of life which he subsequently tries to improve, depending on his strength of will. And as soon as he is presented with the pure truth his faith will be strengthened while misguided teachings will only destroy him and let him relapse into darkness .... Thus the truth must be spread to bring life to the souls, because misconceptions and lies are the soul’s death in the spiritual kingdom but not it’s passing away, it merely means complete weakness and is therefore a state of severe distress which I would like to avert from the soul by sending My messengers to bring help before it is too late ....

Amen

Translation handled by Heidi Hanna

Descriptions of the beyond only illustrative and comparative ....

B.D. 5441 from July 18th 1952, taken from Book No. 60

Everything above and beyond your earthly life will remain a mystery to you, even if it is revealed to you by your Heavenly Father's love and kindness, for it can only ever be explained to you such that you can understand it while you are living on earth. Despite explanations you can only form an impression as far as it correspond to your intellectual capacity and knowledge, and you also try to apply this knowledge to the sphere which is still closed to you .... Yet you fail to consider that your knowledge is indescribably limited and that even the earth you inhabit is incredibly small and poor compared to the splendours of many other creations in God's kingdom. You don't consider that you are lacking all means of comparison in order to give you humans full understanding of this supernatural world .... Thus it is also impossible to give you an explanation which totally corresponds to the truth .... You can only receive comparative descriptions from which you can see that, just like on earth, laws have to be complied with, and that the divine order in the spiritual kingdom must categorically be observed if higher development is to continue in the beyond. Furthermore, it is impossible to convey spiritual impressions to people on earth or even approximately explain them .... No words can describe to you humans the state of the beings in the beyond and how they feel ....

These emotions are the effect of what they experience, what they behold and how they feel in view of the indescribable creations, irrespective of whether these are of a blessed or wretched kind .... Trying to explain this to you humans is only possible by using analogies, thus earthly concepts are given to you which indeed allow you to recognise the meaning and purpose but which are not the reality. The death of the body is not the end; the soul continues to live in spheres which it has created for itself as a result of its earthly life. Its fate can be a happy or a wretched one .... but be it as it may .... it can only ever be figuratively brought home to you humans, and every such explanation, every description, is only ever a faint attempt to solve a problem with concepts that are known to you .... in order to increase your sense of responsibility towards the soul, whose fate in the beyond is shaped by you humans on earth ....

The knowledge of otherworldly things is withheld from humanity, and neither will it ever be able to penetrate an area which may only be entered when a human being's spiritual development has reached the degree which enables his spiritual vision .... But even then it will still not be possible for him to intelligibly describe his impressions and emotions to his fellow human beings, because the earthly kingdom and the spiritual kingdom are two entirely separate regions where one is no longer responsible for the other .... thus where the applicable laws in one world are completely revoked in the other .... Even so, the spiritual kingdom is a reality, and everyone will be able to realise it himself when he discards his earthly shell and enters this kingdom, and then he will understand that the people on this earth could not have received an explanation which totally complies with the truth ....

Amen

Translation handled by Heidi Hanna

Blissful condition of mature souls and the state of imperfection in the beyond ....

B.D. 4801 from December 24th 1949, taken from Book No. 54

Blissful conditions have been prepared for you in My Father's house. There you will find everything that gives you joy when your soul has become free from all earthly desires and ready for the spiritual kingdom. But you can only understand these blissful conditions, the joys for your pure, spiritualised soul, when you already strive for spiritual values on earth, when the earth and its possessions cannot attract you anymore. They are spiritual pleasures which give the soul unspeakable delight. They are pleasures which touch the feelings of the soul like earthly pleasures touch the body, bringing the soul great happiness because it no longer has any earthly desires. Like on earth, the soul will also experience beauty in the beyond and, like on earth, it will also experience feelings of happiness but far more profoundly. It will consistently long to increase its spiritual riches and this longing will indeed be granted. It can see and hear indescribable creations and will continually draw wisdom and strength from it .... It will move in the most delightful surroundings for which there is no earthly comparison because earthly creations are poor and barren in contrast, and therefore the human being lacks the imagination for the wonders of divine love which the Father allows His children to see. And since every being is in contact with like-minded souls the bliss will increase considerably and the light will become steadily brighter.

On the other hand, the state of the imperfect beings in the beyond can be described because it does not differ much from that on earth so that the souls still believe that they are living on earth, and this for a long time. Just as people on earth live for material things and cannot understand how spiritually aspiring human beings can withdraw from the world and still be happy, they also live in the spiritual world with the same desire for material things which will be granted to them but in a way that the achievement of their wishes cannot make them happy until, after a long time, they have become aware of the worthlessness of material things and begin to detach themselves from them. But the spiritual kingdom of light with its inhabitants will be closed to these beings .... It is another world of which they will have no understanding as yet nor could they exist there because the abundance of light would consume them. But disguised beings of light are always amongst them, who try to teach them and attempt to direct their will to liberate themselves from earthly lusts and to help them strive for something higher so that they also can enter, often after a long time, the kingdom of light. Souls with the same degree of imperfection can enter the beyond yet will need different lengths of time to mature fully .... it all depends on their hearts' ability to love, which, sometimes will change faster in the spiritual kingdom than on earth, but they can also take a very long time to overcome their errors and bad habits. However, these immature souls are always faced with known concepts, while in the kingdom of light the soul will meet completely unfamiliar conditions where seeing and hearing result in blissful happiness and the wonders never end. Herein is the promise of Jesus fulfilled: 'Eye has not seen and ear has not heard what He has prepared for those that love Him' ....

Amen

Translation handled by Heidi Hanna

Different spheres in the spiritual kingdom ....

B.D. 3316 from November 3rd 1944, taken from Book No. 43

Immediately after physical death the soul leaves the body and moves into the spiritual kingdom which, depending on its maturity, can be close to or far away from earth. This should not be understood in a three-dimensional sense, the distance is the result of the difference between the spheres which indeed belong to the spiritual kingdom because they are away from and outside of the earthly-material world and the immature soul has to travel a long path in time before it arrives in the spheres of light. By comparison, a mature soul arrives in these spheres as fast as lightening after its physical death since it requires neither time nor space to overcome the distance from earth into the light spheres. It only needs the strength which its state of maturity has acquired.

However, imperfect souls cannot separate themselves as swiftly from earth, partly because they are too weak to elevate themselves and partly because their senses are still attached to earthly matters. They do not want to leave earth and thus remain close to earth for a long time, mostly within the surroundings they used to occupy during their lifetime. Subsequently they cannot always feel their change from the earthly into the spiritual kingdom either. Their surrounding still appears earthly to them and the souls are frequently unaware that they are no longer physically alive. Nevertheless, they find it strange that they cannot establish a connection with the people on earth any longer, that they cannot make themselves heard and are ignored by people. This condition gradually makes them aware of their situation, they come to understand that they no longer live on earth but that they are beyond earth in the spiritual kingdom. But as long as the soul is still earthly minded it cannot remove itself from this surrounding; it is still grounded and experiences this as a painful condition because everything it desires or believes to possess is unattainable.

And now it slowly has to overcome its desire for earthly possessions; only when it has succeeded in doing so will it gradually move away from earth, the spheres will take on a different appearance, and depending on the soul's maturity it will no longer see earthly but only spiritual creations, i.e. the spiritual vision of the soul will be able to see spiritual creations which the immature being cannot see even though they are present. But when a mature soul departs from earth it can instantly distinguish its surrounding in the spiritual realm since its maturity has acquired the ability of spiritual vision. Such a soul will also recognise the souls it meets in the beyond whilst immature souls are unable to do so, i.e. they only recognise souls who walk in darkness like themselves, who are in the same imperfect state. However, beings of light are invisible to them, and even when these disguise their light and come close to them they cannot perceive them .... Spiritual vision only develops during a certain state of maturity but then the souls are also surrounded by light, while those who are unable to see due to their undeveloped spiritual vision are surrounded by spiritual darkness.

However, the earthly items they desire are visible to them; nevertheless they are mere illusions which do not really exist but which appear due to the soul's longing, only to disappear again like a mirage as soon as the soul wants to touch or use them, because their fleeting nature should make the soul understand that it ought to strive for higher values than temporary earthly possessions. Consequently, no beings of light will come close to the soul as long as it still desires such belongings, since earthly minded souls will not listen to the beings of light when they arrive in disguise to bring the Gospel. In this situation they can only be helped by the prayer of another human being, only then will they turn away from matter and look for an alternative in the spiritual realm. Then beings who are willing to help will meet them, instruct them and direct them to the path of ascent. And the more willingly they accept the light beings' instructions the sooner they will acquire spiritual vision and are thus delivered from darkness .... they have entered the spheres where they may receive and give light. They have travelled the path which can take a short but also a very long time, depending on the soul's determination for material possessions which keep it attached to earth until they lose their appeal, and are then introduced to the pure truth by the beings of light in order to work for the kingdom of God in the beyond by sharing the knowledge with needy souls who are still living in spiritual darkness ....

Amen

Translation handled by Heidi Hanna

Fate in the beyond corresponds to thoughts and wishes on earth ....

B.D. 6054 from September 16th 1954, taken from Book No. 65

Your thoughts and wishes on this earth will be your fate in the spiritual kingdom after the death of your body. If you searched for light and truth on this earth, light will be waiting for you over there .... if you preferred the darkness because earthly matter had deluded you, then you will stay in dark surroundings over there too, in a realm where you feel unhappy for lack of light. Yet it happens in accordance with your will .... Light is constantly made available to you on earth and the path to eternal life is clearly and brightly illuminated, you need only enter it to find the kingdom of light after the death of your body .... If, however, you escape the light, if you walk the dark path, then you can only arrive in dark regions too ....

You humans occupy yourselves very little indeed with what happens to you after your physical death .... You dismiss such thoughts from your mind when they occur to you, you constantly turn towards the world and its matter, and since this is transient you cannot take it with you into the spiritual realm. If material goods are your only riches on earth you will indeed arrive poor and naked in the spiritual kingdom .... Why do you not gather possessions on earth which are long-lasting, which accompany you on your way into the beyond .... why do you only lust after the transient possessions of this world?

The consequences of your way of life are presented to you time after time, your attention is drawn to your fate after your departure from this earth .... yet you pay little attention to the warnings and reprimands, you scrupulously carry on living from day to day even though you could be called to your final resting place tomorrow .... And then you receive what you desire on earth .... light or darkness .... you can’t be given anything else but what you have acquired during your life on earth. Consequently, as long as you live on earth think of the time after your death, think of your soul which is immortal and whose fate in the beyond you prepare while you live on earth .... strive towards the light on earth and create your soul’s happiness in the spiritual realm ....

Amen

Translation handled by Heidi Hanna

Worthlessness of earthly knowledge in the beyond ....

B.D. 5801 from November 4th 1953, taken from Book No. 63

Don't value your earthly knowledge too highly for it is of no use to you in eternity. It can certainly be useful to you for the duration of your earthly life, but if you don't use it to acquire spiritual knowledge by going through earthly knowledge towards the realisation that you are God's living creations, and then strive to attain the complete truth of God, it will not be of any benefit to you when you enter into the spiritual kingdom. Yet even spiritual knowledge which was gained by purely intellectual means has to be considered earthly knowledge .... which indeed refers to spiritual problems but which was acquired like all other earthly knowledge through study for the purpose of a professional occupation ....

Even if you memorise the Book of the Fathers, even if you try to interpret the divine Word again on the strength of prophetic sayings, even if you intellectually master every sentence, it is of no greater value than any other knowledge of a non-spiritual content. For in the end the soul will only retain as its share the wisdom it had gained through unselfish loving actions .... The soul will only keep what the spirit within was able to impart to it. And this doesn't require worldly studies, sharp intellectual thoughts or a remarkable memory .... For the spirit will provide it when it is needed .... And of what benefit is wealth which you cannot use over there .... it is lifeless knowledge, it gives you no light, and you cannot even demonstrate the truth of this knowledge as long as your spirit does not impart to you the correct insight and ability to discern ....

However, you have to approach your inner spirit yourselves; you have to enable it to express itself .... Only then will you become enlightened and you will also spread brightly radiating light on entry into the spiritual kingdom. But blessed is he who allows himself to be taught by the spirit and at the same time tries to broaden his earthly knowledge .... Many thoughts will come to him, he will also receive earthly knowledge as long as he first strives to acquire spiritual possessions .... And he will make truly beneficial use of all knowledge when his earthly life has come to an end .... He will be able to share everything he owns in the spiritual kingdom, for once again he will be able to prominently and instructively influence people who, like himself, are searching and striving in their desire for God and the truth ....

Amen

Translation handled by Heidi Hanna

Gathering spiritual treasures on earth .... Regret in the beyond ....

B.D. 4455 from October 9th 1948, taken from Book No. 52

Anyone who has not gathered spiritual treasures for himself on earth and thus enters the gates of the beyond empty handed is one of the poorest in the spiritual kingdom. I would like to spare you this fate because you will experience bitter regret when you look back and see the many missed opportunities. Poverty in the spiritual kingdom is so depressing and hopeless that it will torment you and completely paralyse your will, as a result you will hardly be able to deliver yourselves from this painful state. And yet it is so easy to acquire spiritual possessions on earth if only you thought of Me and desired to speak to Me. Merely this desire guarantees receipt of My Word in different ways .... You will always be shown where you can receive My Word if you do not accept it from Me in your thoughts, that is, if you cannot recognise My voice in your thoughts.

However, it is certain that you will feel the inner motivation to do kind deeds as soon as you contact Me in thought and thus intend to get in touch with Me. I announce Myself by prompting you to love because only then can I enter into complete union with you. Thus, first of all I inspire you to actions of love, and this directly through the inner voice or through external advice and reminders by the deliverers of My Word who only preach love. If you listen to them and follow the Word then you will also gather spiritual possessions and acquire riches which will remain with you eternally, which cannot be taken from you on earth or in the beyond and which will increase in the same way, even when you constantly share them. To enter the kingdom on the other side blessed with such possessions is truly most desirable as it assures your eternal life in the spiritual kingdom, a life of activity which can only be called enjoyable and will be felt by you as a great blessing.

But those who enter completely empty handed will find it very difficult to acquire spiritual wealth even though it is not entirely hopeless. Even there the Gospel will be taught to the soul but, like on earth, it is not forced to accept it; like on earth, acceptance depends on its will which, however, is extraordinarily weakened and cannot make the right decision without the help of additional strength. And this input of strength in turn depends on the will of the soul to use it for deeds of love .... or on the loving intercession of a human being. For that reason you cannot have enough compassion for these poor souls who urgently require your help because they neglected to gather spiritual treasures on earth to make their state in the beyond a happy one. Their poverty is great but people do not listen to My Word, they do not believe and therefore enter the kingdom on the other side poor and with darkened spirit ....

Amen

Translation handled by Heidi Hanna

The blessing of spiritual knowledge in the beyond ....

B.D. 5554 from December 12th 1952, taken from Book No. 61

My spirit is revealing spiritual knowledge to you which will, one day, make you indescribably happy if you work with it in the spiritual kingdom for the benefit of those who are still unaware .... Until people have reached the state of enlightenment pure truth is rarely to be found amongst them on earth and therefore not in the kingdom of the beyond either. For light stands for wisdom, the knowledge of pure truth, and every erroneous thought is a shadow obscuring the light, even if a soul is already translucent. But until the last wrong thought has been banished the light will still be cloudy at times, and the soul first has to make itself completely accessible to the truth, it must have acquired the correct information before it will be able to work with it as a bearer of light in the spiritual kingdom.

Being able to enter the beyond with spiritual knowledge is therefore an immense grace, since it is the equivalent to wearing a bright gown of light which shines everywhere and distributes light in turn. Then it can instantly carry out its real function, it can educate the ignorant and be of immense help where there is still darkness or twilight. For it will also be confronted by doubters and liars in the spiritual realm, nevertheless it will be able to enlighten them with its knowledge. Since this knowledge is the result of the revelations through My spirit it will have a power of conviction which a being can rarely resist unless it is a representative of the prince of darkness and flees from the truth. For such beings will also cross the path of someone who knows in order to extinguish a light in the belief that they are able to do so. And beings like that can only receive clarification from a bearer of light who has received his knowledge from Me ....

For this very reason My revelations, My Word, contain tremendous strength which can even pull down strong walls, for I will address these souls Myself if you lend Me your mouth, if you, due to My will, bring the Gospel to the souls in darkness in the same way as you have received it from Me. For it is the pure truth, and this will even convince a soul hitherto steeped in wrong thought since it feels an inner happiness, it more or less perceives the truth like a good deed, its understanding of it begins to develop, it can no longer doubt what it effectively receives from Me .... The strength of My Word will have a noticeable effect, the soul will suddenly become illuminated, and what it had so far failed to understand will suddenly become clear and will be joyfully accepted. Just as misery and confusion caused by misguided teachings are great, so gladdening and intelligible is the truth .... And truth will always be found where My spirit can be effective, what I reveal to people through My spirit will always be truth. Therefore you should remain aware of the abundance of blessings you receive from Me and work with this gift of grace, pass on My Word, carry light into the darkness, illuminate everyone, give them the truth which you have received from Me Myself, and work for the benefit of those who are still living in spiritual darkness ....

Amen

Translation handled by Heidi Hanna

The soul's fate after physical death ....

B.D. 7490 from December 30th 1959, taken from Book No. 79

After death you will enter a completely different world than earth, but you have the possibility on earth to shape this world such that it will make you happy and you will gladly replace your life on this earth with it. For you can acquire a kingdom of light and beatitude for yourselves if you live an appropriate way of life on earth, if you readily accomplish your psychological task and gather possessions for the spiritual kingdom. Then the world which you enter will truly be a kingdom of bliss, you will not stop rejoicing and marvelling and would never ever want to return to earth again, if this were at all possible.

Thus you yourselves create the world which will receive you after the death of your body .... And therefore you should live responsibly on this earth. For you can also enter a dark and barren kingdom where you will be miserable and which you nevertheless will be unable to leave at will, since your free will aspired to this kingdom while you lived on earth. This, too, was your own affair; it was your own will, for your way of life on earth was such that your fate in the spiritual kingdom could only result in torment and constraint, in darkness and weakness.

Yet either way you will enter a different world, a spiritual kingdom, where all earthly goods will be lost to you, where you will only find what you had spiritually acquired for yourselves on earth. And therefore it is a dreadful state for souls which had not acquired any spiritual goods at all, which had only tried to obtain earthly goods and therefore entered the kingdom of the beyond entirely destitute, where it will then be extremely difficult to attain spiritual possessions, albeit it is not impossible. For the world they occupy now is comparative to their state of soul .... It can mean that the soul continually wanders through dry and barren places where it can't find anything at all to satisfy its hunger by which such souls are constantly tormented .... which can only be satisfied with gifts of love .... with a supply of strength obtained through loving intercession for such souls.

This is why a soul can already be called blessed if it is followed by kind thoughts beyond the grave and if it has done good works that follow it into eternity .... But poor and needy are the souls which have not earned their fellow human being's love, which are followed by unpleasant thoughts and have to suffer them far more than you humans on earth can possibly imagine. Therefore, always let kind thoughts follow all deceased into eternity, take pity on them and help them find their way out of the first darkness, never leave them alone but often remember them kindly, it will make them feel good and they will experience it as a flow of strength, as a little help on their path of ascent, which they can only travel if this help is granted to them.

The soul creates its own fate which will await it in the kingdom of the beyond, and in order that it will be a beautiful and pleasing one you shall work for it while you are still on earth, you shall acquire spiritual possessions and always carry out deeds of love, for such deeds will follow you into eternity and amount to a spiritual wealth with which you can work for your own and other souls happiness .... with which you can increase your bliss at any time and impart strength to other souls so that they, too, will walk the path of ascent and be able to become blissfully happy one day .... even if this path of ascent will require a lot of strength and effort, but with good will it is nevertheless possible to progress if they receive help from their spiritual friends and from people on earth who always remember such souls in their prayers ....

Amen

Translation handled by Heidi Hanna

Knowledge of the blissful as well as the wretched state ....

B.D. 7126 from May 21st 1958, taken from Book No. 76

You cannot imagine the happiness in the kingdom of Light, neither can you imagine the torments which the souls have to endure in the realm of' darkness. Yet time and again you are informed of both through My Word, thus you are not entirely without knowledge. However, whether you believe it or not, is up to you, nevertheless it will determine your own fate when your soul leaves the body and enters the kingdom of the beyond. For as soon as you believe what you are told time and again by My Word you will also live your earthly life accordingly, for no believer will irresponsibly live for the moment, everyone will make an effort to live according to My will, even though his weak will can often make him fall ....

On the other hand, however, his way of life should not purely be determined by the fear of darkness or an expectation of beatitudes in the kingdom of light, for this by itself would not influence the state of his soul very favourably; but the devoted person will dwell on it and be impelled from within to lead a God-pleasing life, only a person possessing a so-called conventional faith is calculating, who certainly has knowledge of My Word but who more or less only fulfils everything due to outside pressure, due to commandments or regulations, and complies with these commandments for the sake of the promised reward or feared punishments. True faith, however, will establish the connection with the One in Whom the human being believes. And then he will also feel responsible towards Me and try to live in accordance with My will on earth .... because he wouldn't want to sadden Me and also because he feels My love for him and would like to prove himself worthy of this love ....

Yet the knowledge of the blissful as well as the wretched state which a soul can expect after physical death shall enhance the human being's sense of responsibility; he shall know that he is not living his earthly life pointlessly, he shall not be able to say that he had not received any advice about the consequences of a right or wrong way of life. And at the same time he shall also be informed of the purpose, which consists of the said state the soul can achieve. Hence he also has to know what this state entails. However, evidence of this cannot be given to you, yet time and again a seriously striving person will indeed receive verification from the beyond which then will no longer force him to believe, because only a devoted person may experience such or it is intended to serve those of little faith as merciful evidence, whose weak faith needs a little support but who voluntarily want to live according to My will on earth.

Yet someone who is observant will also experience and see things which he can accept as proof, but no manifestations from the beyond may compel to believe, and therefore only individual people will ever be able to describe experiences which extend to the life in the beyond. And these individuals will only be believed by equally spiritually-striving people again, whereas unbelievers will ridicule them and portray them as liars or fantasists and accordingly derive no benefit for themselves either. But the world of the beyond reveals itself too, the kingdom of light as well the realm of darkness .... but never such that humanity will be compelled into belief .... this is why phenomena of all kinds can always be disputed or every single individual can make of them what he wants .... And the individual person's loving way of life will once again determine the right realisation; the loving human being will be inspired into ever more eager striving and also be supported in this by the world of light, and he will no longer doubt that there is a continuation of life after death which corresponds to his conduct on earth .... And he will try to achieve the highest goal, for he will remain in constant contact with Me ....

Amen

Translation handled by Heidi Hanna

The state of souls in the beyond .... Misguided belief - unbelief - love ....

B.D. 5332 from March 8th 1952, taken from Book No. 59

Many people find it inconceivable that they could have direct contact with Me, which is proven by My direct communication, by hearing My Word in the form of thoughts. This is indicative of their distance from Me as well as their lifeless belief, a belief which was in fact traditionally adopted but which is not alive .... It is academically accepted knowledge which only seldom is contemplated so that a person forms his own opinion. People could deduct from such adopted knowledge that the eternal Deity has to and will reveal Himself, but faith in an eternal Deity is weak and thus religious doctrines are not taken seriously enough to achieve spiritual progress, which would result in a person trying to establish contact with Me. First I have to be sincerely acknowledged by a person before I can reveal Myself to him ....

And this assured faith in Me is missing in a great many people, which is the reason why they live in spiritual darkness and will enter the spiritual kingdom in this darkness.

What they failed to do on earth they will have to make up for in the beyond without fail .... they have to think .... and due to their own fault are frequently too weak to do so. If labours of love follow them into eternity they will not be entirely without strength regardless of their unbelief. Their strength rests in the fact that they will not completely lose their recollection of the knowledge they dismissed on earth and are able to think about it. Whereas unbelieving souls without deeds of love following them will find themselves in dire distress, for they are unable to think clearly and cannot come to terms with their thoughts. Nevertheless, even these souls can be educated in the spiritual kingdom by other souls who are able to intelligibly present to them what they need to know ....if they are willing to accept their teaching.

To render intercession for these souls is a labour of utmost love and compassion, so that they may receive strength of will and find access to circles where enlightenment can be given to them. Deeds of love can make good every deficiency and give the soul faith, but the spiritual darkness will only disappear when they have acknowledged Jesus Christ, for only He can redeem their guilt which resulted from their unbelief on earth. Misguided thoughts can soon be corrected where love and faith existed on earth, but unbelieving people first have to be introduced to knowledge, because they did not want to accept it on earth themselves, even if they upheld it before their fellow human beings.

I cannot give souls instant enlightenment if they do not acknowledge Me and if their love was not intended for Me or their fellow human beings .... I can only give them the opportunity to acquire knowledge, providing their will no longer opposes Me .... In that case My merciful love is also willing to give them light when they ask for it. Then the Gospel is brought to them again, which they can then accept or reject of their own free will. And depending on their will for good and their desire for instructions My teaching will enlighten them and the ascent will continue. But it will suffer great torment in darkness until an unbelieving departed soul from earth is touched by a ray of light and follows it, but as soon as it has experienced the benefit of light it will also be willing to change its nature, and it will always desire more light until it receives it .... The darkness only rarely releases souls, but I know when I can open the gates and set the souls free. I know when they are receptive to a ray of light and I will help them to find the way that finally leads to Me and to eternal joy ....

Amen

Translation handled by Heidi Hanna

Justice .... Recompense in the beyond ....

B.D. 5323 from February 24th 1952, taken from Book No. 59

There is justice, there is recompense, if not on earth then in the spiritual kingdom, where the soul will reap what it has sown .... You humans should consider that no-one can take anything that does not belong to him, that he will have to give account down to the last cent, and that he has to pay for what he acquired unlawfully .... Bear in mind that I cannot remit anything because I Am a just God, and that you therefore burden yourselves with considerable guilt if you believe that you can commit sins with impunity. Sooner or later the day of retribution will come for everyone who lives on earth without scruples because he does not believe in Me as a just God and hence accumulates one sin after another.

Earthly life soon comes to an end for everyone, only spiritual treasures will remain, and woe to him who has none to show .... He will arrive on the other side naked and poor and wander around in utmost misery and darkness .... which is the recompense for an earthly life if it was not lived in accordance with My will and the commandment of love for Me and other people, if the person only thought of himself and lived to please My adversary, if he indulged in worldly pleasures giving free rein to his passions and instincts .... Anyone who only thought of himself on earth will be on his own on the other side and no-one will offer him love, just as he ignored those who needed his help on earth. He will have to pay every cent, for no-one can pay his debt for him except Jesus Christ in Whom, however, the soul completely devoid of love does not believe .... You humans, consider your earthly life from this point of view and understand that you should not live thoughtlessly, for sooner or later your physical life will be over and the soul will have to remove the guilt it was burdened with .... and that every tribute you paid to the world has been taken away from the soul, and its poverty in the spiritual kingdom will be the result thereof.

You should know that there is recompense for every hour you applaud My adversary, for every hour you pay homage to the pleasures of the world and completely forget about Me .... for earthly life was given to you for the perfection of your soul. But what are you doing? You only take care of your body, you satisfy its every desire, you intoxicate yourselves with worldly pleasures, you only too willingly fall into the traps laid by the enemy of your souls .... You take from your soul and give to your body .... and you will have to pay for it a thousand-fold. For you will suffer grave hardship when you enter the spiritual kingdom where only the soul’s everlasting possessions will be of value .... It will suffer acute poverty, and no-one will help the soul if it does not approach Jesus Christ Who, however, is unknown to the soul in its darkness. Only He can help the soul, yet eternities can pass before the soul becomes aware of this and turns to Him. It can carry its burden for an infinitely long time because My justice cannot unburden it as long as it does not request Me to do so itself ....

Amen

Translation handled by Heidi Hanna

The short phase of earthly life decides the fate in the beyond ....

B.D. 5877 from February 15th 1954, taken from Book No. 64

Your earthly existence as a human being is one of infinitely many phases of your higher development, for even if you fully mature on earth so that you can enter the kingdom of light your development will nevertheless continue, because once a soul has attained realisation it will never cease going forward .... because it will always and forever strive towards God and thereby try to come closer to Him in order to become blissfully happy in complete union with Him. Consequently, the time on earth as a human being is just like a brief moment compared to eternity, compared to the infinitely long process of development through the material creation, and yet, this brief moment is crucial for the soul's fate, it is crucial for the further process of development in the spiritual kingdom. For there is a difference whether the soul has already achieved a degree of maturity on earth or whether it will not achieve realisation until it is in the kingdom of the beyond .... The latter will indeed ascend as well, but they will have to make an extremely laborious effort to acquire what was abundantly at their disposal on earth and what could have enabled them to reach the degree of light ....

To pass the test of will on earth already denotes a state of light and strength in abundance on entering eternity, it denotes a constant supply of light and strength, because the moment the soul departs from earth as a recipient of strength it also imparts strength, and the more it passes on the more it will receive in return .... Thus it ascends extremely quickly now, for it joins equally mature spirits and works in accordance with divine will and on divine instruction .... It receives all strength from God and uses it on behalf of God, whereas souls having failed their test of will on earth are indeed also able to achieve realisation in the beyond but they first have to shape themselves with the help of other beings such that they can become enlightened, that they can receive the emanations of light and subsequently utilise them according to God's will. These souls, too, have to desire the supply of light and strength of their own accord, only then will they receive, and only then will their higher development begin with the work which they, in turn, carry out on the souls in darkness .... It is effectively a laborious path, a step by step ascent with the utmost effort of strength and will ....

No effort remains without reward, the soul will definitely progress, but because it is still very weak and has little strength as its disposal it has to exert all its will and find much support from the world of light or through human intercession until it has become a recipient of light and strength itself, so that it can distribute in turn and then receive ever more strength. The short earthly life decides the fate in eternity, for the entry into the spiritual kingdom can already be supreme bliss which will never end, if the time on earth was used correctly. But it can also be wasted, and the soul has to suffer the consequences .... it has to carry on struggling and fighting if it doesn't want to descend. And its life in the spiritual kingdom can in many ways still be likened to the struggle on earth, yet it is never hopeless if the soul itself wants to attain light and strength. Only its will is decisive .... if the will is already directed towards God in earthly life, then the soul will constantly pursue its objective of coming closer to Him, which it will soon achieve ....

But while the will is still turned away from God it means darkness and weakness, and the soul will enter the spiritual kingdom in this state, whereas the former is permeated by light and nothing ties it to the earthly realm except its love for those it left behind and to whom it now offers help in every way; the latter, however, will still need help for a long time although they have escaped earth, because they will still remain in the vicinity of earth until they, too, can receive enough light and strength in order to be active themselves in the spiritual kingdom. And every activity only consists of influencing the will of those who still aim in the wrong direction, in order to protect them from the same fate, from a laborious ascent in the spiritual realm which is the result of a wrongly directed will on earth ....

Amen

Translation handled by Heidi Hanna

Are the dead resting? ....

B.D. 2553 from November 16th 1942, taken from Book No. 33

The belief that the souls rest after death is only justified in so far as immature souls remain in a state of complete inactivity due to lack of strength. However, this is not a condition of comfortable rest but a state of torment, confinement and helplessness and therefore not a condition worth striving for. The souls in the beyond are only permitted to be active in a certain state of maturity when they receive constant strength to work. But then they use this strength without restriction. However, since their activity does not depend on earthly matter it also has to be different than the work on earth; it cannot be compared to the latter since the conditions in the spiritual realm which require or permit an action are entirely different. There is a steady flow of teaching and passing on of spiritual knowledge, it is a purely spiritual process which bestows much happiness and bliss on the giving souls and reduces the receiving souls’ torment by becoming recipients of strength .... It is indeed a labour of love but it can only be compared to earthly activity while the souls in their state of darkness still believe themselves to live on earth, where, due to their own desires, they create imaginary surroundings and in this imagination also have to perform kind deeds.

However, the more enlightened the soul becomes the further it distances itself from earth in its thoughts and now its actions no longer depend on earthly matter, not even in its imagination. The work of these souls in the beyond, in the spiritual realm, thus consists of purely spiritually conveying their received knowledge. Every giving and strength-receiving soul has entrusted protégées on earth or in the beyond for which it cares lovingly with tireless dedication. It has to try to mentally guide its protégées into the truth, it has to influence their thoughts and thus create clarity but without forcing the will of those souls, and this requires immense patience and love. Because two completely isolated beings, who can act and think entirely independently, are facing each other and thus correct thinking may not be forcefully transmitted if the still immature spirit is not to be prevented from gaining an equally high degree of maturity. Spiritual knowledge has to be given to uninformed souls in a way that it is accepted without resistance and awakens their longing for more gifts. The receiving being consequently has to accept it entirely voluntarily, only then will the transmitted knowledge become strength and enlighten. And this act of transmission is an effort which can only be performed with love because it is usually rather laborious.

But the state of a soul condemned to inactivity is so pitiful that the beings of light constantly try to help them, that they willingly accept the most arduous work to release these souls from their situation. However, on the other hand it adds to their happiness when their labour of love is successful because this work draws unimaginable circles, since every receiving being in turn will pass on its knowledge in the awakened urge to likewise help the souls of darkness and thus do redeeming work ....

Amen

Translation handled by Heidi Hanna

The doctrine of the soul’s sleep ....

B.D. 8991 from June 7th 1965, taken from Book No. 94

The fact that you are willing to support My Word, which is sent to you from above, gives Me reason to inform you of an error you have advocated up to now. It concerns the doctrine of the sleep of the soul, which gives you a completely wrong idea about the soul and its state when it enters the spiritual kingdom. This doctrine is substantiated by the assertion that there is no mention of an immortal soul anywhere in the Scriptures .... which, however, can be refuted with the Words ‘Whosoever believes in Me will have eternal life ....’ And sleep is a brother of death .... thus someone asleep will not be alive but dead, in the darkness of night he will fall into the state of death, consequently a life in eternity is out of the question. Those of you who depart from earth with this idea will be in dire straits, for you really lack all knowledge and will take a long time to gain a glimmer of understanding. In fact, you will depart from this earth in complete blindness and will receive only little light in the beyond, if you lived a life of love on earth.

But until you let go of this misguided teaching you will not know that you have died either, since you are still in the state of self-awareness, which is your consciousness of continued life. You merely believe that you were transported into different surroundings but will never be able to find rest .... the kind of rest you associate with the state of sleep. And so you will still live but not in a state of beatitude, rather, you will live in the confusion of thought which corresponds to the teachings you advocated on earth.

Everything that emerges from Me remains immortal for all eternity, but it can enter the kingdom of the beyond in a state of death. And all of you who spread this misguided teaching choose this state of death. You do not strive for the life that should be your destiny when you enter the spiritual kingdom. Because only this is the beginning of your life, providing you live a life of love and are able to let go of this misguided teaching. If you believe in a ‘resurrection on the day of Judgment’, when all who rest in their graves will be awakened, then it will also be your fate not to come to life until you realise the foolishness of this teaching. And your existence in the beyond will be the same, you will linger in an eternal state of inactivity, in a state of sleep, or you will find yourselves in a world you believe to be earth, which you left a long time ago.

Particularly you humans who advocate this misguided teaching, have no idea what anti-spirit you have accepted, and you will have to muster an enormous amount of love in order to suddenly recognise the reality of things. Consider yourselves fortunate if you leave someone behind on earth who will pray on your behalf, who will help you gain the right insight. However, your degree of love is always the decisive factor as to whether or not you recognise the truth in a flash when you pass away from earth. But since you do not believe in the ‘immortality of soul’ you do not believe in communications from the spiritual kingdom either, which would provide you with knowledge. And that is your disadvantage, because it would inform you of the constant ascent of souls who enter the spiritual kingdom, and you would reject this misguided teaching as satanic and only intended to prevent you from ascending in the beyond, which would soon result in the true life you are all meant to reach one day ....

Amen

Translation handled by Heidi Hanna

Reunion in the beyond in the kingdom of light ....

B.D. 5365 from April 15th 1952, taken from Book No. 59

It is an incomparably happy moment when the soul passes away from earth and enters the kingdom of light, the spheres where impurity no longer exists, where the soul is embraced by a flow of joy-inducing light, where it is approached by exceedingly beautiful beings who show the soul an extent of love which almost overwhelms it. The emanations of light correspond to the soul's state of maturity, thus always to a degree that they will indeed cause inconceivable bliss but not consume the soul, which could indeed be caused by an excess of light if a soul is not yet receptive to it .... In infinite expanse it sees the most marvellous creations, for now its spiritual eye is able to behold spiritual creations which no longer consist of matter and yet arise just as real and are by no means self-deception.

And amid the beauty it sees it will find its loved ones who had passed over before in the degree of maturity suitable to the kingdom of light .... People cannot imagine the bliss of such reunion, yet in the spiritual kingdom the soul is able to take in profound impressions without fading away and can consciously experience the bliss it receives from God. In its heart it will sing His praises and give thanks, just as it will, if the kingdom of light has become its home, always come aglow with love for the Father, Who has prepared all these blessings for the soul ....

Its co-operation with souls who have the same degree of maturity increases its strength and willingness to be active, and it applies this to far less mature souls to help them attain the same bliss. In merciful love it takes care of those it knew well on earth, who still dwell in lower spheres, who neglected their spiritual development on earth due to their unbelief and unkindness, and who are therefore still wretched in darkness or twilight .... It certainly can identify these souls and also approach them and offer its help, yet it will not be recognised in turn, and thus its help is frequently rejected ....

Yet a light-soul's love and patience will constantly approach these souls and sooner or later gain influence. The bliss it receives through God's perpetual emission of love, the incomparable creations of the kingdom of light and its co-operation with beings to whom it is attached with joyful love provide it with the constant desire for redeeming activity. It finds its own happiness in giving what it receives itself; its longing for God finds constant fulfilment and it cannot but want to make others equally happy.

It is impossible to describe the splendours of the kingdom of light to people on earth, because only a fully matured soul can endure the abundance of light and therefore also understand the beatitude, which the as yet imperfect person does not appreciate. However, he can and should believe that there will be a reunion in the kingdom of the beyond, that death is not the end of the soul's actual life, and that these souls will recognise each other when they have attained a certain degree of maturity which, however, many souls still do not possess. And therefore it can take a long time for many a soul until it will experience the happiness of a reunion with its loved ones, yet the desire for this is frequently the reason to strive for ascent. The souls' strength of love is constantly at work to release the souls from the abyss and to help them achieve beatitude, to help them enter the kingdom where they are surrounded by radiating light, where they can behold God and every hardship has come to an end ....

Amen

Translation handled by Heidi Hanna

Reunion in the beyond ....

B.D. 6312 from July 15th 1955, taken from Book No. 68

There will be a reunion in the spiritual world, you humans can be certain of that .... But whether a reunion with your loved ones can be granted right after your departure from this earth depends on your soul's degree of maturity as well as on your loved ones' souls; if this maturity is not yet sufficiently developed to enable spiritual vision it will have to be acquired first, which could take a long time. Not until the soul has achieved a certain degree of maturity can it assimilate spiritual impressions. Hence the soul has to be enlightened to see who is approaching and although a less mature soul also knows itself to be surrounded by beings, it will not be able to recognise them as long as it lacks spiritual vision. After all, the beings' happiness consists of their ability to communicate with those who were close to them on earth .... The souls which are already enlightened as a result of their maturity will therefore always approach their loved ones, either to interact with equally mature spiritual beings or to assist the weaker souls in achieving maturity too ....

Consequently, the more mature souls have the ability to recognise the weaker souls but not vice versa .... because weaker souls should be inspired to strive and not be compelled on account of proof .... since it would always be proof if they were approached by a soul of light which it recognises as one with whom it had been linked on earth .... And thus the joy of reunion once again is a gift of mercy and the share of the mature spirit, who feels unspeakably happy as a result and, in turn, does everything to help the immature souls to reach the same degree of happiness .... They support them in the most loving way and never tire in encouraging them .... yet always unknown by them because they approach them in the same cover, in the same garment. The longing for the souls who were near to them on earth draws them closer indeed and can be an enormous advance, and when the moment of recognition comes the souls are infinitely grateful and happy .... And only then do they realise the care which had been given to them and in turn attend in the same manner to the souls which still languish in darkness .... they now help them to ascend because every soul longs for those who were once close to them on earth.

There will be a reunion, but the time when this is possible is up to you .... If you have already gained this certain knowledge on earth you will do whatever it takes to at least achieve the degree of maturity on earth which will allow you to enter the realms of light where you will be welcomed by those you love and who can instantly recognise you; or where you can, without being known, begin your work of deliverance on these souls .... Just take care that you don't pass to the other side without knowledge .... take care, that you have already found God in Jesus Christ so that you .... redeemed by Him .... can enter the spiritual realm .... Then this entry will give you much happiness because of the joy of reunion .... However, if you have not attained maturity on earth you may have to wait a long time .... because everything can only take place in accordance with law, your freedom of will has to be observed even in the spiritual realm so that you too may be greatly blessed one day ....

Amen

Translation handled by Heidi Hanna

Reunion in the beyond in a mature state ....

B.D. 4781 from November 14th 1949, taken from Book No. 54

Souls in the spiritual kingdom recognise each other when they have the same degree of maturity and at a certain degree of maturity are receptive to light, which thus gives the ability of spiritual vision; whereas souls in darkness are unable to recognise each other, although they had been associated on earth. In that case they are in fact able to perceive beings and interact with them but identification is out of the question, for they no longer have physical characteristics, and spiritual vision requires a certain degree of maturity. But an enlightened soul is able to locate and approach a soul it had known on earth, it just will not be recognised by the latter. For this reason enlightened souls are able to help, but under cover, so that their emanation of light will not forcefully influence the imperfect beings. Therefore, souls having departed from earth in an immature state will meet and be approached by helpful souls in the spiritual kingdom because they had been connected by love when they were still on earth. Nevertheless, the soul has to be voluntarily receptive to their instructions and advice. It can be guided to the right path, but then it will have to walk it by itself ....

Whereas two souls with the degree of maturity that renders both receptive to light, even though of different intensity, have the ability of spiritual vision and will recognise each other with indescribable joy. They will then join to work together, complementing and teaching each other and always communicating with love, which delights the soul immensely. Thus there is a definite reunion in the spiritual kingdom, but it can take considerable time until a soul has entered the spheres of light and only then will it meet its loved-ones again, realising that they had often already been close as its advisor and guide on the path of ascent. The bliss of meeting again is indescribable and compensates for much suffering that the souls had to endure in the beyond before they came to the light. But with the help of a light-soul's love the goal will definitely be reached, for love is the strongest power that can still help the unredeemed, which will also ensure its entrance into the spiritual kingdom, into the kingdom of light and bliss ....

Amen

Translation handled by Heidi Hanna

Think often about the hour of death ....

B.D. 7458 from November 18th 1959, taken from Book No. 78

Let it be said to all of you that every day the time you have left until the end is getting shorter .... that the time of grace, in which you can work and create after your own will, will soon be over. All your work and activity should only just relate to the salvation of your souls, you should only consider your souls and put aside all worldly things, for when you take care of your soul's salvation everything else you require will be given to you, so that you would nevertheless be maintained without your own effort. But your soul's salvation is in great danger by living your earthly life as you do now .... by only paying attention to worldly things and forgetting that your lifetime will soon be over. You keep going with the wrong attitude and just consider your body, even if you want to present yourselves to the world as 'Christians' .... You do not live with Christ, Who is and wants to remain your eternal salvation, but Who can only be united with you if you live a life of love .... You still love yourselves too much, for all you think about is to improve your standard of life; you just try to please your body ....

But do you consider your soul and what it needs to become blessed? After all, you know that you will not stay on earth forever, that you can be called away even tomorrow, and that then only the state of your soul will determine the fate that is awaiting it in the kingdom of the beyond. Then all the things the body had owned and the person will have to leave behind in this world will be worthless. Then all efforts for the sake of the body and its comfort will have been futile, but the soul stands poor and needy at the gate of eternity .... If only you humans would bear the soul's unhappy state in mind, if only you would seriously think more often about your hour of death, and if only you would believe that the short time of grace you were given as a reprieve in order to change will soon be over ....

Every day can bring riches to your soul if you live fully in the right way, if you do kind deeds, if you radiate love and kindness to your fellow human beings and help where your help is required; if you make contact with your eternal Father in prayer, if you establish the right relationship with Him like a child with its father .... It need not be a sacrifice for you, you can truly lead a God-pleasing life, yet you have to think of Him more often, you should not exclusively spend your thoughts on the world and its demands, you must always realise that everything the world can offer you is transient, but that everything which comes from God will last forever .... And in order to receive something from God which you can keep as a spiritual treasure, you will have to establish a connection with Him and remain in contact through prayer and loving actions .... Not much is asked of you but without this heartfelt bond you will always remain poor, and at the time of death your soul will be very deprived and miserable ....

And yet, it cannot be given anything that it has not acquired itself .... For this reasons you humans can only ever be warned and admonished not to walk through life irresponsibly but always think about the hour of your death, when you have to give account of how you have utilised your earthly life for the benefit of your souls .... Take stock of yourselves, think things over and strive towards the maturity of your soul, and you shall always receive help if only you verify to God your good will of coming closer to Him in order to one day being allowed to stay with Him completely once your soul has become worthy of it ....

Amen

Translation handled by Heidi Hanna

The helping hand of Jesus Christ .... Deliverance from the abyss ....

B.D. 5277 from December 20th 1951, taken from Book No. 58

On earth as well as in the beyond the Saviour’s saving hand reaches out to the souls in the abyss to aid the ascent of those who seize His hand. God’s love and mercy is constantly at work to bring redeeming help; but the souls themselves must want to be helped or every gift of grace from God will remain ineffective. But only a desperate situation can persuade someone to appeal for help. Every immature soul in the kingdom of the beyond suffers and is tormented, whereas the soul on earth seeks to numb itself with earthly pleasures and thus finds it far more difficult to appeal to God for help. Yet the spiritual hardship is just as severe but it has a perceptible effect in the beyond. The soul on earth could certainly advance with ease, since the person can use his energy of life for God-pleasing actions, whereas the soul in the beyond is powerless and depends on help, either from the beings of light or from human beings.

However, there is far less willingness to do good on earth than with the souls in the beyond, whose will is only weak as long as the soul lacks strength, but after its first gift of strength it constantly gets stronger. The torments in the beyond can bring about a change of will, and then the ascent is also guaranteed. But even on earth spiritual progress is impossible without a change of will, and since the world always has a numbing effect on people they occasionally have to be placed into a state of distress to instigate a change of will. In that case, however, the helping hand of Jesus Christ, the divine love, is always ready to elevate a person, and there is hope of redemption for every soul, yet the soul’s will, which inevitably has to aim upwards, decides the moment in time itself .... One day even the strongest opposing will shall be broken, yet not force but divine love will achieve this, which time and again will approach the being until it is recognised and reciprocated, until the being’s will overwhelmingly wants to give itself to God as His Own ....

Amen

Translation handled by Heidi Hanna

Bringing the Gospel to souls in the beyond .... Love ....

B.D. 5901 from March 13th 1954, taken from Book No. 64

Convey the Gospel to the souls in the beyond, remind them of My commandments of love which also have to be fulfilled in the kingdom of the beyond if the soul wants to ascend. Inform them of My will, which only ever requires them to turn to Me and which has to be heeded in order to be seized by My love .... What is applicable for earth also applies to the kingdom of the beyond .... the transformation of the being's will, which at first opposes Me and therefore has to be changed, and that can only ever happen through love, for an unselfish act of love is the first step towards Me and gives the being strength. Helpless souls in the beyond lack love .... and you have to explain to them that they can only expect help if they are willing to give love to those who are as poor and as wretched as themselves. Without love their thinking is wrong and, just like on earth, they can be approached by beings who will instruct them wrongly, without being able to recognise the error ....

Only a helpful soul will recognise the truth, subsequently you first have to bring My commandments of love to the souls and draw their attention to the fact that they were only given so that people would establish the connection with Me by fulfilling these commandments of love .... since deeds of love will provide them with strength and always help them to ascend further. You can instruct the souls over and over again .... they will not believe or understand you if they are unwilling to love, and if you want to help them then you first and foremost will have to take care to motivate them into lovingly supporting other distressed souls which turn to them for help. Only this willingness to love will open their spiritual eyes and ears, and then they will be able to understand everything you present to them. My Gospel is just the teaching of love, for everything else will fall into place if this teaching of love is complied with. It is not enough only to convey knowledge to the soul in the beyond for it will not understand it as long it is unwilling to carry out works of love, which have to and can be carried out in the kingdom of the beyond just as on earth but which always necessitate the willingness to do so, otherwise the soul will be without strength.

As long as the soul is mentally only involved with itself and its sad fate there is no possibility to provide it with help or to convey strength .... It first has to look at its surroundings or .... if it is alone in a barren region, it has to remember people on earth whom it could have helped but neglected to do so .... It has to regret this and wish to make

Amends, in that case it will be joined by beings in serious need, and as soon as it is willing to help it will instantly receive the strength to accomplish its intentions. First love has to be kindled within itself, which can often take a very long time, but it is possible with loving support from a human being if he explains to the soul what it is lacking and tries to educate it, always being prompted by a loving will to help ....

Love achieves everything, love prevails over everything, love itself is the strength which helps the soul to salvation. As long as the soul only considers itself it can hardly be released from its unpleasant situation, but it can become tender and loving if it is touched by small rays of light, because these are just sparks of love intended to touch and kindle its heart .... Every soul which experiences darkness as torment will be soothingly affected by such rays of light, and there is a good chance that it will pursue the light .... that it thus will also be willing to take other souls to the light. And these souls should only ever be preached to of the love which found its culmination in Jesus Christ and His act of Salvation .... No other information is necessary for such souls at first, yet they have to know the reason for their hardship and also how to remedy it .... And only when they have this understanding will their progress be assured, only when they want to carry out loving actions themselves will they receive strength and be able to work with love in order to receive ever more strength and enter into increasingly brighter light.

Light makes the souls tremendously happy, and in this happiness their willingness to love will constantly grow, hence a single soul in the beyond is able to carry out a most extensive amount of redemptive work. For as soon as it understands, it will also impart its realisation to other souls and try to encourage them into the same loving endeavour .... For just as on earth there is only one applicable commandment in the spiritual kingdom: Love God above all else and your neighbour as yourself ....

Amen

Translation handled by Heidi Hanna

‘Whoever loves his life shall lose it ....’

B.D. 5024 from December 20th 1950, taken from Book No. 57

The will to live means guaranteed victory over death .... Admittedly, you cannot prevent bodily death, but even physical death can be the transition into life if the human being’s will is strong enough for him to gain eternal life. This will to live has My approval, even though I said the Words ‘Whoever loves his life shall lose it, and whoever loses it will gain it ....’ Anyone who only thinks about how he can preserve his physical life will very soon realise that he is completely powerless and taken from this earth without being able to oppose it. Thus it is not this kind of will to live which will enable someone to be victorious over death ....

The soul’s true life has to be desired, and the human being’s will has to use all its strength to acquire it, then there will be no more death for the person for eternity, then he will live in light and strength and be able to be constantly active for his own happiness. Then he will have truly conquered death, and the soul’s separation from its body will be an awakening into new life, unburdened by the physical shell, free from all matter and yet with an inconceivable abundance of strength. This is the life people on earth should learn to love and only endeavour to gain one day, then they will long for their death, then they will want to relinquish their earthly life for the sake of true life in eternity. But people are still far too attached to their bodily life, they fear to lose it, they love earthly life and therefore will lose it and their fate will be death.

And again, not physical death is meant by this but the death of the spirit, into which the earthly life-loving soul will descend without fail. This death is worse than a human being can imagine, for he will then have lost himself, he will have lost his earthly life and his soul will be without light and strength, totally helpless and in profound darkness .... Spiritual death is an indescribable torment for the soul because it is conscious of itself, thus it is aware that it was not obliterated at the moment of death but continues to exist in an agonizing condition. The desire for pleasing activity can only ever be fulfilled by the living soul, for this requires strength which is only inherent in a living being, whereas a being without strength is dead.

However, what the human being accomplishes on earth with his inflowing energy of life need only consist of worldly activity, which will certainly increase material commodities but they are worthless in the spiritual kingdom .... Or it can consist of spiritual activity, which will produce everlasting treasures and thus also guarantee a life in eternity. And for this reason, the human being’s will should seriously strive towards eternal life, so that he then utilises his energy of life for the acquisition of spiritual strength .... then he will be victorious over death, then eternal life will be certain for him and he will not taste death for eternity ....

Amen

Translation handled by Heidi Hanna

It concerns eternal life ....

B.D. 5000 from November 14th 1950, taken from Book No. 56

It concerns eternal life .... the soul's life in the spiritual kingdom after the human being's death on earth .... it concerns eternity. Do you humans understand the implications of this? Consider the immense responsibility you have in earthly life, where you create your own fate in eternity, where all means are at your disposal in order to become blessed and which you ignore at enormous expense to your soul. Consider that you will be held accountable for your thoughts, will and actions on earth, and that you will not be able to undo anything, neither will you be able to catch up on what you neglected to do .... but that you will find utterly appropriate justice in accordance with your earthly life. Every thought, every action will automatically either divert the human being from the goal or lead him to it. And therefore he should always endeavour to gain God's pleasure in order to be able to stand before His Judgment seat one day.

It concerns your soul's salvation, and during your earthly life you only take notice of your body and its requirements but ignore your soul. God's love, however, does not want to let go of you, it does not want you to become eternally lost but wants you to have eternal life .... God's love will pursue you for as long as you live on earth. God will bear your faults and weaknesses with infinite patience, and His mercy will know no bounds. As long as you live on earth His love is yours and longs for union with you. And this union with the ultimate love will result in a state of happiness which He wants to bestow on you because you all are His children. It is a very difficult start to guide you into happiness as long as you do not have the will for it yourselves.

And yet, this will cannot be forced; you have to change yourselves in utmost freedom into your fundamental nature again, which you once possessed when you came forth from God, your Creator and Father since eternity. Then you will be God-like beings again who will be able to enter into unity with Him without ceasing to exist in His light. And this change of nature is your earthly task, your goal and your destiny. It is not difficult if you only want God, but it will be a hard fight if you adhere to the world. This is why the world is your enemy, your danger and your downfall. Consequently, you should avoid it, you should not fall under its spell, you should rise above it and only strive for the divine kingdom, which will truly offer you far more delectable possessions; you should ask for God, Who can and wants to give you everything that will make you blissfully happy ....

Amen

Translation handled by Heidi Hanna