Risk Of Self-Love And Lack Of Love

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

2106 - ?resNotTranslated?

2287 - ?resNotTranslated?

Spiritual pride and arrogance

3641 - Spiritual arrogance....

7803 - Spiritual pride and its danger....

8281 - Danger of arrogance....

Self-love

0706 - Lack of self-knowledge.... self-love.... stubbornness....

2268 - Selfish love.... Not much willingness for redemptive work....

7125 - Fulfilment of duty is not enough....

7795 - Divine love.... selfish love....

Love to matter

0688 - Earthly possessions and self-love.... spiritual possessions and charity....

1408 - ?resNotTranslated?

1476 - ?resNotTranslated?

6320 - Voluntarily being of service.... Selfish love....

Lack of love

2444 - ?resNotTranslated?

2445 - Heartlessness.... The world's battle against the teaching of love....

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

2810 - Hatred and its consequences....

3173 - ?resNotTranslated?

Lack of love in the end time

2223 - Selfishness.... God's intervention is the last resort....

2901 - ?resNotTranslated?

3209 - Signs of the last days.... Battle of faith.... Chaos....

Consequences of self-love and lack of love in the beyond

2914 - ?resNotTranslated?

3206 - Helplessness in the beyond.... Law....

5322 - Consequences of unkindness in the beyond....

7461 - Lot of souls without faith and without love in the hereafter....

7644 - Spiritual death and renewed banishment....

Right degree of self-love

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

6749 - Self-love - neighbourly love....

Conscious fighting against self-love and lack of love

3272 - Commandment to love one's neighbour.... self-love....

6286 - Fight against longings and passions....

6557 - Transformation of nature.... Fighting against perverted love....

6706 - Warning against the enemy.... fight against him....

7097 - Fighting or serving in earth life....

7557 - Fight against selfish love....

8326 - State of weakness.... love gives strength....

8461 - Prayer for strength.... Overcoming ego love....

3910 - Love constructive force.... lovelessness destructive force....

4990 - Love – power reception.... love has grown cold.... serious reminder....

5341 - Arrogance....

2106 - ?resNotTranslated?

2287 - ?resNotTranslated?

Spiritual pride and arrogance

Spiritual arrogance ....

B.D. 3641 from December 30th 1945, taken from Book No. 46

Spiritual arrogance prevents the human being from recognizing the truth. Everyone must bear this in mind, that only through profound humility can the human being attain that which, in the realization of his deficiency, desires knowledge .... who does not believe that he is already knowledgeable before he has sincerely asked for truth. The human being acquires knowledge through his intellectual activity, or he receives it from outside if it appeals to him, and he holds on to it. And this knowledge is usually enough for him if it agrees with his wishes and views. He shuts himself off from every presentation that does not correspond to his knowledge, always in the consciousness that he possesses the right knowledge .... He exalts himself above his fellow human beings who think differently and rejects everything offered to him from this side without taking a stand himself. And these people are difficult to guide into truth, for only the person humbly asks for it who believes himself to be ignorant and recognizes his inadequacy to penetrate spiritual knowledge through his own strength. But God only gives His grace to this person, for He wants to be approached for it in humble prayer. The belief to be in the right knowledge prevents the human being from asking for it as long as he still walks in error. For the person who has penetrated the truth remains inwardly humble despite the richest knowledge, and his prayer constantly ascends to God for an increase in his knowledge. For he feels infinitely small in view of God's greatness, Who becomes ever more sublime to him the greater his knowledge is. And thus this person will also always be accessible to spiritual conversations, whereas the believer in knowledge quickly ends such conversations because he does not want to be instructed, instead he seeks to spread his knowledge himself, always emphasizing it in spiritual arrogance as his own body of thought which he deems unassailable. He even tries to instruct God's servants, His messengers, who bring him the truth, for he does not acknowledge the working of the spirit and tries to invalidate everything they oppose him with his intellectual thinking. He fights against the working of the spirit, he thinks himself more mature and wiser and also does not recognize God as the giver of truth, Who expresses Himself through His messengers .... He fights with human wisdom against divine wisdom and does not submit himself by asking God Himself for enlightenment of the spirit .... And therefore he can hardly attain truth as long as the spirit of arrogance dwells in him .... Only the realization of complete ignorance in the spiritual sphere can determine him to occupy himself mentally with questions, and only then can the truth reach him if he humbly requests it, for God gives His grace to the humble but He does not reveal Himself to the arrogant ....

Amen

Translation handled by Doris Boekers

Spiritual pride and its danger ....

B.D. 7803 from January 21st 1961, taken from Book No. 82

Spiritual pride is the greatest evil for it requires the greatest strength to overcome it. And since the spiritually proud human being still completely belongs to the adversary he will never appeal to God for a gift of strength and will remain enchained until his heart has changed to become humble .... which generally requires more than one life on earth, hence necessitates a new banishment in matter. Spiritual pride is the inherited evil from the one who plunged into the abyss because of his arrogance. He will not even renounce his spiritual pride for eternities, therefore he will only take the path to the Father when he deems himself so small and low and weak that he will appeal for strength, which will then certainly be granted to him. And the same applies to his follower who remains in spiritual arrogance, who refuses to bow down to God's will, who therefore will not acknowledge a 'God' above himself either, who, as a human being, is so utterly convinced of his ego's value that he does not accept any spiritual instructions, that he does not think he needs the help that a higher Power can provide for him. Total unbelief and spiritual pride will always walk hand in hand, and because the human being does not want to acknowledge any God he will never be able to receive the flow of strength which enables him to free himself from this inherited evil, and his fellow human being will have no influence on him because he deems himself above everything that requires 'faith' and extends into spiritual spheres.

Addressing such people and imparting God's Word to them is rarely successful because they are constantly under the influence of God's adversary, who also wants to keep his followers away from God so as not to lessen his might and strength he assumes to possess in his adherents. Severe earthly and physical adversity must strike a spiritually arrogant person so that he takes notice of the feeling of weakness which might change his mind; he must realise that he is nothing and incapable of changing anything by virtue of his human nature, and this feeling of imperfection must persuade him to think. Then he will gradually relinquish his arrogance .... on account of which it is an incredibly significant grace if a person is placed into such circumstances where he becomes aware of his weakness and imperfection and is able to draw his conclusions from it. However, he retains his free will at all times, hence the adversary, too, will always influence him and thus he will just as well be able to dispel the thoughts which surface in him. But the world of light will also struggle for his soul in order to save him from the fate of renewed banishment .... and even if they merely succeed in persuading the human being to recognise his utter inferiority before his death and to acknowledge a Power above him before he dies .... Then he can still be helped to progress in the beyond and he will not need to repeat the path through the whole creation .... Then he will have succeeded in liberating himself from the adversary's domination, although the soul will have a hard struggle in the kingdom of the beyond in order to reach the light, which often shone on him on earth but was not accepted. However, God takes mercy upon every soul and will not abandon it .... But the human being has free will and this alone determines the soul's fate when it departs from its mortal body ....

Amen

Translation handled by Heidi Hanna

Danger of arrogance ....

B.D. 8281 from September 24th 1962, taken from Book No. 87

Anyone who takes My Word 'You are all sinners ....' to heart, will also remain profoundly humble, he will not become arrogant nor judge harshly, for the knowledge of not yet being perfect himself will always make him bear in mind that he is a weak individual who needs My strength and support, and with a humble heart he will come to Me and appeal to Me for both .... In contrast, the character of someone sure of himself and his worth will betray pride, he will raise himself above his fellow human beings, and this arrogance will show itself in contempt of the other person, in unkind judgment and in the opinion of having superior knowledge and therefore no need of further instructions, be they of an earthly or spiritual nature .... the arrogant person will always believe himself to have attained the degree which entitles him to look down on his fellow human beings.

And arrogance is truly part of My adversary which made him fall into the deepest abyss, for he exalted himself above Me, his God and Creator, and he drew a vast host of created beings along with him into the depth. Much of this arrogant spirit still adheres to these fallen beings when they have to carry out their last test of will as human beings. Arrogance is a rather worrying sign of imperfection which the person then has to fight against in earthly life until he has attained profound humility towards Me, and then he will no longer show off to his fellow human beings either but will have full understanding of their failings, because he will recognise his own shortcomings himself.

But the right relationship with Me requires profound humility, and as soon as the human being recognises himself as sinful and admits to it, he will also take refuge in Jesus Christ and appeal to Him to deliver him from it .... Humility will make him call to Him from the bottom of his heart and he will find mercy before His eyes .... for 'I bestow My grace upon the humble ....' And no one can deem himself to be perfect for as long as he lives on earth .... He can only possess a higher degree of awareness, but precisely this will make him consistently more humble, because he recognises the greatness of his God and Creator and the infinite love this God and Creator bestows upon His living creations, which will certainly make the living creation indescribably happy but it will not make it condescending.

Arrogance is still an indication of insufficient knowledge, for the adversary tries to obscure the light, the adversary still has a share in the human being who is assured of himself and his worth .... You all still have to fight very much against this evil, for time and again My adversary will breathe a sense of loftiness into you, time and again he will know how to find a weak spot where he is able to awaken self-deceit in you. And therefore you all should be on your guard and try to nip every sense of arrogance in the bud, for you should always remember that your Saviour and Redeemer Jesus Christ has taken the path of most profound humility, precisely in order to atone for your fall caused by pride .... You should bear His torments and suffering in mind which this atonement demanded of Him .... And you should know that your path across earth is the result of this fall into the abyss caused by pride.

The return to Me can only take place on the path of humility, and the earthly path should lead you to the realisation that you are weak, helpless beings who require My loving support in order to ascend again, and who only ever have to ask Me for My assistance if they want to travel the earthly path successfully. But the person whose spirit is still arrogant is still distant from Me and thus will hardly find Me. For true love, which includes his neighbour, cannot develop in him correctly since in his arrogance he will stay away from the person to whom he should give his love. And since the human being can only mature through a life of love the arrogant person will not make any spiritual progress but remain on the same level, if he does not sink even lower because My adversary still keeps him captive.

Therefore fight against this evil and exercise strict self-criticism, then you will discover faults which will make you feel small, and you will come down from the throne you have erected for yourselves by incorrectly assessing your worth .... Humility alone will make you mature, then you will receive blessings in abundance from Me, I will take care of you Myself, for you come closer to Me when you are humble, and your prayer to Me will be heart-felt and devoted, and I will grant your request and draw you to Me as My children, for then you finally have separated yourselves from My adversary, who became My adversary because he exalted himself over the One from Whose strength he had emerged ....

Amen

Translation handled by Heidi Hanna

Self-love

Lack of self-knowledge .... self-love .... stubbornness ....

B.D. 0706 from December 10th 1938, taken from Book No. 15

Pay attention to the words that come to you today: The most bitter state of life is prepared by those people themselves who are in perpetual self-destruction and do not implore God's grace to help them, through which they would be freed from the pressure that burdens them. These people always see their own situation as so deplorable and become more and more entangled in gloomy feelings and their whole being is ultimately just one of boundless bitterness, and that without any real cause. Their self-love is too strongly developed to overcome themselves, and they are much more likely to see the fulfilment of life in the fate of other people, and so a just judgement always remains something alien to these people. They reject all rational reasons and thus have a much more difficult life due to their own stubbornness, because good will would allow them to master life much more easily. Life itself is so instructive and provides so much guidance, if only it is utilized in the right way and people take refuge in working in love in all emotional distress. The balance is then created, as it were, and the heart becomes glad .... And when one's own person is put aside, all heaviness falls away from the person of its own accord and he finds the fulfilment of life in working for others. The purpose of life is only ever the maturing of oneself, a renunciation of the fulfilment of one's own desires and a perpetual willingness to serve. The more a person can subordinate himself, the freer his spiritual state will become, and the more often he practices self-conquest, the stronger his will will become, and this work on himself will bring about an ennoblement of the whole being, only the well-being of his fellow human being will then ever be taken into consideration, and the painful state which torments the human being will be remedied .... And this is brought about by the will to act .... it is much easier to defeat the world than oneself .... Man does not want to admit that he is the author of his condition, he always looks for the cause elsewhere than in himself, and that is his fault .... Where self-knowledge is lacking, help is hard to come by .... because then where should the lever be applied .... Those who only want to criticize others, but never themselves, will hardly recognize the basic evil, they will only ever find themselves pitiable and will not muster the will to put an end to their condition, which is nevertheless depressing. And so there is only one thing that has the right effect on such a mind .... to lovingly draw its attention to its wrong attitude towards life, which man should master himself and not allow himself to be mastered by it, which is the case every time he suffers under the pressure of his mood and cannot find a way out. Where there is the will, there is also the deed, and only this frees man from all evil ....

Amen

Translation handled by Doris Boekers

Selfish love .... Not much willingness for redemptive work ....

B.D. 2268 from March 18th 1942, taken from Book No. 31

It can be said that there is not much willingness to accomplish redemptive work on earth since, due to their way of life, people have increased their distance from God and this ever expanding distance also signifies constantly greater weakness of will. But the distance from God also signifies lack of knowledge, and therefore the human being does not realise the necessity and the blessing of redemptive work; he is unaware of the consequences in the beyond and thus does nothing to reduce the state of being far-away from God. This is a certain constraint of will, for although the human being's will is free, the opponent nevertheless still exerts great power over him, namely, when a person's way of life does not correspond to divine commandments. The human being certainly has freedom of will, insofar that he can act and think as he likes .... because he can neither be forced by the evil power nor does God force him in any way .... But if he is evil-minded, then he voluntarily turns to the one who had once abused his will, and the latter will also take possession of the person's will who turns to him. Then it will be difficult for a person to use his free will, and this becomes increasingly more difficult the more power he grants God's adversary over himself. If a person wants to release himself from his power and also wants to release others or help them to do so, he must comply with divine will and, first of all, practise love. After all, love is the strength which counters the opponent, who has become totally heartless. Every work of love liberates the human being, since he detaches himself from the one who wanted to revoke God's order, who did not acknowledge God as the eternal Love and whose power goes hand in hand with absolute heartlessness. Redemptive work is therefore any work whose driving force is love. But nowadays people's every activity is determined by selfish love .... Each person only thinks of his own advantage in his work, yet the desire to help his fellow human beings with it is only rarely present. This is why little spiritual success comes from such work. Were people more connected to God their selfish love would constantly lessen and their love for other people would grow to the same extent. Then a person would feel urged from within to accomplish works of love .... he would only ever want to help and completely liberate himself from the control of the merciless control. However, since the will for redemptive work is only seldom to be found, the opponent has great power on earth. And this manifests itself such that he impels people into ever greater heartlessness and that they follow him willingly and almost surpass each other with works of destruction and feelings of hatred and revenge. And this consistently increases the distance from God until they are completely subject to the influence of evil again which would result in total spiritual ruin were God not to use His power and put to a stop to it .... He will once again revoke His adversary's power over the spiritual beings by banishing them into matter again for an infinitely long time to come ....

Amen

Translation handled by Heidi Hanna

Fulfilment of duty is not enough ....

B.D. 7125 from May 20th 1958, taken from Book No. 76

You should not believe that you are justified before Me if you only fill your earthly life with earthly duties which you conscientiously endeavour to comply with but the fulfilment of which does not bring any blessing to your soul. For everything you do earthly is based on a certain self-love if it is done voluntarily .... or demands are placed on you which you comply with again for selfish reasons if you are not forced to do so .... All these 'fulfilments of duty' must not be confused with right, unselfish neighbourly love, which wants nothing for itself but always wants to help and make happy. Fulfilment of duty is a certain instinct of self-preservation, regardless of whether the person himself or his next of kin derive the benefit from it. But it will only ever be an earthly benefit, the soul will gain little or nothing from it .... unless works of duty are also carried out with unselfish love, that the human being thus certainly has to fulfil certain duties professionally which he fulfils with unselfish love. People can easily fall into a kind of complacency if they believe they have faithfully fulfilled their duties; but they don't make any progress in their spiritual development, nor do they usually want to know that their purpose of earthly life is different from merely creating an orderly earthly life for themselves .... even though the human being's way of life appears to be in order outwardly. If only you would consider that you can be free of all your duties as early as the next day, but that you will then be judged according to your maturity of soul .... not according to how you have shaped your earthly life. If you want to consider that every fulfilment of duty can also be done by other people, but that every person has to do the work on his soul for himself during his earthly lifetime .... He cannot be released from this work. Therefore, in addition to fulfilling his duty he must practice unselfish activity of love, he must freely do more out of himself, and love must always impel him to do so, only then will he make proper use of earthly life, then it will correspond to My will, he will change himself again, i.e. his nature, into his original nature. Thus he is by no means a dud in this world, for his soul will progress in its development. Only then will he make proper use of the vitality which is at his disposal during his earthly life but which he has to relinquish at the moment of death and he will pass over into the kingdom of the beyond completely without strength, if he has not previously acquired spiritual strength precisely through an activity of love on earth. As long as he is still in possession of vitality he does not really appreciate it, but having to enter the kingdom of the beyond in a completely dead state will only make him realize what he has forfeited and how miserable he now is compared to earthly life, where he could create and work with his vitality. And therefore he should predominantly use his vitality to work with love, because this is the only way to increase his strength and acquire imperishable possessions .... whereas all earthly possessions are transient and the human being himself cannot even determine the length of time he is allowed to enjoy them. The very next day can take everything away from him .... yet the human being who uses his vitality to work with love never needs to worry about such thoughts and worries .... He can surrender his earthly life every day, he will nevertheless start the actual life in the spiritual kingdom richly blessed and full of strength, he will not have lost anything but only achieve a high gain .... For this reason no human being should ever boast about his fulfilment of duty, for it can also be evidence of wrongly directed love, it can also lead the human being into wrong thinking so that he is satisfied with himself and no longer deems it necessary to do anything more. I demand more of you if you once want to enter into a life you can no longer lose .... You must irrevocably change yourselves into love, and therefore your life on earth must demonstrate an unselfish activity of love, only then will you live in My will, and only then will you acquire everlasting possessions ....

Amen

Translation handled by Doris Boekers

Divine love .... selfish love ....

B.D. 7795 from January 12th 1961, taken from Book No. 81

The soul's spiritual results at the end of its earthly life were determined by the human being himself through his way of life, for he was allowed to live it freely and without constraint, and he only needed to submit himself to God's will that he would bring maturity to the soul .... And how he now used his will determines the soul's fate in the kingdom of the beyond. Again and again people are admonished to think of their life after death and to lead their way of life accordingly. But the belief in the soul's continued existence is too weak or non-existent, and therefore people are lukewarm in their soul's work, they only live for this earth and rarely reach a degree of maturity which earns them a small light when they depart from this life. And yet, they need only live a life of love, then their earthly life will already be in accordance with God's will and it will earn them maturity of soul. But the desire for matter usually stifles the spark of love in the human being's heart, for selfish love is still too great, and this only demands but does not give .... But only unselfish, giving and gratifying love is divine, thus corresponding to God's will, because it is also God's original being .... Demanding love, on the other hand, is ungodly and will never earn the soul a degree of maturity: The majority of people, however, are filled with demanding love and their desire is only for earthly-material goods, earthly happiness, fame and reputation .... It is a love which only ever revolves around matter, which is never for the benefit of the neighbour .... It is an ungodly love which only pulls the human being down but never allows him to ascend. Such love is not in divine order, it is the inheritance of the one who is devoid of all love, who, as God's adversary, also always tries to influence people to cultivate that selfish love in order to prevent the approach to God, which presupposes selfless, happiness-willing love .... But people don't think about the fact that their purpose of earthly life cannot only be the fulfilment of earthly wishes, and they also believe themselves entitled to extract from the world what it only offers them .... They do not believe in survival and are therefore irresponsible in their earthly life. But they cannot be forced to think and want differently, they must freely decide for themselves which path they want to take on earth .... And thus they also have to come to realization themselves, but again and again they are also warned and admonished and only need to take a mental stand on such admonitions once, which, however, they usually refrain from doing. Hence the human being himself determines the soul's degree of maturity, he determines the soul's spiritual wealth or poverty at the end of its earthly course, he determines the soul's fate in the kingdom of the beyond, which cannot be other than what the human being has striven for .... Only when the human being's eyes are spiritually directed, when the human being reflects on the meaning and purpose of earthly life, on a continuation of life after death, will the consciousness of responsibility awaken in him, and blessed is he who early comes to the realization that he himself should help his soul to reach maturity .... Blessed is he who fights his selfish love at an early age and transforms it into unselfish neighbourly love .... He will succeed in acquiring the soul's degree of maturity which will protect it from darkness when the human being's physical life is over .... For it will come to beatitude in the spiritual kingdom, it will not need to fear death because it will only enter into a life which lasts forever ...._>Amen

Translation handled by Doris Boekers

Love to matter

Earthly possessions and self-love .... spiritual possessions and charity ....

B.D. 0688 from November 28th 1938, taken from Book No. 15

A wide field of activity will always be working in love, you will be able to practice it constantly if only your will is inclined towards the eternal deity. You will also recognize from the abundance of unkindness amongst people how far the human being's spirit has distanced itself from God-consciousness .... how he only ever seeks to satisfy his 'ego' and all the love he is capable of is only for this ego. And only evil ever emanates from this self-love .... The addiction to possess everything imaginable for oneself is the cause of all the vices and bad habits that then adhere to such a self-loving person. You can already see this in the simple process of increasing goods. Man will only ever endeavour to acquire for himself everything that seems desirable to him and will not shy away from any means of obtaining it that violate God's commandments .... He will appropriate unlawfully or try to harm his fellow man through cunning and deceit .... he will not shy away from lying if it only brings him the slightest advantage. But he will never cultivate love for his fellow human being and will therefore lack everything that can bring him closer to the eternal deity. However, activity in true neighbourly love will have the same beneficial effect. The human being will always endeavour to protect his fellow human being from everything that he himself deems detrimental, and he will always remain in the truth and act in accordance with God's commandments and thus also be able to enjoy God's presence at all times by engaging in works of neighbourly love. Whoever selflessly does good to his fellow human being, his spiritual possessions will increase and earn him an everlasting reward in the hereafter, and only the will of man is needed to be allowed to enjoy the highest delights after bodily death. The temptations of the world are the counterweight, and man in his delusion does not recognize the worthlessness of earthly pleasures but seeks to seize them by all means, and his fate in the beyond is therefore a meagre, joyless one, because he will be granted the same amount as he gave to his fellow human beings in earthly life. He who only loves himself too much can never attain divine grace, for the lord will never bless his actions and endeavours .... Only the exercise of love for one's neighbour assures him of such. He who willingly gives of his possessions will receive twice, and not only earthly, but to an even greater extent spiritually, for love is the highest, and only through love can man redeem himself already on earth ....

Amen

Translation handled by Doris Boekers

1408 - ?resNotTranslated?

1476 - ?resNotTranslated?

Voluntarily being of service .... Selfish love ....

B.D. 6320 from July 28th 1955, taken from Book No. 68

Anyone who knows the spirits' process of development, who is informed of Creation's meaning and purpose, also knows that the human being as the most perfect work of creation forms the closing stage of an infinitely long process of development which has taken place on this earth. He knows that this will irrevocably be followed by his stay in the kingdom of the beyond where material creations no longer exist, where development can certainly continue under incredibly difficult conditions yet in an entirely different way than in the material world .... if the process of development on earth has not been completed to a point that the soul will be able to enter the kingdom of light. But only the least people on earth realise this, for it first requires the will to know this in order to be able to understand and believe it and this is only rarely present in people. In contrast, people's will is extremely strongly inclined to utilise the works of creation such that they will benefit their physical life .... Admittedly, by doing so people unconsciously help the bound spiritual substances in the creations to progress, because it is of service to them, although in the law of compulsion .... A great deal of matter is being dissolved through human will, it is reshaped into constantly new creations all of which are assigned useful functions, which necessarily results in the spirits' progress .... Yet the human being himself can thereby also come to a standstill or even regress in his development if he is not helpful himself at the same time, since he is no longer subject to the law of compulsion and therefore has to push his own higher development forward .... As soon as he does everything consciously, always with the intention of helping his fellow human being, his earthly work can derive inconceivable blessings for his soul .... even if he has no idea about the spirits' process of development, even if he is without all knowledge about the meaning and purpose of earthly life and the creations of this Earth .... He does not need to know it if only he voluntarily helps with love .... Yet usually he is indeed impelled by love to work but only by the love for himself .... In that case his activity can also have a detrimental effect on his fellow human beings, for the less he considers his fellow human being the more his selfish love will be satisfied .... But selfish love also has an unfavourable effect on the works of creations which were assigned to the person's field of activity, insofar as that the spirit's development in such works of creation will often be prematurely interrupted for the sake of his own advantage, because selfish love contradicts divine order and thus the person's conduct is also totally contradictory to divine order .... Even if such people knew the meaning and purpose of the creation and of earthly life they would not stop their wrong way of life and their actions against the divine order, because they are utterly controlled by selfish love and completely unapproachable by other ideas. And these humans enter the spiritual kingdom in an absolutely dreadful state, for they can no longer satisfy their selfish love like on earth, and the path to the right love, to love for their neighbour, is infinitely far away and often cannot be found at all ....

Hence, a person who only loves himself takes his love for matter along into the other world, and release from it is extremely difficult, for things he desired with all his senses constantly appear before his eyes which are acutely tempting to him only to instantly disappear when he wants to satisfy his cravings .... inciting his cravings even more, and these are dreadful torments which the soul has to suffer until it starts to fight its craving with the result that the temptations gradually weaken. People have no idea of the benefits they create for themselves in the beyond if they try to overcome matter while they are still on earth, if they become its master and not its slave .... The human being can make use of everything on earth for his advantage, for the purpose of all creations is to serve the human being as well as every creature .... because being of service signifies redemption for the bound spirits within .... Consequently, the human being himself contributes a lot towards this if he offers matter the opportunity to help, if he creates things for himself which fulfil a useful purpose, in which he can certainly take pleasure again as a gift from God, yet he should always remember the spiritual purpose of material things and not tie himself to it such that all his thoughts and intentions apply to the gain of material goods in order to create a comfortable life for himself and to descend increasingly lower than things which are far less developed than him .... which signifies spiritual regression for him .... The development must always be a progressive one, and the human being's goal in earthly life is the complete release from the material shell, the rise above the latter, for then the soul will be able to leave the physical body as a free and unburdened being and soar into higher spheres .... Then it will not be held back by matter and forced to remain in earthly spheres although it no longer lives on earth .... You humans don't know how grateful a soul is which can detach itself from these spheres, but take it for granted that that which you strive for on earth with all your senses is your biggest enemy .... For your bliss rests in freedom, but you remain enslaved for as long as matter still holds you captive, and it will hold you captive for as long as you are still governed by selfish love, as long as you don't liberate yourselves through helpful love .... Only the one who is of service will be liberated .... And your existence as a human being constantly provides you with the opportunity to be of loving service ....

However, you have free will and, unlike in your preliminary stage of development, are not forced to be of service. Love must impel you to do so, and helpful love will only be practiced by a person who suppresses his selfish love, who does not want to take but to give. He will indeed learn to despise matter; he will detach himself from it and liberate himself completely .... His process of development on earth will be successfully concluded with the complete spiritualisation of his soul, which subsequently will be able to be active in the spiritual kingdom with an abundance of light and strength and in helpful love take care of those souls which still linger in slavery and darkness and require help in order to finally be able to also let go of their chains ....

Amen

Translation handled by Heidi Hanna

Lack of love

2444 - ?resNotTranslated?

Heartlessness .... The world's battle against the teaching of love ....

B.D. 2445 from August 10th 1942, taken from Book No. 33

Humanity's conduct cannot be reconciled with the teaching of Christ, for this requires actions of love, people's relationships with each other should be like that of brothers. But at the present time all people face each other with hostility, outwardly often united yet in their hearts only ever bearing their own advantage in mind and regarding their fellow human being as an opponent, because they either feel harmed or disadvantaged by him. The human race is completely devoid of love and therefore also opposed to Christianity, opposed to the divine teaching of love, which it no longer wants to comply with. For it requires effort to practise love, it requires a separation from material things, a shelving of one's own wishes and cravings; it signifies a sacrifice of that which is dear to a person .... Selfish love must be fought against; the human being must educate himself to become modest to enable him to help his fellow human being by giving to him what he gives up. This sacrifice can only be made out of love and therefore love must be practised .... Yet only rarely will a person make this sacrifice for his fellow human beings .... Each person only thinks of himself, this is why he finds the teaching of Christ inconvenient and supports people's intentions to eradicate it .... Where heartlessness exists, the battle against the divine teaching of love will be waged without hesitation. And this heartlessness is widespread throughout the world, people outdo each other with brutalities they inflict upon their fellow human beings, and thus the whole world can be held responsible for the immense world event which purely arose from humanity's heartlessness and which results in ever greater cruelty and must therefore be described as the activity of hell, as the activity of demonic forces. And yet, people do not recognise their low spiritual level. They only look at the purely external consequences of the world event and not at the spiritual state of those whose great heartlessness also incites their fellow human beings to act with unkindness. And as long as this deplorable state of affairs is not recognised, it cannot be remedied either; as long as the human being does not recognise heartlessness as the greatest evil he will not make any effort to live a life of love, i.e., he will not treat his fellow human being with kindness .... And neither will he approve of Christ's teaching, he will reject it, because his compliance with it will not gain him any earthly advantage. However, he will also act accordingly .... love will be pushed aside again and only result in greater heartlessness .... One person will endeavour to destroy the other without inhibition, he will no longer be able to distinguish between right and wrong and thus exceed himself in bitterness and cruelty, and all love will grow cold, lowering the spiritual level to the extreme, and a world without love cannot survive, it is doomed to destruction and with it everything which does not strive to redeem itself through love ....

Amen

Translation handled by Heidi Hanna

Immorality .... Unwritten laws ....

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

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

Amen

Translation handled by Heidi Hanna

Hatred and its consequences ....

B.D. 2810 from July 12th 1943, taken from Book No. 37

The demon of hatred is poisoning the whole world .... And people enslave themselves to him. But hatred destroys, whereas love builds up, and the work of devastation on earth will happen on an ever increasing scale the more hatred rages amongst humanity. God's work of destruction will not end this hatred either, instead it will only make individual people here and there come to their senses, and they will subsequently realise by whom they allowed themselves to be dominated. And for the sake of these few will God manifest Himself and show His power and strength. The majority, however, will carry on living in hatred and keep trying to assert itself with means born of hatred and which inflame ever more hatred. For hatred is intensified unkindness, hatred is the most dreadful attribute because it has indescribably destructive consequences, not just in an earthly but also in a spiritual way. For it eradicates all noble impulses or puts them at great risk. The person who lives in hatred is flung to and fro by demons, his striving towards ascent is constantly in jeopardy because he will repeatedly be thrown back again as soon as he allows himself to be carried away by hatred, because he keeps handing himself over to the power of the one who only tries to convey hatred and unkindness to people. And his power over such a person is great. And it is even greater when the whole of the human race lives in hatred .... This has to signify a spiritual decline which will have alarming effects insofar as that people willingly implement what they are told to do by God's malicious opposing power .... that they will destroy all possessions in order to damage their fellow human beings. God's adversary is eager to release all spirits which were banished by God into creations. For this reason all his thoughts and intentions aim to destroy that which was created through God's will. But since his will and power cannot take hold of the works of creation, he seeks to force his will onto people .... He plants hatred into them and thereby impels them to implement what is impossible for him .... to destroy the creation .... Thus he uses the people enslaved by him as his henchmen, he places satanic thoughts in them, he stirs up hatred in them and thus drives them to cause immense damage to each other. People willingly carry out the impulses their soul's greatest enemy gives to them .... Their actions give rise to constantly renewed hatred and hatred produces ever new works of destruction .... Such a poisoned human race will progressively move towards its downfall, for it will hardly find the path back to loving activity ....

Amen

Translation handled by Heidi Hanna

3173 - ?resNotTranslated?

Lack of love in the end time

Selfishness .... God's intervention is the last resort ....

B.D. 2223 from January 29th 1942, taken from Book No. 31

In their inconceivable selfishness humanity will destroy itself if God does not use an effective countermeasure in order to reduce this selfishness. The human being only thinks about himself and the fate of his fellow human beings generally leaves him unaffected. His thinking and behaviour is accordingly only ever calculating to obtain the greatest possible advantage for himself, which spiritually has a tremendously detrimental effect. Hence every day spent striving for earthly advantages is lived in vain. And at the present time only a small number of people in the world keep their spiritual progress in mind. But they do not indifferently ignore their fellow human beings' adversity. Instead, they try to alleviate it where possible and make sacrifices themselves, for they consider other people's hardship more than their own hardship. And it is for their sake that God still hesitates to apply the last resort, because His love would like to spare people unspeakable suffering where it is possible to persuade them into actions of love without suffering.

God's intervention, however, will result in great suffering, for precisely this suffering is intended to change people's hearts, in view of their neighbour's misery and adversity they are supposed to forget their own hardship, thus fighting their selfish love and only ever striving to alleviate their fellow human beings' misery. Only then will their earthly life be spiritually successful for them. Yet regrettably, especially now people have extremely distinct earthly desires, they crave for the commodities of this earth. Every thought only relates to the question of how they can attain them. As a result they take no notice of world events and even less of the signs which announce the working of God. They don't pay any attention to the happenings which accompany the spiritual decline. They don't see the infringements which are already deemed acceptable, nor do they pay attention to the wrong concepts of 'right' and 'justice', and therefore they don't object to the spirit of the times either, the opposition to everything relating to religion .... rather, they consider everything to be right, which can clearly be traced to the opponent's influence.

And this is why God asserts His influence, that is, He so evidently counteracts this spiritual shallowness that it can be seen by those who want to see. For He assumes all power .... He renders people powerless; He lets them feel that they, by themselves, are incapable of preventing God's intervention, that they will have to endure it without being able to change it in the slightest. And then they will only be able to change their character if they are willing to do so. They will be provided with endless opportunities to kindle the spark of love within themselves, to feed it into a flame and then become appropriately active with love .... If they don't make use of this last possibility they cannot be helped on earth anymore; for those whose selfishness is too extensive will not be able to recognise their real function even then, they will fear for their life and their possessions and, if possible, try to replace what they have lost. In that case God's intervention will have been in vain for them, then they will have to bear the consequences of their unspiritual state, since this is what they want, for they cannot be forcibly released from their selfishness ....

Amen

Translation handled by Heidi Hanna

2901 - ?resNotTranslated?

Signs of the last days .... Battle of faith .... Chaos ....

B.D. 3209 from August 2nd 1944, taken from Book No. 42

To specify (know?) the moment of spiritual change would not benefit humanity since the precise knowledge is an interference with free will, because at the approach of the predicted time the human being would feel obliged to change his way of life. But it is not God's will that people shall receive knowledge of the day and hour when He sits in judgment over them, they shall only know that the end is near and by the signs of the time become aware of this end. However, if devout human beings ask Him for clarification He will answer them in a manner that is helpful for the salvation of their soul ....

The Last Judgment is preceded by the last days, which last just a few months and are characterized by an exceptionally rigorous battle of faith. As soon as this battle of faith is carried out quite openly, as soon as all secrecy is ignored and all spiritual aspirations are bluntly and recklessly attacked, as soon as laws and decrees are endorsed which prohibit people's spiritual pursuits, as soon as all divine commandments are no longer observed, as soon as all believers are persecuted and have no more rights, the last days have entered into their final phase and the Last Judgment can be expected daily and hourly .... However, before this battle of faith flares up, humanity will find itself in a spiritual and worldly chaos; there will be noticeable regression in every respect. And this regression will be initiated by people who are dominated by Satan. He will show himself in earthly devastation and destruction, in heartless laws, in a God- opposing way of life, in civil disobedience and rebellion against the governing powers and in brutal oppression by the latter, in restriction of freedom and in evasion of law and justice.

These conditions will ensue after a huge earthly tremor, which takes place in accordance with God's will in order to terminate a conflict between nations that human will fails to end. For the people who are affected by this earthly tremor it will denote a change of their accustomed way of life, it will be a time of greatest deprivation and most difficult living conditions, and although this time will be favourable for the spreading of the divine Word it will not signify a revival of a worldly-clerical power. People will indeed eagerly strive to improve their earthly living conditions but these efforts will not be compatible with spiritual aspirations, with the belief in an Authority Which holds them to account and with the divine commandments that require love. And that is why everything that interferes with the return to the former good living standard comes under attack. Thus the battle of faith will start soon after the divine intervention which turns global affairs into a different direction. The events will follow each other quickly as they are hastened by people's low spirit, and this spiritual low shows itself in people's heartless actions, in their thinking, which shows extreme depravity and which prepares deeds that can only be called satanic. And thereby you can identify the moment in time when God's intervention can be anticipated. The global affairs themselves shall be a timetable to you, by the actions people are capable of doing you can see that they have totally distanced themselves from God and this clearly contradicts the opinion that this human race can still expect a spiritual renaissance.

The people who faithfully remain with God will indeed intensify their intimate relationship with Him, they will be in truth His church which will stand firm amid misery and affliction, but it is just a small group. The world, however, denies God, it is hostile towards all who support God, and this spiritual need signifies that the end is near .... Therefore pay attention to the signs of the time, pay attention to humanity's conduct, to their desertion of God and their preference of the world, when people are evidently influenced by Satan, when they are enslaved by him and do everything to disobey the divine commandments, when nothing is sacred to them any longer, neither the life of their fellow human beings nor their possessions; when lies triumph and the truth is treated with hostility you know that the end is not far. Then you can watch the events unfold as they are revealed to you, because it will all take place during the lifetime of a man who, in a manner of speaking, hastens the disintegration, who pays homage to the destructive principle, who is not constructively but destructively active. And this man's end is also the end of the world, i.e. the end of the world in its present form and the end of those people who presently inhabit the earth, which are separate from those who belong to God. And now you know that there is not much time, that you are not given a long period of time and that the end is upon you shortly. And for this reason you have to prepare yourselves, you have to live as if every day is your last because you don't know when you will be called back and whether you will live to see the end of the earth. If, however, you are needed as defenders of God during the time of battle before the end, God will also guide your thoughts correctly and you will know when the time has come .... the time of the divine intervention by means of unleashing the forces of nature, the time of the battle of faith and the time of the Last Judgment .... It is God's will that you make people aware, thus He will also enlighten your spirit and guide your thoughts in a manner that you understand correctly and only voice and reveal to your fellow human beings what you have understood properly ....

Amen

Translation handled by Heidi Hanna

Consequences of self-love and lack of love in the beyond

2914 - ?resNotTranslated?

Helplessness in the beyond .... Law ....

B.D. 3206 from July 30th 1944, taken from Book No. 42

If the soul does not receive strength it will remain inactive. This condition of inertia can only be remedied by actions of love which the soul is unwilling to do when it finds itself in this helpless state in the beyond. However, on earth this willingness can be stimulated by the Word of God. The human being can be shown that deeds of love are a blessing to him, and then he can take God’s Word to heart, he can reflect on it and voluntarily decide to act kindly, because on earth he does not lack the strength to do what he wants to do. Then the soul will receive spiritual strength and further its development. But it is different in the beyond where the helpless soul can do nothing else but want .... And whether or not the being will receive strength depends on this will. Thus the soul in the beyond is reliant on the help of more mature beings, whereas the human being on earth can use his will without help from spiritual beings. Therefore the human being should not remain indifferent if he does not reach his goal on earth in the mistaken belief that he can make up his neglect of earthly development in the beyond. This is a deceptive hope which he shall bitterly regret one day, albeit the state in the beyond is not entirely hopeless. The soul has to endure appalling distress which it can easily avoid by seriously striving to ascend while it is still on earth. The state of helplessness is something terribly dismal, it is a state which the soul cannot remedy at will, rather, it is dependent on the love of other beings. And this love, which corresponds to its own love towards other suffering souls, is at times difficult to perceive by the soul.

Thus an uncaring soul can spend eternities in its helpless state without being approached by a caring being if it holds on to its selfish love, if it merely cares about itself and its fate without compassion for another soul’s fate. According to divine law it cannot receive what it is unwilling to give to other souls, and its selfish love prevents the approach of beings of light to bring relief. And since it is unwilling to give or to help itself it cannot be given anything or helped either. Worst of all, it cannot be given God’s Word which could remove the soul’s spiritual blindness since God’s Word is light, and as a result of its unkindness the soul is still unable to accept light. On earth, however, the Word of God is even offered to unkind people, because this is God’s mercy for the lost souls on earth who may accept or reject it in line with their will .... Whereas the being in the beyond is only touched by God’s mercy in as much as it is free to want and to stimulate loving thoughts within itself, after which it will receive strength too. Yet many a soul is so hardened that it cannot have loving thoughts, and then it is in an intolerable situation which it is unable to end by itself.

However, these souls are surrounded by fellow sufferers who could kindle their love, and thus they can improve their situation at any time if they allow themselves to love .... because even the least resolve to help their fellow sufferers will give them strength. As soon as they notice this influx of strength they become more helpful, and this helpfulness towards other souls results in inner happiness, and then they have overcome the helpless state, the state of complete inertia. From this point on they can also receive God’s Word, i.e. the teaching beings of light can approach them and reveal God’s laws and why they have to be fulfilled. The light beings’ lessons then have to start so that the uninformed souls can receive light and strength, i.e. knowledge which they then can pass on with lovingly care to improve the fate of suffering souls. But such helpless souls might have to do without help for eternities, and this condition could be easily avoided if the human being would make the best of his opportunities on earth in order to enter the beyond with a maturity which will give him light and strength and enable him to be blissfully active in the spiritual realm ....

Amen

Translation handled by Heidi Hanna

Consequences of unkindness in the beyond ....

B.D. 5322 from February 23rd 1952, taken from Book No. 59

Unkindness has far-reaching consequences on earth as well as in the beyond. For it surrounds the soul with the densest of covers, so that no ray of light can penetrate it and it forever remains in darkness. Light is everywhere, yet where it cannot penetrate the human soul there is darkness. Love, however, radiates light and illuminates the soul from within, the covers dissolve, and then the light from outside can exert an effect .... the soul becomes enlightened .... Thus, on earth ‘enlightenment’ denotes knowledge of the eternal truth, of the meaning and purpose of earthly life and ever-increasing love for God .... But in the kingdom of the beyond receiving light is guaranteed to the soul who became enlightened on earth through love .... Darkness has gone forever, everything is revealed to the soul, no uncertainty exists for the soul any longer, nothing is incomprehensible or impossible, for due to love it has become full of light and strength itself ....

Hence, unkindness is the soul’s eternal ruin, for a soul who still languishes in profound darkness is wretched. It has become a victim of the one who is devoid of love himself and also wants to prepare this state for souls who allow themselves to be influenced by him, who are full of selfish love and only ever treat their fellow human beings unkindly, because they are seduced by Satan, because he wants to transfer his own feelings into people in order to enslave them. Unkindness is the death of the soul .... it poisons people’s thoughts, so that the results of thinking are lies and ill-will which generate acts of hatred and, in turn, will result in evilness again. And neither can it be otherwise, for where there is love there is God .... where unkindness and hatred reveal themselves there is Satan. And he reigns, so that he can truly be recognised as the souls’ greatest enemy, who not only pursues and tries to gain people on earth, but with increased malice works on and tries to influence the souls in the beyond in order to hasten the hardening of their hearts and pull them ever deeper into the abyss.

And because heartlessness has such a frightening effect in the beyond it can only be countered with love .... souls in the beyond need to be given lots of love, which effects the ailing soul like medicine by which it can be healed if people do not stop giving them love .... Even the most stubborn souls of darkness can be changed by rays of love, unwillingly at first, yet once they feel the blissful relief they will not let go of it again .... Love is the most effective weapon against the opponent who cannot endure it, who takes flight and therefore will rather drop his victims than allow himself to be touched by rays of love. For this reason you should fight against unkindness and know that it will lead into ruin, whereas deeds of love will open the kingdom of light for you, and with love you can also help those to attain the light who still languish in darkness as a result of their loveless and unkind way of life on earth. Only love can help them and release their restraints, only love can make all of you blissfully happy ....

Amen

Translation handled by Heidi Hanna

Lot of souls without faith and without love in the hereafter ....

B.D. 7461 from November 22nd 1959, taken from Book No. 78

The souls arrive in the beyond in a terrible condition, which are departed from this earth without any faith and without any love. And there are a great number of them, for until death most people are stuck in self-love and cannot detach themselves from the world. For not all are preceded by a time of suffering before their passing, many are called away in the midst of their work, in the midst of the world and at an age when they are still far from thinking of their end. And then the condition in which people find themselves at the moment applies, which usually reveals little preparation for their souls. And thus their faith is mostly superficial, if one can speak of such at all. They do not think about death and the fate of their souls because they are still in the midst of the world and regard earthly life as an end in itself. And love is just as foreign to them because they only think of themselves or those with whom they are in closest contact .... where therefore a feeling of love naturally exists .... but which cannot be valued in the same way as unselfish love for their neighbour. And the fate of all of them is dreadful when they stand before the gate to eternity, for hardly a little light shines for them, their state is meagre because they have no spiritual goods to show which alone are of value for the kingdom of the beyond. And the souls which suddenly had to depart from earth have no concept of their demise either, they imagine themselves to still be on earth, only transferred to inhospitable regions, and now they can no longer cope with their fate .... They by no means think of the fact that they no longer dwell on earth and only ever seek to put themselves back into the state they lived in during earthly life, often with ruthlessness towards other souls when they are together with those who all have to bear the same fate because they are of the same kind, thus they dwell in darkness in the same spiritual state, equally poor and meagre. They wander about in deep twilight and believe they are wandering through night and fog and await the morning which shall bring them some light again .... and the night will not end because they cannot reach the light until they have changed their attitude, until they have gone within themselves and now also realize that they no longer live on earth, and they now seriously judge themselves, remembering their earthly life which they did not use in the right way. If the souls come to this realization themselves, then it is an act of grace by God Who wants to help those who slowly change their will and reflect on themselves .... Then beings will also step into the path of such souls which will help them further upwards if the soul is willing. But the adversity is great before the soul accomplishes this change of will, and the state of adversity is far greater among the secluded souls than the state of happiness and bliss, because only few people on earth strive to mature their souls with true seriousness of life, because only few people live their existence consciously insofar as they make an effort to live a life of love. The will to be allowed to enter the kingdom of light one day already gives the soul much strength so that it will certainly reach the aim .... But if people don't indulge in such thoughts, if they live a completely unscrupulous life and only seek to satisfy their physical self, if they don't entertain any thoughts of their soul's life after death, they will also enter the kingdom of the beyond in a completely unprepared state, and they can still speak of a great grace if they are afflicted by illnesses before their death and yet their thoughts are preoccupied with their demise and thus they can still be purified and prepared for their entry into the kingdom of the beyond .... The end is near .... For every human being the hour can come suddenly and surprisingly, and therefore every human being should often think about the end, he should not carelessly think it is still far away, but he should always and at every hour familiarize himself with the fact that he has to leave the earth and intimately ask God, to take care of him and enable him to enter the kingdom of light, and God will also give him the strength to prepare himself and to do the work on his soul which is necessary for the entrance into the kingdom where there are no terrors and darkness but only light and bliss .... For God does not want the human being to go to ruin; but the human being is free, he alone determines his fate in eternity, he alone creates the fate which awaits his soul in the spiritual kingdom ....

Amen

Translation handled by Doris Boekers

Spiritual death and renewed banishment ....

B.D. 7644 from July 9th 1960, taken from Book No. 80

Spiritual death is the worst fate that can happen to the soul, for it will be unable to release itself from it once it has departed from earth. It exists, it is also conscious of itself and yet is entirely without light and strength, and this is a state of inconceivable agony. It inevitably leads to a renewed banishment into matter again unless people intercede so effectively on its behalf that it provides the soul with strength, so that it can change itself if it has the will to do so, that is, if it doesn't directly resist it. As long as a soul is apathetic in this state, it can receive help from the enlightened spiritual world or through loving intercession .... But it can also be so hardened that it rebels with burning rage against the power which .... so it believes .... keeps it imprisoned. Then it will steadily descend further and harden into solid substance, which subsequently makes its ascent in the kingdom of the beyond impossible. Then it will have to travel the infinitely long path of higher development through the whole of creation again, for one day even this soul shall wake up to the life which lasts forever .... Countless people on this earth are in this danger of succumbing to spiritual death, for during the end time they do nothing in order to acquire this life. They live without love and therefore without God as well, they already harden their souls to matter on earth, for they strive towards it and fail to consider the spiritual life they are supposed to create for the soul while they live on earth. They bow to the one who is master of the earthly world and also strive for his goods .... And these cannot bestow life upon the soul but they certainly assure its spiritual death.

And if it enters the beyond in this lifeless state it will be in utmost danger, for heartless people rarely leave friends behind on earth who will send loving thoughts to them in the spiritual kingdom. And only these can save the soul, for every loving thought, every prayer full of love has an effect of strength on such souls, they are so effective that the soul changes and has the will to ascend. Then it will have escaped eternal death, it will no longer descend into the state which results in its renewed banishment. All you humans have no idea about the strength of love or you would make an effort to live a life of love .... And then you will attain life, for love itself is life, and it awakens everything that is dead back to life again.

If, however, you don't use this strength, if you go along without love, your soul's spiritual substance has no option but to solidify and thereby gets into a dreadful state, for then death will not lead to the souls transience, instead it will be a state of vegetating in awareness of its existence and of agonising helplessness and darkness. As long as you still live on earth you are incapable of imagining this state, yet you should do everything in your power in order to avoid it, for everything is possible for you on earth, you repeatedly have the opportunity to accomplish deeds of love on earth, and then the danger of death will be over, then you will have to awaken to life while you are still on earth and thus will also be able to enter eternal life, then you will have conquered death. And you are all able to live a life of love, for the divine spark of love is in all of you, which need only be kindled in order to never be extinguished again, because love always gives you new strength and you will inwardly be motivated to be active once you have kindled this spark of love in you. However, you cannot be forced to do so, but the dreadfulness of spiritual death can only ever be pointed out to you so that you will try to avoid this horror of your own accord .... For as long as you live on earth you have the strength to be lovingly active; but once you have entered the kingdom of the beyond you will be incapable of doing anything by yourselves, then you will be dependent on help and can consider yourselves fortunate if it is provided for you by people whose thoughts follow you with love .... Only love redeems, only love is strength .... and everyone should acquire love for himself through loving activity as long as he lives on earth, so that he will not succumb to spiritual death ....

Amen

Translation handled by Heidi Hanna

Right degree of self-love

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

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

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

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

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

Amen

Translation handled by Heidi Hanna

Self-love - neighbourly love ....

B.D. 6749 from January 28th 1957, taken from Book No. 72

A small measure of self-love is permitted to you because it is necessary for self-preservation and because without this measure you humans would not work on yourselves but would also be completely indifferent towards your spiritual destiny. But this measure of self-love should only be small because only then can love for Me and for the neighbour be properly kindled, or else: A proper love for the neighbour and thus also for Me will always push self-love back to the minimum measure. A being which has completely become love is now also completely absorbed in caring for the beings which are still unhappy, it will only ever want to help and make happy and no longer think of its own happiness but nevertheless be indescribably happy itself because it has become love. But as long as the human being stays on earth he also has to struggle with self-love, and yet he is allowed to have it to a small extent, otherwise I would not have spoken the words: "You shall love your neighbour as yourself ...." Man has the right to take care of himself, but he must never forget his neighbour about it ..... And if the measure of self-love is still great, then he must also show the same measure towards his neighbour, thus he must perform many works of neighbourly love, and thereby his soul will also attain maturity .... Therefore, greater demands can also be placed on life if suffering fellow human beings are also considered, thus a life of well-being, as it were, obliges the human being to increase his activity of love if he wants to comply with My commandment .... if he also wants to mature spiritually despite physical well-being. You shall love your neighbour as yourself .... Thus I Myself have by no means curtailed the pleasures of earthly life, for as long as you give the same to your fellow human being which seems desirable to you, you are justified before Me, but with increasing maturity of soul these desires in you will always decrease, yet love for your neighbour will increase. For this is the effect of a right love for your neighbour, that it then fills your whole heart and desires less and less for itself .... This is why I was able to apply this standard when I gave you the commandment of neighbourly love, because love then finds the right measure itself, but first a stimulus had to be given which also grants the human being himself what he owes his neighbour. Anyone who has already ignited the spark of love within himself no longer needs this stimulation, for now another urges him .... now I Myself can determine him from within to works of neighbourly love, for I, as the eternal love, am in every person who has kindled love within himself .... Hence it is always a matter of the human being deciding to work with love, that he first gives the same measure to his fellow human being which he also desires for himself, because at the beginning of embodiment self-love is still strong and a limit is now set for this self-love by My commandment of love, but the human being can determine this himself .... Therefore you can also justifiably make demands on life, but just as you also observe My commandment which places love for your fellow human being first and foremost on your heart. But this is why people mostly fail, for they don't observe the measure, their self-love is far stronger than their love for their neighbour, and thus they don't feel love for Me either, for My adversary controls them as long as My commandment leaves them unimpressed ....

Amen

Translation handled by Doris Boekers

Conscious fighting against self-love and lack of love

Commandment to love one's neighbour .... self-love ....

B.D. 3272 from September 27th 1944, taken from Book No. 42

The commandment of neighbourly love should put a stop to self-love, for this is the death of the soul. A person is only allowed to love himself to a small degree, i.e. he should be careful with God's gift of grace insofar as he protects his life from wanton harm and does everything that preserves this life, because it is not given to him without purpose. However, as soon as he loves himself excessively he does not fulfil his actual purpose of earthly life, for self-love does not ennoble the human being but degrades him. But love for one's neighbour must inevitably reduce self-love, and that in the same measure as love is practiced for one's neighbour. And since the human being has the opportunity to practice neighbourly love in the most extensive way, he will soon be able to surpass self-love many times over, yet it always requires an overcoming to do good to the neighbour if love has not yet kindled into a bright flame in the human being's heart. And that is why God gave the commandment of neighbourly love, because the person who has love within himself does not need the commandment. But where self-love still predominates, man must be stimulated by the commandments to fight against the former, he must first be accustomed, so to speak, to pay less attention to himself for the sake of his fellow human beings. If he forces himself into active neighbourly love, even if initially without an inner drive, love will nevertheless soon ignite in him and he will then carry out the works of love out of an inner drive to help and please .... And then self-love diminishes and yet he does the greatest work of love in himself, for he saves his soul without selfish thoughts, for he practices love for the sake of love and goodness .... And thus love for God also grows in him, which is expressed in love for his neighbour .... For loving God with all your heart means keeping His commandments, and His commandments demand love .... love for everything God has created, but in an unselfish way, for selfish love only seeks self-interest and is therefore not divine love. And if the human being does not fight selfish love he will constantly go backwards in his development, for divine love will then remain alien to him, but this alone will bring him redemption. Ego love wants to possess everything, however, it only seeks earthly goods and thus hinders the development of the soul, for only the giver will also be allowed to receive. But anyone who loves himself more than his neighbour will not want to hand out anything and therefore will not be able to receive anything either. But since God measures according to the human being's will to give, he must first be urged to give through commandments, and as he now complies with the commandments he will also be considered by God. And thereby he is slowly educated to love activity, which can then also become more and more unselfish the more the human being fights self-love. And only then will he also recognize the blessing of neighbourly love, because it makes him all the more happy the more it is the instinct of his heart. And the more the human being awakens to life, whereas self-love causes him to fall prey to spiritual death .... Love must be practiced if the spirit is to come alive in the human being. And this is why God gave him the commandments, for the human being is constantly in danger of losing himself to the opposing force if love for himself prevails, whereas he comes ever closer to God the more he gives himself up, thus overcomes self-love, for love for his neighbour earns him God's undivided love which seizes him and unites with him and makes him the most blissful being on earth and one day in eternity ....

Amen

Translation handled by Doris Boekers

Fight against longings and passions ....

B.D. 6286 from June 16th 1955, taken from Book No. 68

Deaden your every longing and you will mature in the shortest possible time .... If you have the will to become perfect everything that is still pulling you down into the abyss has to be overcome .... and this concerns all longings and passions which still adhere to you from the time of your preliminary development .... and which still cause you so much trouble because My adversary influences you through these instincts and longings and thereby intends to prevent your return to Me .... But these instincts and longings are an obstacle for your union with Me, because they are ungodly attributes which a perfect being cannot have .... and which therefore first have to be overcome before the union with Me can take place.

The human being has to fight against every craving for material things, for this always involves a greed to own something which belongs to My adversary's realm, which therefore merely serves to satisfy the senses .... regardless of what it is .... As soon as a person's physical senses delight in it they are longings which find earthly fulfilment .... This includes everything that provides the person with a sense of physical well-being, if it is actively pursued by the person himself and therefore lacks the foundation for spiritual endeavour: the realisation that all earthly things are transient.

I will also endow people with earthly possessions and their earthly life, too, will be blessed and offer them everything, and that in abundance, as soon as I recognise their spiritual aspiration, as soon as their love applies to Me and I Am their first goal .... Then My love will give to them abundantly, and even their earthly life will be blessed and offer them everything because it will no longer harm them, since it will not captivate their senses. However, as soon as a human being still has a powerful desire for earthly pleasures, possessions and stimulation he has to fight it, for these longings are My adversary's weapon which frequently help him to be victorious. Nevertheless, the human being will not become unfit for life on this earth, his strength will grow but he will utilise it differently .... He will want to work spiritually and only find satisfaction therein .... yet instantly slow down if he sets his sights on the world again and sees something that he desires to own ....

This is why 'the kingdom of heaven suffers violence and the violent take it by force ....' Earth is the kingdom of the fallen spirits, it is My adversary's realm .... Anyone who seriously thinks about this will also know that everything desirable in the material world always requires the payment of tribute to him and that everyone who pays this tribute also belongs to him .... He will also know that there cannot be any compromises between Myself and him, that I want you completely and that a human being who still has his eye on My adversary's kingdom will hardly reach Me ....

You should not allow yourselves to be captivated by the world, you have to exercise self-control with the things that still appear desirable to you, and you then seriously have to suppress your cravings for them, you ought not to give into them, but you may enjoy without reservations what I bestow upon you Myself .... You may be pleased with what you receive without having greedily aspired for it .... what My love gives to you because you belong to Me, because you have recognised the purpose of earthly life and are now willing to be of service to Me ....

But be content with it and stifle every arising craving and always recognise in it a trap set by My adversary to win you back for himself .... Without an inner struggle you will not be victorious over him, but if your endeavour applies to Me then you need not fight any longer, then the world will no longer attract you, then your yearning will aim towards heaven .... then matter will have lost its power over you, then you will learn to despise it .... it will have to be of service to you because you will have become its master ....

Amen

Translation handled by Heidi Hanna

Transformation of nature .... Fighting against perverted love ....

B.D. 6557 from May 29th 1956, taken from Book No. 70

The greatest benefit of your earthly life is the union with Me. You must see your goal in it, and you must not rest until the union with Me has taken place .... You can bring about this union consciously and unconsciously but you must always believe in Me first. You must acknowledge Me as a Being with Whom you now desire to have contact. This desire in you is already proof that the will, which initially still belonged to My adversary, has turned towards Me. And as soon as you now mentally occupy yourselves with Me you consciously unite yourselves with Me, even if the right bond first requires that you first transform yourselves, that you make an effort to adapt your nature to Mine, because I can only unite with perfection, but this perfection can also be achieved by you .... Hence you first must shape yourselves into love, because My fundamental nature is love. But as soon as you mentally establish the bond with Me, as soon as you pray to Me, strength will also come to you to be able to accomplish this change of your nature. Your will now is Mine and therefore I can give you strength, which was not possible before, since belonging to My adversary also implies resistance at the same time, i.e. defence against My power of love. Therefore, the change of will is necessary first, only then the change of nature can happen, which requires Me bestowing power. My power, however, is the radiation of love .... and it will have an effect again in loving activity .... As soon as you carry out works of love you make use of this power and thereby draw Me Myself ever closer to you .... I am Love Itself, and therefore the uniting with Me can only take place when love joins love ...., just as no work of love can be accomplished without Me. For this reason you can also unconsciously establish union with Me if you live in love, even if you do not mentally seek the bond with Me .... Yet such thoughts will certainly arise in you later and will not leave you any more, for the conscious acknowledgement of Me Myself must take place so that you can be saved, and it will also take place where I Myself can be close to the human being because he works with love and thus makes use of My power. It is not so difficult to find this union for the person who is not dominated by selfish love, but it is difficult where selfish love prevents the person from unselfish neighbourly love .... Thus My adversary dominates the human being's thoughts there, no ray of love from Me has access there, I am still far away and the bond with Me is neither established willingly, thus consciously, nor unconsciously. And without love the human being is still so imperfect in his nature that I Myself cannot unite with him .... Then the human being will not reach his goal on earth, and it will also be difficult to bring him to think differently in the kingdom of the beyond, for as long as he is dominated by selfish love he will not be touched by the hardship of other souls either, and he will never be able to receive strength because he will never allow the will to help to arise within himself. Therefore the most important and also most difficult battle on earth is the battle with oneself, the battle against wrongly directed love, which must be changed into complete unselfishness in order to be capable of being addressed as 'love' which changes nature. Where only an attempt is made I will help out with My power, for love must find love, only then will you be able to unite with Me and remain united forever ....

Amen

Translation handled by Christian Taffertshofer

Warning against the enemy .... fight against him ....

B.D. 6706 from December 5th 1956, taken from Book No. 72

My adversary's activity is unusually noticeable, for he causes discord wherever he can. He thereby leads people into spiritual and earthly distress, he tempts them into unkind actions, he creates enmity which can never give birth to good, and with a sneer he watches as people incited by him fight each other, as they try to harm each other and thereby completely fall under his control. You humans must be careful and learn to regard every bad word, every bad action as his work, and you must defend yourselves against it. For the more you give in to him the tighter the chains he puts on you will close. Where I can work there is peace and harmony, mutual understanding and forgiveness, because love is there which allows My working. And it is just as easy to recognize the territory where My adversary resides, for unkindness, hatred and enmity, betrayal and discord prevail in his area .... And you should avoid this area if you don't possess so much strength yourselves that you can confront the adversary, that you succeed in creating order by virtue of your love, in balancing and ousting the adversary. But he has great power in the end time which people themselves concede to him, for they mostly stand isolated in the world .... isolated from their creator and sustainer, isolated from the good spiritual world, and therefore they are good targets of My adversary's attack who, without finding defence, can approach them and who also draws them into his domain. For there is no longer much faith and love to be found amongst humanity which alone makes My presence possible and is a strong protection against him. People are already no longer alarmed by the fact that such obviously loveless actions and speeches are recognizable .... They rather call it a just struggle to master daily life and thus to repay eye for eye, tooth for tooth, what is done to them, be it in living together with fellow human beings or also in material terms .... They don't see My adversary's work in it, instead, each one seeks to assert only himself, and any means is fine with them. But they are already under his control if they merely allow an unloving thought to arise in them, if they use harsh words or carry out actions which lack love .... And they should let themselves be warned and flee from the one who wants to captivate them, they should seek peace and tranquillity in Me, they should resist every ignoble thought, they should try to compensate with love what unkindness has caused, then they will deliver a just fight to My adversary which will also find My support, because I can intervene helpfully where I see such an attitude which is according to My will. Seek to withdraw from every impure sphere and if you are unable to live in community with people who do not deny My adversary access .... then join Me all the more closely and you will find peace and tranquillity in Me, and My messengers of love will close a circle around you which the dark world cannot break through. But be mindful and look around you how My adversary continues to be active .... Recognize him and turn away from him. Everyone will have the strength to do this who only seriously wants it. He is overpoweringly active in the last time .... But an abundance of grace makes it possible for you to withstand and not succumb to him .... Make use of this grace, call upon Me for protection and strength against him, and your call will truly not be in vain ....

Amen

Translation handled by Doris Boekers

Fighting or serving in earth life ....

B.D. 7097 from April 19th 1958, taken from Book No. 75

No human being's earthly course will remain without struggle, everyone will have to fight battles, and he should do everything in his power to become and remain a victor .... For only through constant battle will his soul mature, which at the beginning of its embodiment as a human being still harbours a lot of immature spiritual substances, which will affect it all the more the more conscientiously it wants to fulfil its earthly task .... For this is also the battle My adversary wages for these souls, that he tries to influence the still immature spiritual substances to express themselves in his will. And if the soul earnestly desires Me, then it must above all resist those desires which clearly betray My adversary's influence .... which requires much seriousness and strength but is nevertheless possible with a constant request for My help through the application of strength. Yet every victory in such battles against himself, i.e. against his own desires and vices, will increase his strength and also increasingly deny My adversary access .... for such a victory is at the same time a pushing back of self-love. And since the supply of strength on My part increases, it will now be applied to unselfish loving activity .... and this also means coming closer to Me and detaching oneself from My adversary. And therefore it can also be said that the human being has to fight or serve during his earthly existence .... as service testifies to a battle which has been passed and which has preceded 'service with love'. Anyone whose inner being is already filled with unselfish love will also have to endure less difficult battles, or he will also be able to resist more easily if he is pressured by My adversary to do his bidding. By virtue of his love he will also be able to bring the still immature substances of his soul and body to maturity more quickly, for through his unselfish love, through his 'service to his neighbour', he also secures My presence, and thus I am also the surest protection from the adversary .... Inner battles are still signs of a certain power over you, whereas serving with love already proves your affiliation to Me, which liberates you from his yoke. But by being unkind you show that you still belong to him, and therefore you will then also be exposed to hard battles, you will, as it were, have to use force in order to acquire the kingdom of heaven. But if this is your will then you will truly also receive strength to be victorious over the one who wants to prevent you from entering My kingdom. But woe to those who are indifferent to everything .... who are neither willing to serve with love nor want to do conscious soul work on themselves .... who therefore will rarely only have to fight inner battles but are rather willing to fulfil My adversary's will .... Although earthly they will often have to endure a less difficult earthly fate, unless I take hold of them with an iron hand by trying to make them think differently through hard blows of fate .... But then this will also mean hard inner battles in which they will have to prove themselves. No victory can be achieved without a fight, impure substances of the soul cannot be purified without a fight, and without a fight the human being will remain on the same level of development if love is not unusually strong in him, that love is and remains the victor .... that My adversary's attacks and temptations are therefore immediately repelled with the strength of love, which is strength from Me. For love achieves everything, love will also easily master the purification of the still immature spirit, love will only ever want to be of service, and a loving person establishes unity with Me of his own accord, and therefore he has a far more powerful lord and protector at his side than the one who would like to ascend to lord. But every battle you pass will also strengthen your strength of love, therefore you need only ever appeal to Me for an influx of strength and this will result in the ability to master all passions, faults or vices and now, instead of satisfying self-love, to carry out selfless works of love .... For this is your task, your aim on earth, to shape your nature into love .... which My adversary will always want to prevent and which requires a constant battle on your part. But you can be and remain victorious in this battle if you call upon Me in Jesus Christ to strengthen your will, to give you strength and to release you from the one who still keeps you bound ....

Amen

Translation handled by Doris Boekers

Fight against selfish love ....

B.D. 7557 from March 23rd 1960, taken from Book No. 80

Much is demanded of you if you are still completely dominated by selfish love, for then it means a struggle for you to overcome it and change it into unselfish neighbourly love. But you must remember that you only take care of your body as long as you satisfy your selfish love and that you do not collect any spiritual treasures which will one day make up your wealth in the kingdom of the beyond. You must remember that your stay on this earth is not eternal but that you have to fulfil a task: to change your nature into love; for you enter earth as a human being with only a small degree of pure, selfless love, which you should now increase if you don't first have to kindle love in yourselves .... But selfish love dominates you, and you should suppress it, which always means a fight against all desires which demand fulfilment for physical comfort. Your attention must be directed towards your fellow human being, and it must be the human being's endeavour to carry out works of love if he wants to change himself, i.e. his nature, into love. He must learn to renounce for the sake of his neighbour, he must be willing to make sacrifices for the sake of his neighbour, he must be urged from within to do good to his fellow human being, and his self-love will become ever smaller the stronger the human being's will. And that is why it is said that the “kingdom of heaven suffers violence, and only the one who needs violence seizes it for himself'." Whose selfish love is still very strong will have to use great violence to reduce it, the charms of the world will constantly be placed before him, for God's adversary will tempt him wherever he can, and it will be difficult to resist all those temptations, he will have to use violence .... but he will succeed as soon as his will strives to fulfil his earthly task: to change his nature. He will be supplied with strength because he wants to reach his aim .... And in order for him to strive towards this aim he will repeatedly be reminded of the commandments of love for God and his neighbour, and if he is of good will he will first only fulfil his duty, he will strive to fulfil God's commandments .... until he is then driven from within to work of love and the fight against selfish love becomes ever less, for he will become victorious over himself if he is of good will. Yet most people are dominated by selfish love, they only think of themselves, love has grown cold in them and therefore they cannot become overcomers, they will only ever seek earthly advantages and not think of their life after death .... And their fate will be a bitter one, for they will enter the kingdom of the beyond poor and miserable, where it will also be difficult for them to ascend, because even then they will not want to give up their selfish love, because even then they will only think of their own fate and the fate of other souls will not affect them. It is particularly difficult for these souls to relinquish their selfish love, and they will have to remain in adversity and torment for a long time before they change and turn their gaze to the souls in the same predicament. For this reason anyone who still gives up his selfish love before he has to surrender his earthly life is to be called blessed on earth .... For once the soul has become acquainted with true love it will also be able to detach itself more easily from what it would otherwise not want to give away for its own sake. And then the danger will no longer be so great when it enters the kingdom of the beyond; then it will also be able to feel love for its neighbour and ascend more easily, one day it will also attain beatitude, because the more it practices love itself the more its love will increase. And it will have much opportunity to do so, for God helps every soul so that it can detach itself from darkness and reach the light ...._>Amen

Translation handled by Doris Boekers

State of weakness .... love gives strength ....

B.D. 8326 from November 11th 1962, taken from Book No. 88

You should never believe that I will withdraw My love from you if you have failed, for I know about your weakness, I know about the afflictions you are exposed to on My adversary's part and I also know about your will which is devoted to Me. And therefore I will only ever help you up when you have fallen, but I will never pass you by without having granted you support. Time and again you will get into difficulties, time and again the enemy of your soul will try his hand at you, and your resistance will always flag, even if it is only for a short time, for since your will is meant for Me you will also confess your weakness and call upon Me for help. And you can be sure of it .... you will also no longer consciously sin because you want to belong to Me and have also manifested this to Me through your inner attitude towards Me, yet time and again you will fall into states of weakness, for My adversary knows exactly where you are still vulnerable and he always attacks you there .... He takes advantage of your weakness and wants to tempt you into sin .... Therefore you should always be vigilant and pray for strength so that you will not fall in hours of temptation .... Yet you need not fear the enemy, for as soon as you stand by My side he will no longer be able to control you, for I am truly stronger than he is and I will protect you as soon as you desire My protection. But earthly life will remain a battle for every human being until the end because he is not yet perfect, for My adversary will not give up struggling for your souls for that long either. But anyone who has once given himself to Me can also be certain of My constant protection. And no matter how persistently he will exert his influence .... I will pour out My grace to the same extent and influence people with My love who want to escape him and his power .... It is only ever a matter of your free will which lord it turns to. And as soon as you believe in Jesus Christ and His act of salvation you need only call upon Him to strengthen your will, and truly .... the adversary will lose, you yourselves will emerge victorious from the battle waged for your soul. But without a fight your earthly course would also be unsuccessful .... Unless love is so brightly kindled in you that you are constantly of service, that you then have already reached a high degree of maturity which pushes the adversary away from you, for service with love is the only means from which he flees, because it spreads a bright glow of light in which his evil activity is recognisable. The human being must serve or fight until the end of his life .... Serving with love will make him happy himself, for it will earn him an abundance of strength .... But the fight requires strength, and this he must request from Me or acquire again through loving activity. And if you now stand in love then you will no longer fall into states of weakness in which you succumb to the enemy of your souls, in which you become sinful .... where you stumble and can easily fall. Therefore only ever make an effort to live a life of love and all weakness will leave you so that you will be able to resist all temptations of the adversary and only fulfil My will. For through your activity of love you draw Me to yourselves, and where I am My adversary has lost all right and all power ....

Amen

Translation handled by Doris Boekers

Prayer for strength .... Overcoming ego love ....

B.D. 8461 from April 7th 1963, taken from Book No. 89

I take all your weaknesses into account and will truly not ask for anything that is not possible for you to accomplish .... And so that you can remedy your state of weakness at any time you need only make use of the grace of prayer .... For as soon as you only pray for strength in order to be able to carry out your soul's work you will receive it, for through prayer .... if it is directed towards Me in spirit and in truth .... the contact between you and Me is already established and the strength can overflow into you. Hence it only applies that you decide to pray, to send a heartfelt call to Me that I may take care of your weakness and help you to reach the goal which was set for you in earthly life. But in order to be able to pray sincerely you must also believe alive .... you must be convinced that your God and creator is also your f ather, Who does not think sparingly of any of His children when they turn to Him and request help because they feel too weak themselves to fulfil My will .... But My will is that the human being lives in love .... And because self-love is still stronger he has to fight against it and feels too weak to do so .... But if he asks for My help in complete trust then he will always think less of himself and the caring love for his neighbour will become stronger, and the more he now practices love the more he will also be happy himself, since love itself is also the strength which remedies his state of weakness. You can truly be confident that your prayer for strength will be answered, for if you come to Me of your own free will I will also reward you and give you what you ask for, and if you are first concerned about your soul's salvation, that you thus request strength for your spiritual ascent and thus prove to Me that you strive for Me and My kingdom, then you will also receive everything else you earthly require ..... but whether I grant you earthly wishes, if only such move your heart or cause you to pray, depends on your maturity of soul or also on the danger such an earthly fulfilled wish can be for you. But My ear will always be open to you as soon as your call comes from your heart and you intimately unite with Me. This is why you need not fear a state of weakness, you need never think that I will set you unmanageable tasks, for I want nothing more than for you to practise love, and this can only be achieved through a battle against self-love, for which you therefore should and may request strength. For you are weak creatures due to your past fall into sin, where you gave away strength and light in the blindness of your thinking .... But if your thinking has only changed to such an extent that you turn it towards Me, then your state of weakness will also change and you will be amazed at what you are now able to do with My strength, which I irrevocably give to you as a result of heartfelt prayer in spirit and in truth. Therefore you need never be discouraged, even though time and again you become aware of your powerless state .... For He Himself is the source of strength from eternity, He also supplies all His creatures with it without limitation, only the creature has to open itself to receive it .... And this happens through the bond with Me in prayer .... This is why prayer is a grace of utmost importance, because you achieve everything with it .... Only the strength of your faith determines the degree of strength you receive, and this faith will become ever stronger if you only test it once, if you sincerely commend yourselves to Me and confidently wait for My help .... I truly leave no prayer unfulfilled because I Myself want your strength to increase, so that you will become powerful and light-filled beings again, as you were in the beginning .... Only I cannot provide you with strength against your will but you must come to Me yourselves and desire strength, you must open yourselves through heartfelt prayer and you will truly be allowed to receive everything you need in order to mature while still on earth .... And the body will also be considered so that it will serve the soul to mature, so that it will then use the strength to work with love and thus fulfil the purpose of earthly life. Don't fear your weakness, for I will be able to be powerful in the weak if only he turns to Me Myself in his weakness and asks Me for strength and light and grace ....

Amen

Translation handled by Doris Boekers

Love constructive force .... lovelessness destructive force ....

B.D. 3910 from October 21st 1946, taken from Book No. 49

The strongest driving force on earth should be love .... but if greed, which arises from self-love, is greater than love, the human being will miss his purpose of earthly life and his embodiment on earth will not bring him spiritual success. And therefore love, which is the sole purpose of his earthly life, cannot be preached to the human being seriously enough, for existence as a human being is only a short phase in the spiritual's ascent development which, however, can also ruin the infinitely long time of development beforehand if the human being, in freedom of will, does not make the divine law of love the fundamental principle of his earthly change. The commandment of love must again and again be presented to people as a divine commandment so that they observe it and live accordingly. And if it is therefore disregarded, the human being acts contrary to divine order, and this always has a clearly recognizable effect. Everything is out of harmony with order, to the sorrow of people themselves who live without love. For even an apparent order of external living conditions is only maintained through increased unkindness, which will always cause harm to fellow human beings, to themselves or to their possessions. All thought, speech and action which lacks love will have detrimental consequences for the soul and body of the person who lives without love .... But at the same time, as it is directed against the neighbour, it will also harm him and thus kill love but not awaken love .... For all unkindness is a driving force which has a destructive effect, opposite to love, which is in itself a force which builds up and sustains .... For it is divine, and everything divine is animating strength, thus unkindness, as completely opposite, is a strength which leads to death .... The initially ignorant being, the human being at the beginning of his earthly career, must therefore be informed of the blessing of love as well as of the spoiling unkindness .... He must be instructed and love must be presented to him as the most desirable thing on earth. And if he violates the commandment of love he must feel the effect of unkindness in himself. For this reason God will never ever intervene to prevent people from carrying out actions without love which violate all divine order, for love has to be practiced voluntarily, and thus the human being's will cannot be curtailed so that he will learn from the effects of his unkind actions, speech and thoughts how far he has distanced himself from the eternal order and strive back of his own accord .... so that he will change to love in free will. And therefore the destructive effect is not diminished by God either, and therefore there can only be a state of greatest adversity and physical tribulation on earth if love has diminished amongst people .... but also the activity of love alleviates the greatest suffering and shows people the right way to also establish orderly living conditions if only they are willing to work with love. For unselfish activity of love works wonders .... And where unkindness has caused destruction on the greatest scale, loving activity can create complete balance, and people will live in order who make the eternal law of love their fundamental principle, as it is God's will. Yet only love restores this order, for it alone is the strength which creates, enlivens and sustains, it alone is the strength which makes people happy and leads them towards their final aim .... it alone brings them success, for the sake of which the human being walks on earth .... he develops upwards, he approaches God, Who is eternal love, and his soul unites with Him through love ....

Amen

Translation handled by Doris Boekers

Love – power reception .... love has grown cold .... serious reminder ....

B.D. 4990 from October 29th 1950, taken from Book No. 56

Every service of love has the effect of receiving strength .... If you humans would take this to heart there would be no weakness whatsoever for you, neither in faith nor in knowledge, and your life would be easy. You would receive back a thousand fold what you pray for out of love, and therefore you would not have to fear any earthly worries .... But what is the situation in the world? Adversity and misery, unbelief and ignorance characterize people's state, and all this points to the end .... Love has grown cold among people .... Hence they also lack strength, which is the result of the working of love. It is a weak humanity which passes away in spiritual darkness. Love has grown cold amongst people .... You cannot measure how serious this is for their souls, for they thereby prove their remoteness from God, because closeness to God inevitably means receiving strength, but closeness to God is only assured through loving activity. But what do you humans want to achieve if you are far from God .... Then every endeavour will only lead to the abyss, no matter how eagerly you create and work; for without God you are enslaved by the one who is His adversary and to whom alone you owe your wretched state. God alone is your salvation, if you do not seek Him you will be lost for eternity. God alone is strength and power and glory, and in His nearness you will live in bliss. But if you are far from Him, if your spirit is darkened, if you walk blindly and powerlessly on earth, and if you enter the spiritual kingdom blindly and powerlessly, your wretched state will increase due to your guilt. Love alone sets you free, love alone brings you closer to God, love imparts strength and light to you, love redeems you. Overcome yourselves, you who are still strongly stuck in selfish love, turn to your fellow human being and have open eyes for his suffering; help him, be constantly active in unselfish love. Then you will increase in strength and light, you will strive towards God Who reveals Himself to you through your activity of love, to Whom you unite through your activity of love so that He works with and in you. Love has grown cold among people .... Take care that you do not belong to those for whom there is no salvation anymore because they have left God. Seek to secure His nearness through loving activity and make sure that your strength increases, that you believe firmly and steadfastly and let your faith come alive through love. Then the earthly world will no longer burden you, you will live in constant striving for the spiritual kingdom, you will feel God's presence and be full of love and strength, and since you now live in and with God you will succeed in everything, your spiritual as well as your earthly work will be blessed .... Do not let love grow cold, so that you will not belong to those who have to fear the near end, who are far from God and become a slave to the one who is His adversary ....

Amen

Translation handled by Doris Boekers

Arrogance ....

B.D. 5341 from March 21st 1952, taken from Book No. 59

Do not exalt yourselves above your fellow human beings but serve them .... Only then will you practice true discipleship of Jesus, only then will love be active in you which eliminates all arrogance, which teaches you to regard your fellow human beings as brothers and which compensates for every difference in rank or status, which only exists in the world but is not tolerated in My kingdom. Servant love will trigger true happiness in you, in servant neighbourly love you are true followers of Jesus, the human being on earth, Who exemplified the right life to you, Who truly possessed light and strength and power in all abundance because He had received Me Himself into His heart, and Who nevertheless made no use of this strength by ruling and allowing Himself to be served by His fellow human beings .... He served His brothers in deepest love and humility; and this elevated Him to ruler over worlds and countless creations, for I Myself took His external form and filled Him with light and strength. Arrogance is a characteristic of one who has fallen into the deepest depths out of arrogance and lust for power. And if you humans are arrogant you willingly lend your ear to him and let yourselves be seduced by him, you accept his characteristics, his vices and are in bondage to him. Do not place yourselves above your fellow human beings, who are in truth your brothers, because you all have only one father and as His children should love and serve each other out of love for Me. Arrogance will easily cause your downfall, for anyone with an arrogant spirit will very soon no longer recognize Me, Who am eternal love, because there is no love in him. For true love is one with humility but not with arrogance. Serving in humility always testifies to profound love for Me, which is expressed in serving neighbourly love. And you will truly gain far more if you serve with humility than if you rule with arrogance. For you can only gain earthly power through arrogance, yet spiritually you will gain nothing, indeed, you will only lose the little you possess. For arrogance is My adversary's share, thus it only strengthens his kingdom, and it is not difficult to guess what this means for you humans. But My kingdom is not of this world, therefore serving neighbourly love can certainly result in an apparent earthly loss of goods, of reputation and power, yet it acquires spiritual values which are everlasting and will one day be credited to the soul in My kingdom, which now stands far above those who ruled on earth and oppressed their fellow human beings in light and fullness of strength. He who exalts himself will be humbled .... Remember these words and don't believe that what you create for yourselves on earth through arrogance will remain with you .... which you, so to speak, acquire unjustly. For the one who wants to rule takes .... he takes what is not his due, he appropriates a right and abuses his power .... Servant love, on the other hand, gives unceasingly; in words and deeds it gives itself to those who are in need and who need its help. Servant love is true humility and therefore pleasing to Me, servant love is true following Jesus, which leads safely to Me, to the father from eternity ....

Amen

Translation handled by Doris Boekers