Open Up Your Heart!

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.’

+ + + + + + +

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.

+ + + + + + +

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

4016 - "I knock and you do not receive Me...."

God’s little love spark in the heart

6941 - God's gift: the spark of love, a part of Himself....

7726 - Tiny spark of divine spirit in the heart....

The heart as a thoughts receiving station

0962 - Mental activity.... Heart.... Brain....

2111 - ?resNotTranslated?

Heart and mind thinking

2302 - Emotional and intellectual thinking.... Truth....

2806 - ?resNotTranslated?

Conditions for the operation of the spirit: Actions of love

3518 - Acquiring wisdom.... research and brooding....

4060 - Conditions for the working of the spirit.... God-connectedness through love....

Make the heart a home for God

3795 - "Let Me take up residence in the heart.... "

5515 - Purification of the heart as the temple of God....

5587 - Humility....

2466 - ?resNotTranslated?

3238 - Exhortations.... (John 14.) dwelling in the heart....

5296 - God's dwelling in the heart of man....

Presence of God in the heart

3596 - God is the Word.... God's presence.... Different conveyance of the Word....

6687 - Active in love signs of God's presence....

Connection with God by prayer

3597 - Appeal for inner enlightenment....

3682 - Praying with humility....

6012 - Silent prayer.... Public confession....

8738 - What kind of prayer will be granted?....

Mental connection with God

2787 - Listening within.... Gifts from above.... Everything that is good is divine....

3732 - Exercise to hear the voice of the spirit....

6859 - Blessing of mental communication with God....

The voice of the heart

1565 - The voice of conscience....

3199 - The inner voice....

4410 - Inner voice....

Inner feeling and urge

2104 - Innermost feeling guiding principle for way of life....

4736 - God speaks to man through the heart....

3308 - Inner prompting is God's instruction.... Subordination of will....

4104 - God's will - voice of the heart.... Inner urging....

Hear the speech of God

7258 - Prerequisite for hearing God's voice: Detachment from the world....

5753 - Listening to God's voice....

3381 - The audible Word....

Reception of the word - order to spread

6511 - Knocking at the door of the heart.... Love condition for acceptance....

7858 - God answers every question through the heart.... I.

Open the door of the heart

6283 - Opening the heart to spiritual gifts....

6947 - Opening the door of the heart.... communion....

2762 - ?resNotTranslated?

"I knock and you do not receive Me ...."

B.D. 4016 from April 4th 1947, taken from Book No. 49

Anyone who does not listen to Me deprives himself of the greatest grace, and one day he will regret it when he has come to realize what My revelation means for the human being. I Myself descend to earth and incline towards My creatures who do not make the slightest attempt to come close to Me. I speak to them as a father speaks to his children .... words of love .... and seek to win their hearts and make My children blissfully happy by instructing them and introducing them to the eternal truth. I offer them spiritual wealth, a treasure which is indestructible and which you can also only receive from Me, for which there is also no substitute, neither on earth nor in the beyond, and which secures eternal life for you. I make provision for eternity so that it will be blissful for you, so that you will live and not fall prey to spiritual death .... And therefore I Myself come to you in the word because I want to make you blissful creatures .... And you do not receive Me .... You let Me knock in vain, and you don't open the door of your heart to Me, which I want to possess because I love you. And one day you will realize what a precious gift of grace you left unnoticed, and the remorse will be great .... Yet I cannot order you to accept My word, for you are of your own free will and have to decide for yourselves, and I also have to offer you the most precious gift, My word, in such a way that you are not forced to accept it. And therefore I have to convey it to you in such a way that you can certainly believe the divine origin but not prove it, for proof of it would be compulsory faith, which I will never use if you are to attain the degree of perfection. Yet it will be easy for you to believe that the word originates from Me, Who is the word Myself from eternity. For My word only teaches love, and anyone who seriously examines it will only recognize love in it and the divine origin will be undoubted to him, for love always demonstrates divinity, because love and I are one. But anyone who rejects without examining has no desire for Me, for truth, for love, for grace and for eternal life. And he will have to answer for it himself that he did not listen to Me .... and he will also prepare himself little for eternity. He will live without thoughts as to how his life should be shaped after the death of his body, he will only pay attention to his earthly life, and he will not hear My voice because he will let it be drowned out by the voice of the world. And the end will come, the day when everything will be cleared away and only those will be saved who have become My own, who accept My word and live accordingly and thus have a rich treasure of grace at their disposal which will make them blissfully happy in the spiritual kingdom .... in eternity ....

Amen

Translation handled by Doris Boekers

God’s little love spark in the heart

God's gift: the spark of love, a part of Himself ....

B.D. 6941 from October 11th 1957, taken from Book No. 74

You are lacking light and strength because you are still imperfect. However, without light and strength you will not attain perfection either and would hopelessly have fallen prey to a wretched state were you not granted help and first given light and strength, which subsequently enables you to reach the state of perfection. Hence, at the beginning of your life on earth you are oblivious of the correlations, of the meaning of your earthly life and your task, you are completely without knowledge .... you are lacking light .... And if this is brought to you by way of being instructed of your earthly task then you, on the other hand, lack the strength to attain your spiritual perfection as long as you don't acquire the strength for yourselves, which can only ever happen through kind-hearted activity. And for the acquisition of this strength .... thus for being lovingly active .... you usually lack the will, because your imperfect state also signifies an exceedingly weakened will .... So this is how you are at the beginning of your earthly life which was only given to you to shape your imperfect nature into becoming perfect. Your life on earth would therefore be incredibly hopeless had God's love not granted you something to help you attain perfection again: He placed a minutely small spark of His infinite spirit of love into you .... This tiny spark of love is His share, it is inseparably united with Him, it is spirit from His spirit, light from His eternal essence of light and strength at the same time .... This tiny spark is capable of achieving a change in you so that all imperfection will fade away and enable you to leave this earth as radiant beings of light. But this requires you to kindle this tiny spark yourselves, that you provide it with nourishment so that it can spread out .... it requires you to allow the divine spirit of love to impel you into activity of love, for that is its task, it is God's help that this spiritual spark constantly tries to influence you from within to do works of love .... because 'love' equals 'light and strength', because ignorance and lack of strength fade away as a result of activity of love .... because love is the only mean to become as perfect again as the being was at the start. Without this spark of love no-one would reach this goal in earthly life, for the being had once completely rejected all of God's illumination of love of its own free will and was no longer able to love correctly, which is its legacy of the one who was the first to renounce God's love ....

Thus the human being is this once-fallen being which believed itself capable of existing without divine illumination of love .... Admittedly, it could no longer perish again but the state of a fallen being became a completely different one than as it was originally created .... For only love is the invigorating strength which enables the being to be blissfully active, without love the being is dead and in spiritual darkness and therefore must also feel tremendously wretched. Yet despite having formerly rejected His love God placed this minutely small spark of love into every human heart and so established contact between Himself and the person, which, however, must also be utilised by the person, because even this spark of love, the part of the divine spirit, does not coerce the human being's will. Nevertheless, with gentle urges it tries to influence this will to practice love, which then can ignite a flame in the person's heart spreading light and at the same time providing the person with strength to change his nature. Therefore it is possible for every human being to obtain light and strength for himself in earthly life, but since free will must not be excluded God's spirit of love remains in the background and does not compel a person into activity which causes his perfection .... on account of which countless people fail to make use of the great gift of grace and thus remain in darkness and weakness from which only activity of love can release the soul ....

Amen

Translation handled by Heidi Hanna

Tiny spark of divine spirit in the heart ....

B.D. 7726 from October 15th 1960, taken from Book No. 81

And My name shall be glorified before the world .... For you shall recognise Who reveals Himself to you by the effect it has on you and within you, you shall feel it in your heart when you are being addressed by Me and then consciously praise and thank Me because you recognise Me. The measure of My love is boundless and will never run dry, time and again the spring of love and strength will open and pour out over you and many times you will be able to sense your Father's presence .... It is My grace which I pour over you because you, like infants, are still weak and need My help. And if I thus reveal to you that I dwell within your midst then stay in silent worship and hand your hearts over to Me. And I will accept everyone and with loving care lead them to perfection. And you will start to live in heartfelt unison with Me .... for you have found your way home to the Father Who is inside of you because you have prepared an abode for Him, you opened the door of your heart when I knocked with a desire to enter. When you entered this earth as a human being I came to you, I placed a tiny spark of My divine spirit into you, a tiny spark of love, which was intended to grow into a flame and unite with the fire of My eternal love again .... Hence there is a small part of Me Myself in you when you embody yourselves as human beings on earth which establishes a connection with Me but of which, however, you must first become conscious by looking for contact with your God and Creator of your own free will, which will already exist because you have the will to be in contact with your God and Creator. This tiny spark of God in you characterises you as a divine living being if you allow it to break through. And it can break through in you if you change your nature into love. For you once changed your nature of pure love into the opposite; you adopted My adversary's nature who is totally devoid of love and thereby distanced yourselves from Me. All the same, you were the children of My love, you came forth from My love and I will never ever let go of you or hand you over to My opponent because I love you far too much. However, you would never find your way back to Me again if I did not provide you with a minute spark of My divine spirit for your life on earth, because this tiny spark of spirit shall guide you towards Me, it shall push you to Me, it shall prevail over the body and draw the soul .... your real Self .... close in order to unite itself with the spirit and thus also accomplish unity with Me, the Father-Spirit of eternity. And this spiritual spark lives in you but keeps silent until you, through your will, set it free to communicate with you .... And then I will manifest Myself in you .... Then you will have fulfilled your purpose of earthly life and your life will just be a constant prayer of thanks and praise, for then your nature will have changed itself into love again, since without love My tiny spark of spirit would not have been able to come alive .... But once My spirit can make itself known in you it proves that I Am present in you Myself .... it proves that the child has found its way home to the Father, that it has overcome the wide gulf which kept it separate from the Father for eternities .... that it is now illuminated by My strength of love as it was in the beginning ....

Amen

Translation handled by Heidi Hanna

The heart as a thoughts receiving station

Mental activity .... Heart .... Brain ....

B.D. 0962 from June 13th 1939, taken from Book No. 18

Unite in faith and pay attention to My Words, for the spirit in you will noticeably express My will. And if you live up to My will your life will irrevocably lead to the goal. The thought is spiritual strength, it propagates and is therefore the best evidence that it is not something dead, that it lives and invigorates and is in constant contact with the person's mental activity. Regular nourishment through spiritual strength is essentially the human being's mental activity. The human being is capable of receiving this flow of strength and effectively diverting it to the heart which, as a receiving station for spiritual strength, makes constant use of the nourishment and, thus utilised, returns it to the brain-centre where it, in a manner of speaking, activates the human being's mechanism .... This process is still entirely incomprehensible to the human being, since up to now he is advocating the mistaken opinion that only the brain carries out its organic activity and that the rest of the body is not involved at first until the will moves into action and then the body implements the mental activity .... but that, in fact, the heart is the receiving station and that an elimination first happens there as to how far the human being is willing to accept the spiritual strength, that is, the transfer of thoughts .... and this happens in a way that the body, and with it the brain as an organ, consents to either keep the received spiritual transfer as spiritual knowledge or merely senses it as a vague notion and instantly dismisses it again.

For this reason it happens so often that opposition makes itself felt when a particularly insightful and willingly receptive soul also wants to impart the information received in the heart to the brain .... The latter refuses to accept it completely, sends it back to the human heart, where it is received again with sadness, sent repeatedly up until the brain's opposition wearies and subsequently acts as it should, since it is now determined by the strength of the spirit .... which grows increasingly stronger the more the brain's opposition wanes. Mental activity can only be fully explained in this way .... and provides the answer to the question why the same wisdom, which people are made aware of in the same manner, will be completely differently received, i.e. believed. In fact, it is simply due to a person's will to what extent he accepts and utilises the spiritual information received by the heart .... whether he therefore effectively offers resistance through the mere activity of the organs, which only utilise the spiritual strength so far as they need for their essential activity, thus for purely earthly thinking .... However, in order to solve spiritual problems the cooperation of the heart with the thinking organs is indispensable, because everything spiritual first takes the path to the heart until it is passed on, and then it will also have to be fully accepted by the organs, which are responsible for mental activity. And, once again, a heart living in love, will be incredibly richly endowed with spiritual strength and therefore the person, who shelters love within himself, will increase his spiritual knowledge and he will live in brightest realisation ....

Amen

Translation handled by Heidi Hanna

2111 - ?resNotTranslated?

Heart and mind thinking

Emotional and intellectual thinking .... Truth ....

B.D. 2302 from April 14th 1942, taken from Book No. 32

Every human being deems himself as living in a state of realisation if he advocates an opinion he formed intellectually. Nevertheless, this opinion need not always correspond to truth. God gave the human being intellect and free will, but He also gave him a heart .... As long as the intellect wants to find a solution for a spiritual question without the heart, he will hardly come close to the truth, for the truth comes forth from God and can only be received by the spirit and not from the body which is, after all, of matter. Intellectual thought is merely a function of the body .... but the heart is the seat of all emotions, the heart also shelters the divine spark of love and therefore the spirit, which is a part of God. A thought born in the heart, thus originating from the divine spiritual spark, can therefore always claim to be based on truth, for the spirit only imparts purest truth .... But whether the thought was born in the heart or is merely a product of rational thinking depends on the heart's ability to love. The more deeply the human being is able to love, that is, the more he strives for unity with God through loving activity, the clearer the thoughts will arise from his heart and enter the person's consciousness. For these thoughts are spiritual strength which flows forth from beings united with God and into the heart of someone who likewise unites with God through his activity of love. Whereas intellectual thinking is merely the function of physical organs, thus the utilisation of the human being's received vital energy, which can also be used by the person who exists without love, i.e. whose heart has little ability to love. Intellectual and emotional thinking should thus be separated. The latter will always arrive at the truth, whereas intellectual thinking need not always be the truth, even if one can speak of well developed reasoning power.

Only love is decisive, i.e. determinant of the truth. The human being has little information about the nature of thought, and therefore the difference is not clear to him. The thought born in the heart only has one thing in common with intellectually gained spiritual knowledge, both have to reach the brain in order to penetrate into the person's consciousness, and this makes the human being assume that every thought originates in the brain, that it therefore was intellectually achieved. Nevertheless, the mental knowledge of a loving person, hence a person whose life is a constant activity of love, has to be entirely differently judged than the purely intellectual thinking of someone with little capacity to love. The former will come close to the truth, whereas the latter offers no guarantee for truth and knowledge. For God reserves the truth for Himself and only distributes it to those who acknowledge Him, desire Him and demonstrate this through activity of love. Consequently, that which flows forth from a loving heart can be accepted as truth without hesitation, for such thoughts are subject to a certain surveillance through knowledgeable spiritual beings, whose responsibility is the transfer of thoughts and which therefore diligently watch that the person will think correctly. For through his activity of love the human being acquires the right and the claim for the light beings assistance, which now guard the person from thoughts which contradict the truth ....

Amen

Translation handled by Heidi Hanna

2806 - ?resNotTranslated?

Conditions for the operation of the spirit: Actions of love

Acquiring wisdom .... research and brooding ....

B.D. 3518 from August 20th 1945, taken from Book No. 45

Do not search and ponder but pray and listen within yourselves if you want to become wise. For wisdom is spiritual knowledge which corresponds to truth, which can never be gained through research and brooding but which is gladly and abundantly offered to you by the spirit within you, which is God's share from eternity. Make contact with the spirit within you by enabling its working, by awakening it through loving activity and then listen attentively to what it tells you. This process can only be understood by the person who has experienced it himself, who has fulfilled the conditions which the working of the spirit requires .... who is lovingly active on earth .... And this person has experienced that the voice of the spirit expresses itself in him as soon as he closes himself off from the world and attentively listens within until it reveals itself. But without the working of love God's spirit cannot become effective in him, without the working of love the person who researches and ponders will therefore never become wise either. He will consider a process impossible which earns him true knowledge as long as he has not made the test himself which promises him rich success. The spiritual connection must be established in order to receive spiritual knowledge which corresponds to truth. And spiritual knowledge alone is valuable, spiritual knowledge alone is constant and should therefore be striven for first. Earthly knowledge will then likewise be given to the human being as required, as soon as he first strives for wisdom, for knowledge which outlasts all earthly things. Depending on his earthly task earthly knowledge will also come to him, for the spirit in him now directs all his thoughts as soon as the human being has made his effectiveness possible. Yet he must never strive for earthly success for the sake of earthly reward, instead, love for his fellow human beings must drive him to be eagerly active on earth as well. And every desire which arises from the love of the heart will be fulfilled, for now the spirit of God can work in him unhindered because there is no longer any danger that the human being will lose his heart to the world and thus earthly success can no longer endanger him either. For the human being does not value earthly success differently than the increased joy of being able to give and distribute to the needy. And as soon as earthly knowledge is used to make his fellow human being happy, to help him in physical hardship, he will also be blessed, and spiritual knowledge will also be guaranteed to him, and only then will he be wise .... he will possess wisdom, offered by God Himself but never acquired through research and brooding. God sets His conditions for the acquisition of wisdom, the true knowledge from God. And whoever fulfils this condition can truly draw from the fountain of wisdom .... And his thirst for knowledge will be quenched and he will be able to instruct his fellow human beings again, he will also be able to show them the way to attain the right knowledge. He will preach love to them, which alone allows the working of the spirit and therefore absolutely has to be practiced if the human being wants to be truly wise ....

Amen

Translation handled by Doris Boekers

Conditions for the working of the spirit .... God-connectedness through love ....

B.D. 4060 from June 9th 1947, taken from Book No. 50

You can receive knowledge from all fields if you so desire and allow yourselves to be instructed by the voice of the spirit. But the condition is that you first fulfil what I demand of you, what is made known to you through My servants .... that you thus accept My teaching of love and act accordingly .... This is the prerequisite for then also penetrating deep knowledge. If you receive the same knowledge through human instructions without first working with love you will not know what to do with it, you will also not be able to pass it on to your fellow human beings in a living way, for since it has not yet found its way into your heart yourselves you lack both the gift of speaking about it as well as the zeal of inner conviction, and it will remain entirely ineffective in the ears of those who listen to it unless the required working with love makes the listener able to receive the wisdom with heart and intellect. Then My spirit will work as in those persons, he will be instructed by the spirit within himself, albeit through the mouth of the one who is full of understanding himself for what he passes on. The right attitude towards Me, towards My commandments, is the basic condition in order to have truthful knowledge, no matter in which way and in which form it is offered. And therefore, these proclamations, which are conveyed to people from the spiritual kingdom as mental spiritual knowledge, can never be examined by a person who lacks the main thing .... the bond with God through love. A just examination and a just judgment irrevocably necessitates the working of the spirit, and My spirit only works where all influence on the part of the adversary is eliminated, where the divine spiritual spark establishes the connection with the eternal father-spirit, which is only possible by shaping oneself into love. In every situation of life the human being can shape himself into love, and therefore every human being can also let his spirit become effective, yet the reception of spiritual knowledge must also be practised, otherwise the voice of the spirit cannot be heard, just as the thoughts must be paid attention to if the spirit cannot express itself audibly. It is not a language of the world which the spirit speaks, they are words of light and love, words which convey realisation, profound knowledge and purest truth and which express God's great love, which a good father speaks to His children. And thus the heart has to accept these words, for the intellect alone can certainly receive the content but never grasp its depth, because the divine word has to be felt, not merely heard. And this is a matter of the heart, otherwise God's love cannot be recognised and thus cannot become effective either. The human heart is the seat of feeling, i.e., the soul communicates to the body through the heart and equally the spirit also wants to express itself through the heart. The spirit intervenes in the soul's life of feeling and thus likewise wants to be heard by the body; it wants, as it were, to unite with the soul for the same activity. It wants to draw the soul over into the spiritual kingdom and also make the body submissive to its will. And therefore the human being must help in this unification of the body with the soul, he must want to be given to by the spirit within himself, to be instructed, and do everything in order to hear the voice, which is only possible when he has shaped his soul through an unselfish life of love such that it now leans more towards the spirit than the body, that it is driven by the heart to desire light and love, so that its desire will now be fulfilled. For this is the condition that the gifts of the spirit are desired. The intellect alone, however, will certainly examine or judge but never be influenced by feeling; the intellect alone demands evidence which cannot be produced in spiritual truths, but the heart is content and lets its feeling pass for an evidence and will therefore judge more reliably and correctly and recognise truth as truth. It therefore possesses an ability which the intellect cannot claim. And thus it is understandable that the results of the working of the spirit can only be judged correctly if the examiner himself consults the spirit within himself and if he makes himself worthy of its expressions, i.e. fulfils all conditions which earn him the working of the spirit. For then his knowledge will also become profound and extensive and all relations will become clear to him which he would never be able to fathom by merely thinking intellectually. For God hides Himself from people who are still distant from Him so that they will come to Him and appeal for His help, so that they will call upon Him for enlightened thinking, for this call comes from the heart and will also result in what is helpful for the soul to unite with its spirit .... The heart will be allowed to receive love and grace and never come away empty-handed if it opens itself through heartfelt prayer to God, Who will always hear it ....

Amen

Translation handled by Christian Taffertshofer

Make the heart a home for God

"Let Me take up residence in the heart .... "

B.D. 3795 from June 9th 1946, taken from Book No. 48

Let Me take abode in your hearts, let Me become effective in you and thus be in you with all strength .... This is your aim on earth, that you shape yourselves in such a way that nothing will prevent Me from dwelling with you and that, through unification with Me, you will become My children forever. However, you first have to remove everything impure from your hearts because I cannot dwell where there is filth, where My eternal order has not yet been established, which My living creations have overthrown through their own will. Only where there is order, where My law of eternity is observed, can I Myself be there and make you happy temporally and eternally. But My law of eternity demands love, and to walk without love also means to live in disorder which excludes My presence. Thus you must shape yourselves into love and you will fully and completely fulfil My will, and if you keep My commandments of love you will be pleasing to Me, I will approach you Myself, I will find a well-prepared dwelling place in your hearts and can take abode therein, and you may then constantly cultivate contact with Me .... You now carry My spirit within you, recognisable to yourselves, for you can always and constantly hear it. There is now no longer any separation between the spiritual spark which rests within you and the father-spirit of eternity, for you carry Me Myself in your heart, you have united yourselves with Me through love. All of you should try to reach this aim, let Me already take abode in your hearts on earth and you will already be blissfully happy on earth. For what My spirit offers you are treasures for eternity which will make you more happy than earthly possessions which you will no longer desire once you have accepted Me Myself into your hearts. My spirit guides you into all truth, My spirit gives you the power of realisation .... I Myself always and constantly teach you the highest wisdom, I give you food and drink and take over every care for your spiritual and physical well-being .... For now I am the Lord in My house, I rule and reign in you who have freely accepted Me into your heart, into My house, which I will never ever leave once you have offered it to Me as a dwelling and prepared it well. And My presence is now your bliss .... In My presence you will feel safe, I am a comforter to the forsaken, I am a protector to the anxious, I am a friend and brother to My Own, just as I am the most faithful father to all My children from eternity. And I constantly distribute gifts of grace, strength and light, as I have promised .... I consider My Own because they have given Me the right to care for them, because they have offered Me their hearts themselves and prepared them for reception through love. And thus My word comes true, for it is truth and will remain truth for all eternity ....

Amen

Translation handled by DeepL(www.deepl.com)

Purification of the heart as the temple of God ....

B.D. 5515 from October 24th 1952, taken from Book No. 61

I want to dwell in you: .... Therefore your heart should also be such that I can dwell in it, and I can only dwell where all ungodliness has been removed beforehand, I can only be in a temple of love, in a vessel which is worthy to shelter Myself in it. And it requires a great deal of work on oneself to shape the heart in such a way that I can dwell in it .... for as soon as a piece of rubbish is removed it spreads again, and the work has to be done tirelessly until the heart is adorned with the virtues which now allow Me to take abode in it .... I am full of love and patience, thus you must also be so; I am gentle and peaceful beyond measure, and thus you must also make an effort to become like Me; I am full of forbearance and understanding for all weaknesses and demand the same from you, even if you will not reach the degree which still shapes you into a divine being on earth. I forgive those who have offended Me and repay them with all kinds of gifts of grace, and thus you should not hold any wrong against a fellow human being, you should treat those who have offended you with equanimity and kindness, and you should give them love and thus also try to win their love .... You should always take My life on earth as an example, since I, as a human being, had to struggle with the same oppositions and yet remained victorious because love gave Me strength, which you, too, can receive at any time if only you give much love. Such a purified heart will soon realize Whom it contains, for love attracts Me so powerfully, love adorns the heart and nothing can remain next to it which could prevent My presence. And you should not judge .... You should leave it to Me, and I truly judge justly but still differently than you, because I also love that which is still distant from Me and want to win it one day. Try to live on earth according to My example and the attempt will be rewarded to you .... For anyone who seriously wants will also receive My strength in full measure in order to be able to carry out his will. Anyone who seriously strives for inner perfection will achieve it, for he will soon feel Me as his helper within himself, and together with Me everything will become easy for him, even the attainment of a degree of maturity, which shall be the striving and aim of all of you. Your heart will become and remain a dwelling place for Me, and I Myself will be present to you for all eternity ....

Amen

Translation handled by Doris Boekers

Humility ....

B.D. 5587 from January 27th 1953, taken from Book No. 61

Approach God in all humility and He will lovingly draw close to you. Listen to the voice of your heart, don't become arrogant in spirit when His love becomes obvious to you but always remain humbly devoted to Him, then the measure of grace He pours out on you will be inexhaustible, then you will truly be His children who have found the path to the father's heart .... Humility must completely fill you, and even the greatest gift of love must not let you become arrogant, for it is only His greater than great love which bestows that gift upon you but not your worthiness. What is weak is lovingly regarded by God as soon as it recognizes its weakness and humbly withholds itself from eternal love .... Then it will truly be showered with an abundance of grace which will secure you a high ascent. And thus a simple explanation is given to you humans when and how God bestows His gifts of grace; information is given to you as to what alone is necessary in order to receive a richest measure of grace .... Humility is presented as the virtue which is looked upon by God with eyes of love, which moves Him to empty Himself, to distribute an abundance of grace which surely leads the human being to the aim, to the union of the child with the father .... Just as a child approaches the father in all humility, so the human being must also feel humble towards the eternal father. But where humility fades, God also withdraws His grace. Humility, however, demands nothing for itself; humility feels so infinitely small in the face of the divinity, which it certainly suspects but does not dare to address. True humility will only produce a slur, it will not be able to express itself with words, for it does not dare to address words to the highest being, Which can already destroy with a thought what It once created .... Humility is silent and only falls down before the face of God, pleading for His mercy .... Humility waits patiently until it is raised up by His benevolent hand. And where you humans recognize this humility, there the flow of grace also flows uninterruptedly into the heart, there God's presence is evident, there the connection from earth to heaven is created, there God inclines Himself to earth and fills the vessel with His grace which is held out to Him openly, the heart which humbly surrenders itself to God in the knowledge of its unworthiness and weakness .... (27.1.1953) For humility of heart is the soul's highest adornment, it opens, as it were, the gate to the spiritual kingdom, it opens the source of grace, for where humility is there is also love for God, Whom the soul acknowledges as a supra-holy being, Whom it hardly dares to look up to but Whom it strives towards, to Whom it would like to make itself entirely its own: The soul's humble devotion to its creator and father from eternity is the shortest path to Him, for a powerful wave of love and grace carries it over all obstacles to the father's heart, Who graciously draws it to Himself because a humble soul is well pleasing to Him. True humility of heart need not be outwardly recognizable, rather it often hides behind an impenetrable nature, for true humility does not apply to people but to the God and creator from eternity, true humility does not venture forth, it walks silently, true humility does not dare to come forward, it walks quiet, solitary paths in modesty and never comes forward, it is without any self-love but always endeavours to make its fellow human beings aware of God's greatness and holiness, because it itself feels how small and miserable the human being is in comparison to His holiness. And it will find grace in abundance .... for its whole being is an abhorrence of the former sin of apostasy from God, Whom it would never ever want to offend and Who therefore grasps its will, which is fully turned towards Him, and draws the soul to Himself in the most ardent merciful love ....

Amen

Translation handled by Doris Boekers

2466 - ?resNotTranslated?

Exhortations .... (John 14.) dwelling in the heart ....

B.D. 3238 from August 31th 1944, taken from Book No. 42

Your heart should be pure and without dross if you want to receive Me in it. And thus you should make an effort to ennoble yourselves and only carry good thoughts within yourselves; every ignoble impulse should stay away from you, you should treat each other with peace and love, you should not allow any resentment or hatred to arise within yourselves, you should always be willing to help and use your strength to work in love; you should often pause in prayer and also remember the deceased, you should practice mercy and bear your fellow human beings' weaknesses with all patience and not want to excel but serve in humility and meekness wherever you can accomplish a work of love. For only then will you become like Me if you make an effort to follow Me in everything, if you constantly work on yourselves and discard all faults and weaknesses. Then I can take possession of your hearts and dwell and work in you .... This is an exceeding bliss already on earth, for if I Myself am with you there will be no more hardship, no more earthly suffering and no more pain .... For your body no longer feels anything, only before the world it still appears sensitive for the sake of people who do not yet grasp a high degree of maturity which allows My presence. And thus I am also not obviously recognizable, yet the earthly child which has fulfilled the conditions to revel in My presence feels My nearness and is exceedingly blissful. It hears Me and is happy about My voice .... And every person can achieve this happiness if he eagerly strives for perfection, if he does everything to gain My pleasure and shapes his heart into love. For then he will inevitably draw Me close to him and I will take abode in his heart and never ever leave him. But if you have shortcomings and don't make an effort to get rid of them, you create an obstacle for Me and My activity, and then I will remain eternally inaccessible to you. You must seriously want and request the strength from Me to carry out the will, and you must do everything in order to progress in your development, you must examine yourselves and fight your faults, you must compete in good and constantly strive to perfect yourselves, then My love will assist you and strength will flow to you .... your striving will be successful .... you will be able to receive Me Myself into your heart, and this signifies beatitude already on earth and eternal unification in the spiritual kingdom. For unification with Me takes all earthly hardship away from you, it makes you free and powerful, it relieves you of earthly heaviness, and knowledge opens up to you which makes you happy and stimulates you into utmost activity of love. For then My voice will continue to sound to you and I will teach you and determine all your ways, your actions, your thoughts and your will. Yet I do not force you but your heart, which is voluntarily offered to Me, carries the same will within itself, it has completely subordinated itself to My will, and therefore the human being can no longer think and want differently .... and this is the great bliss of being one with My will .... Therefore, strive for this union with Me with all diligence, work on yourselves and shape yourselves into love, so that I can be with you in all fullness, so that I can take abode in your hearts and you will no longer be lonely and forsaken .... so that My love can make you happy and My strength flow to you, so that you no longer walk the earthly path alone but have a constant companion in Me ....

Amen

Translation handled by Doris Boekers

God's dwelling in the heart of man ....

B.D. 5296 from January 15th 1952, taken from Book No. 59

I want to dwell in you .... I want My living creations to be completely permeated by My spirit, I want them to be filled with My fundamental substance, with love, so that I Myself irrefutably dwell within them and they have, as it were, become the envelopment of Myself, which signifies unlimited bliss for the being. I would like to dwell in all human hearts and be able to call all My creatures My children who have received the father within themselves .... Inconceivable beatitudes emerge from such a relationship of a child with the father, and to procure these beatitudes for My living creations is always and forever My aim and My striving. This is why the visible and the spiritual world were created .... the visible world in order to give My living creations the opportunity to achieve a deification of their nature for the first time, the spiritual world in order to offer these deified beings undreamt-of bliss. And in this spiritual world I Myself will then visibly present Myself to My children, in this spiritual world the child's relationship with the father will first take shape and through constant intercourse increase love to highest ardour until a complete fusion with Me can take place, which signifies unimaginable bliss for you. In the spiritual kingdom a constant ascent is certain as soon as the soul has found Me on earth or only in the spiritual kingdom. But until this turning to Me has occurred, often endless times pass, and during this time I struggle for every soul by wooing its love, because only love changes the will which previously did not belong to Me. But the change of will and conscious turning to Me then also guarantees the attainment of the final aim, the union with Me on earth already or also in the spiritual kingdom.

I want to take abode in your hearts .... The short time of earthly life shall bring it about that you have found your way to Me, and that is why earthly life is often difficult and arduous, yet once the aim has been reached you will be fully compensated for even the most difficult earthly life, for the spiritual kingdom will open up to you in a glory that surpasses all imagination .... For no human eye has ever seen and no human ear ever heard what I have prepared for those who love Me .... I only require your love, then the kingdom of beatitudes will belong to you, then you will enter the father's inheritance as My children, for then you will have truly become My children, because you have shaped yourselves through love into My image and now also possess light and strength in all fullness, which you now use in My will for the indescribable bliss of yourselves .... Let Me enter your hearts, open wide the door to Me .... become what I Myself am in My original being, become love .... so that I can abide in you and you in Me ....

Amen

Translation handled by Doris Boekers

Presence of God in the heart

God is the Word .... God's presence .... Different conveyance of the Word ....

B.D. 3596 from November 7th 1945, taken from Book No. 46

And thus I Am in the midst of you in the Word as I have promised. I won't leave you on your own and you shall also feel My presence, and so I draw near to you in the Word, for I Myself Am the Word and anyone who has My Word can also speak of My presence and feel protected near to Me. I Myself Am a Spirit Which is not bound to any material form but is strength and light to the highest degree and Which, due to Its will and Its thinking ability, has to be addressed as a Being, Which takes effect with love and wisdom and therefore emanates love and wisdom into eternity. And My love expresses the strength and the light in a form which you humans can become aware of, as you are not yet mature enough in order to receive strength and light in its fundamental substance .... And this expression is My Word, which I convey to you so that you shall gain maturity .... A Spirit which is light and strength in itself can in fact only be present in the form of light and strength, and thus My Word, the emanation of Myself, has to incorporate light and strength within itself, and this characterises My closeness. And therefore I gave you the promise that I will stay with you until the end of the world .... by the fact that My spirit is always with you who want to receive light and strength .... by the fact that My directly emanated Word is constantly conveyed to you in order to make My presence known to you. I Am with you .... and even if I don't visibly dwell among you, you nevertheless have the evidence of My presence in your hands if you recognise Me in the Word. For I Myself Am the Word .... and you will constantly receive it as soon as you desire Me and My being close to you.

Thus anyone who recognises Me in the Word will also be profoundly happy that I Am close to him, and all doubt, all fear and all worry will leave him because he knows that the One is beside him Who will helpfully support him in every adversity of body and soul. Consequently, My will grants strength and grace, for anyone desiring My Word will open the door to his heart through which I can enter in order to take abode in it. And I will never ever leave him again once his will applies to Me and he has recognised Me in the Word.

For the Word is the medium through which I express Myself, through which the most perfect Spirit of eternity reveals Himself to the imperfect beings in order to lead them to perfection .... I Am close to you .... So why do you who have My Word, who receive it directly or through the mouth of the recipient, still hesitate and worry .... I Am with all of you, because your desire for My Word demonstrates your love for Me .... And remember that only the flow of My Word to you gives you the certain proof that I Myself Am with you. Anyone who does not desire to hear Me does not desire My presence, his heart does not strive towards Me, for it would long for the expression of My love, for proof of My presence. Admittedly, the desire for My Word can certainly vary .... the human being can want to be comforted and strengthened through spiritual consolation, he can want to enrich his knowledge of spiritual spheres, he can also think of Me with gratitude and therefore want to express it by desiring My presence, he can want to remain with Me in intimate dialogue and accept My Word in his thoughts .... yet he must always be spiritually minded, then I will also let Myself be found and his call will draw Me to himself, and I will reveal Myself through My Word, since otherwise the human being would be unable to endure My presence. And likewise My Word will be conveyed to him in different ways .... through the direct working of the spirit within him so that he will be able to hear My Word himself .... through receiving it from a direct recipient who proclaims My Word on My instructions, or by way of mental transmission of knowledge from the spiritual kingdom .... through reading the Word I convey to earth .... through spiritual conversations with fellow human beings .... I will always look after a heart which desires Me, I will always be with those who want to hear Me, for I Myself Am the Word, and thus I Myself dwell amongst people if they listen to My Word with the sincere will to let Me speak to them. Then I will offer them the bread of heaven, My flesh and My blood .... And if they thus eat and drink Me Myself they have to be most intimately united with Me .... if they accept My Word in profound faith that I Am the Word Itself they will accept Me in their hearts and I will constantly please them with My presence .... For I gave you the promise that I will stay with you until the end of the world, and every Word of My promise will come true, because My Word is and will remain the truth for all eternity ....

Amen

Translation handled by Heidi Hanna

Active in love signs of God's presence ....

B.D. 6687 from November 10th 1956, taken from Book No. 72

The inner urge to be active in love is the surest sign that I Myself am present to you, for 'love' impels you and I Myself am love .... And I will constantly impel you to be active in love if you allow My presence within you, if you first unite with Me in prayer and thereby call Me to you .... And then you cannot but feel love, for you will be illuminated by My strength of love, you will be constantly urged by Me Myself to work with love. What a delicious assurance it is for you to know Me Myself present to you .... And therefore you will now also understand that unkindness also means being distant from God, that I cannot be where love has grown cold amongst people and that therefore little hardship is alleviated because people lack this inner urge to be lovingly active. And yet, this activity of love is the purpose of your earthly existence, for it means the transformation of your being or reshaping into what you were in the beginning. Every day of your earthly life is lived in vain which does not bring you one step closer to Me through love, for the purpose of earthly life is the approach to Me, the complete union with Me, which can only take place through love. And anyone who has kindled love within himself, who has kindled it into bright embers, can say with certainty that he has found Me, for where love is I Myself must be, because I am love, and where I Myself am present it is also possible to speak of the return to Me, which is the purpose and aim of earthly life. What bliss could people prepare for themselves already on earth where it is possible for them to completely unite with their God and creator, their father of eternity, through love? You only need to ask Me to come to you, to accept you .... and truly, this request would not remain unfulfilled for it is the purpose of life .... it is the conscious change of will towards Me from Whom you once turned away .... And as soon as you express this will to Me through your prayer, I take hold of you .... Your call attracts Me and lets Me be present to you, because this call also only comes from a loving heart .... And if My illumination of love touches your heart because it no longer offers any resistance, your heart will also ignite and then you will feel inwardly urged to be active in love, for then I Myself can be in you and My activity will always be love. And therefore the loving human being will also have inner peace, for it is I Myself Who smoothes all paths, Who always stands by your side, Who now takes care of you, to Whom you can safely hand yourselves over and in Whom you can trust that He will guide you safely and unharmed through earthly life .... You humans can all ignite the spark of love I have placed in you and let it flare up into a bright flame. And from that moment on you will all feel that I Myself am present to you, and then you can also be free from every anxious worry, for then you will have found the father and you will also walk the rest of your earthly path by the father's hand. But no human being can expect to be able to win Me Myself without prayer and without loving activity, for I keep Myself away from those who don't remember Me and whose actions only ever betray unkindness, for he is still full of opposition to Me, his nature has not yet changed, he is still a follower of My adversary who is devoid of all love .... But everyone has the opportunity to recognize Me and to change his nature into love, for I Myself step into every person's path, although I am not recognized by him, but I do not lack admonitions and warnings, I also illuminate the hearts of those people .... to kindle the spark of love in them with My warmth of love. But everyone must also allow the effect of love in his free will, he must give up his resistance against Me. Then I will also come to him and will not let up inwardly stimulating him into loving activity until he completely gives himself to Me and I have won him for ever ....

Amen

Translation handled by Doris Boekers

Connection with God by prayer

Appeal for inner enlightenment ....

B.D. 3597 from November 8th 1945, taken from Book No. 46

Every human being can appeal for the grace of inner enlightenment and he will receive from God what he desires. Correct thinking and the right kind of conduct will result if God enlightens the person's spirit, and thus anyone who prays for the grace of inner enlightenment will lead a way of life corresponding to God's will, for if God's spirit determines the person's thoughts and actions he will only accomplish what is good and need not fear to do wrong. Yet he will have to pay attention to the inner voice, he must hand himself over to the working of the spirit, that is, he must open his heart in order to let the thoughts conveyed to him from the benevolent spiritual side influence him. The human being's will determines the spiritual beings' influence on him. If he desires to become enlightened by God then God will assign beings to his side which will guide his thinking correctly, providing he does not oppose them. Opposition, however, would be an unbending will which cannot be guided, which, prior to the appeal for inner enlightenment, has had goals in mind and is afterwards unwilling to let go of them in order to entrust himself to God's guidance without resistance. Anyone appealing to God for spiritual enlightenment must be willing to meekly hand himself over to His guidance, he must only ever listen within himself and give in to the prompting of his heart which will urge him to do or not to do this or that. He must let himself be guided by his feeling, for this is God's voice as soon as the person seriously strives to do what is right. The more he lets his own will become active the less audible will be the spirit's voice, God requires a relinquishing of will, a subordination to divine will in order to be able to work in the person through His spirit.

God's spirit will speak audibly and clearly in all who unconditionally hand themselves over to God .... He will lead them through all dangers, He will guide their thinking right, and what they should then do or not do will correspond to divine will. Admittedly, this does not comply with human requirements which only consider it sensible to pursue a designated goal, which are thus intended to activate a person's own will and regard a relinquishing of will as a shortcoming. As long as the human being deems himself strong enough and believes himself able to master everything solely through his determination he will undoubtedly be able to achieve earthly success but never progress spiritually, for his thinking and activity will not always comply with God's will because he fails to appeal for God's spirit .... for inner enlightenment. For God's adversary interferes quite often with his thinking and activity; the person listens to suggestions made by the beings which are subject to the opposing power and his way of life will be lived accordingly. Therefore pray for the grace of inner enlightenment, pray for the working of the divine spirit within you, and then let yourselves by guided by the thoughts flowing into you .... comply with the urging of your heart and you won't have to be afraid to think or act wrongly, for God will answer your prayer and He Himself will work through His spirit in people who entrust themselves to Him .... as He has promised ....

Amen

Translation handled by Heidi Hanna

Praying with humility ....

B.D. 3682 from February 10th 1946, taken from Book No. 46

True prayer requires true humility, only then will it be pleasing to Me, for humility towards Me is also proof of love for Me, because love will never want to dominate but only ever be of help .... Anyone who therefore appeals to Me with a feeling of love in his heart will also be able to humbly approach Me and I will respond to his love and grant Him My grace .... However, anyone lacking true humility merely sends a fearful call to Me, Whom he certainly acknowledges in his heart but Whom he does not love because he has not become love himself and, because he does not love his neighbour, cannot receive love and grace from Me either. This is also often the reason why prayers remain unanswered, for I request humility of heart since it is the evidence of love for Me. Humility of heart excludes every arrogant thought, it excludes heartless actions, for love and humility go together and are not in opposition to each other. This is why a humble heart is well-pleasing to Me and which I will provide with grace and love in abundance. Profound humility, however, does not show itself in a person's external demeanour, for this is at all times abhorred by Me .... Humility towards Me only manifests itself in prayer and humility towards another person in helpful neighbourly love. External gestures, however, often feign humility while the heart does not feel it. I, however, look at the soul's motivation .... I won't let Myself be deceived by appearances, and therefore the sign of My grace will only rarely be found where an outward appearance of humility is given, where fellow human beings are intended to recognise such in gestures, in attitudes or humbly sounding words ....

I only pay attention to the humility of heart and these are the people I consider, although outwardly they assert themselves and don't display any kind of subservience. But anyone who actively engages himself in helpful neighbourly love will not elevate himself, he will always remain a servant of the Lord, for he complies with My commandment, he lives up to what his Lord requested of him, he subordinates himself to My will without having been forced to do so. And if he thus prays to Me his request will likewise be that of a servant to his Lord or that of a child to its Father, to Whom it subordinates itself in love and profoundly humbly entrusts its worries to Him .... it will not demand but request, which is a sign of humility, the acknowledgement of the One Who should grant its prayer .... and its request will not remain unheard .... Pray correctly and your wishes shall always be granted .... request but don't demand .... remain deeply humble in your heart so that My grace can flow into you and know that I will never require an external gesture, that external gestures are never pleasing to Me because they easily become a cover for those who are not profoundly truthful, who want to deceive and whose hearts feel different than it seems. Therefore take no notice of them or copy them, but be of loving service to your neighbour and you will be graced by true humility of heart which will find My pleasure and which I will be able to reward with grace in abundance ....

Amen

Translation handled by Heidi Hanna

Silent prayer .... Public confession ....

B.D. 6012 from July 30th 1954, taken from Book No. 65

Let those who worship Me do so in spirit and in truth .... Only what comes from the very bottom of your heart is pleasing to Me and will reach My ear .... Hence, I only look into a person's heart and disregard the words spoken by the mouth if the heart is not involved. If you are able to completely withdraw from the world in order to enter into heartfelt dialogue with Me, then you are already praising Me without words through your willingness to make contact with Me, then you are sending Me in thoughts a silent prayer, true worship, which will be a great blessing for your soul, for the connection with Me lets you gain strength and grace which is experienced by the soul as help for its maturation. This sincere form of prayer is the true prayer which is pleasing to Me, for then you have voluntarily approached Me so closely that the strength of My love can touch you, drawing you ever more affectionately towards Me. If you want to speak to Me then the spoken word is truly unnecessary, for this can easily intend to hide or pretend something, which I certainly recognise but which need not be evident to another person who allows himself to be easily deceived and then will use the same form of prayer himself ....

Step into your closet if you want to pray .... Withdraw into complete silence, you will be able to find Me there far easier and communicate with Me like a child with its Father .... And you will tell Me everything without fear and in childlike trust .... And your requests will be granted to you because then your prayers will reach My ear .... For I have promised you this with the Words 'Come unto Me all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest' .... Thus I will keep My promise with anyone who comes to Me, and this more evidently so the more trustingly he approaches Me, the more intimately he unites with Me and entrusts himself to Me in silent conversation. The spoken language is intended for your communication amongst yourselves .... But I don't need words for I know everything, I look into your heart and read your thoughts, and thus you cannot deceive Me no matter how beautiful your words are .... just as no words are needed if you want to exalt and praise Me .... because a silent expression of thankfulness, a humble call upon Me, a life following My will, a faith brought alive through love will truly please Me and include praise and thanks as well.

Yet you shall confess Me to your fellow human beings with your mouth .... Where it concerns your attitude towards the faith you shall confess Me freely and openly and not fear the consequences of your courage of conviction .... For this confession shall in turn be an incentive for your fellow human beings whose faith is still weak, and at the same time it demonstrates that you support the truth, that you don't want to give an outward impression which does not concur with your inner thinking, with your conviction. You shall always be true and put Me and My name above all else if this confession is demanded of you ....

But whatever you want to tell Me can be presented to Me by you silently and in secret, for I want to hear the voice of your heart and not just words spoken by the mouth without the involvement of the heart. And such prayers are tremendously powerful if they are sent to Me in unison .... if people come together imploring Me to grant a particular request .... if they all appeal for the same, if they send the same plea to Me, and even if it is just a short call .... I will hear it and grant it if they pray to Me in spirit and in truth ....

Amen

Translation handled by Heidi Hanna

What kind of prayer will be granted? ....

B.D. 8738 from January 28th 1964, taken from Book No. 92

I Am available to you whenever you call for Me .... Every heartfelt, pleading thought gets through to Me, every sound the heart utters is heard by Me and I will always turn towards you, for the child's voice penetrates and will always reach the Father's ear. And then I will be ready at all times to help if you need it, or I will provide you with spiritual strength if you ask for it .... I draw close to you and listen to your plea, because I rejoice in pleasing My living creations, in providing My children with what they need and request from Me. No call to Me in spirit and in truth will ever go unheeded and remain unanswered, every heartfelt prayer to Me will benefit you, and your souls will mature. Your call to Me should not just be a mere empty prayer .... And precisely this requirement is often lacking, for people were taught a kind of prayer that will never be able to penetrate My ear .... They often pray together reciting words they were taught and which never express the feelings of their hearts but which are and remain empty words that had better remained unspoken.

A heartfelt prayer has to rise up to Me from the heart and must be the result of an intimate union with Me, so that the child will then speak with Me as with its Father .... And even if it only stammers without using well-formulated words I will nevertheless understand this stammering and value it as a child's loving call to the Father, and I will listen and respond to it .... A prayer to Me is a bridge you can cross any time, yet this path is rarely taken .... because 'prayer' has become a mere formality, a recital of words whose meaning are not considered and which usually also obstruct deep devotion .... heartfelt thoughts .... of Me. Thereby the human being deprives himself of a great blessing, because he does not utilise the strength of prayer .... since no strength can flow to him if he does not make intimate contact with Me which, however, does not need many words, it just needs an utterly receptive heart for Me ....

In prayer the door of you heart should be wide open so that I can enter it Myself and permeate you with light and grace. Hence you have to be with Me in thought with all your love, your heart has to be completely devoid of all other thoughts, and then you should enter into a silent dialogue with Me and entrust all your cares and wishes to Me or .... if you don't come to Me with worries .... you should assure Me of your love, and for this you truly need no prayer events, no organised campaigns, no mass prayers .... unless a special request causes several people to ask for My help together, but even then it should take place silently and inwardly, for every external expression disturbs the inner contact, and the person will be unable to turn inwards such as to completely feel My presence ....Time and again I have to draw your attention to the fact that your customary prayers will not achieve much with Me, because I only take notice of the feelings in your heart and not the words voiced by your mouth, regardless how many people participate in such prayer .... This will always be abhorrent to Me, because it merely demonstrates your lack of sincerity to speak with your eternal Father, and because you even expect help from such prayers which, however, you will never receive, and thus you will start to doubt the love and might of a God again when you don't feel any help. You can achieve so much with a silent and sincere prayer arising from your heart, because I will never fail to hear it but rather take pleasure in it and will always be ready to respond and prove to you that the Father's love and might wants to make you happy. You cannot show your intimate dedication to Me better than by your heart's silent dialogue with Me, for you are unable to do this thoughtlessly .... as a mere formality. And then every word you say to Me will sound child-like and trusting, you will, in truth, establish a child's relationship with its father, and the child will achieve everything, because the father's love does not deny itself and constantly wants to please the child. But as long as people believe that their formal prayers will persuade Me to help them they will have little success and therefore, time and again, also doubt a God Who, in His love, is always ready and, by virtue of His power, able to help .... This faith, however, is a prerequisite for Me in pouring out the abundance of My grace over all people, and this faith also requires a living union with Me which will only ever be entered into by love, and therefore a loving person will achieve everything with Me ....

Amen

Translation handled by Heidi Hanna

Mental connection with God

Listening within .... Gifts from above .... Everything that is good is divine ....

B.D. 2787 from June 25th 1943, taken from Book No. 37

Every spiritual gift requires undivided attention for the divine expression of will; for this means that the human being must listen within in order to hear this declaration of will. God's will can only be revealed to someone who withdraws into his inner life, since God's voice is only perceptible in the human being's heart; hence, a person has to listen within if he wants to hear God's voice. And thus a person must first detach himself from the world, i.e., he must completely free his thoughts from earthly interests, he must establish a bond with the spiritual kingdom through consciously focussing within and enter into a silent communication with the spiritual beings in a perfect state or with the eternal Deity Himself. He has to present his spiritual adversity to God and appeal for being guided towards realisation, he has to try to live according to divine will and have the serious will to become worthy of God's voice, then God will also let His voice be heard in the heart of someone who wants to hear it. For God requires people who clearly and understandably convey to fellow human beings what the voice of the heart has imparted to them, consequently He will also always be willing to instruct people according to the truth. Therefore, He also expects the attention of those who are prepared to pass on the knowledge they receive. For this knowledge is so extensive that people can be offered something new every day and every hour. But it must also be accurately communicated, and thus the teacher himself must be knowledgeable and always and forever accept this knowledge, and this requires constant mental concentration, that is, the recipient must willingly detach the soul from the body and utterly hand himself over to the working of spiritual forces .... he must listen to what his spiritual friends impart to him and know that every message from the spiritual kingdom is offered to him according to God's will .... that he therefore receives the truth which he should pass on in exactly the same way. Thus, his own mental concepts must not precede the knowledge he receives but he must strictly keep to that which is offered to him from above. As soon as the person fails to listen to this voice in his heart he cannot be instructed either, for God will not manifest Himself more markedly as not to endanger people's religious liberty. However, to the listener His voice sounds so clear and pure that he cannot misunderstand it, and thus he grows in wisdom because he is instructed by God Himself, Who also avails Himself of His heavenly messengers in order to impart the truth through His devoted earthly child to people on earth ....

But God is at all times the Giver of gifts from above, for it is God's voice which can be audibly perceived by a person if he attentively listens within. Everything that is good is a divine gift .... everything that urges a person to do good, that teaches him to love and points him into the direction of God .... And these instructions are always given to a person when his striving applies to God and the eternal truth and when his heart has made itself receptive through the will to hear the voice of God and through a God-pleasing way of life .... otherwise the desire for God will not be rooted within the person. But then his thoughts will be influenced by God Himself and the spiritual beings devoted to God, and these thoughts will predominantly arise in his heart and need only be grasped by the person's will by means of listening inwards to the divine gifts he is offered. If the person lives a life of love these thoughts will make such an indelible impression on him that he will accept these thoughts without doubting that it is the divine voice, since through love he is already so united with God that he knows His will and always strives to fulfil it ....

Amen

Translation handled by Heidi Hanna

Exercise to hear the voice of the spirit ....

B.D. 3732 from April 1st 1946, taken from Book No. 47

You can distinctly hear the voice of the spirit in you providing you want to hear it and mentally make it known to God yourselves, since this mental expression of will enables you to receive thought transmissions from the spiritual kingdom. You cannot receive information unless you yourselves desire to receive it, but God responds to every heartfelt desire and gives to you in accordance with your degree of maturity and will. However, you have to observe the thoughts which approach you in a variety of ways when you ponder spiritual problems. They will affect you differently, appear to be acceptable or unacceptable to you and, providing you had prayed for enlightenment of spirit first, you can safely accept or ignore what you feel is right. Then you can follow your feelings and you will accept what is right but dismiss what is wrong. Thoughts from the spiritual world affect you in proportion to the strength of your desire for truth, so that a person who genuinely desires truth remains unaffected by wrong thought currents. In that case the influence of misguided forces is no longer sufficient to captivate a person, since the beings of light have free reign and the human being readily opens himself to their thought transmissions.

You have to practise this process of spiritual activity, i.e. you have to pay more attention to your inner life, withdraw into solitude more often, and if you would like clarification about a problem, spend a longer period of time in thought. However, this exercise always needs to be preceded by heartfelt prayer in order to establish a connection with God and thus also with the spiritual forces, who work in accordance with his will and whose actions consist of transmitting utmost truthful spiritual knowledge. This sincere connection protects you from contact with misguided forces who, understandably, endeavour to cloud and confuse your thoughts, because the battle of darkness against light and vice versa forms the basis of everything and will still continue for eternity. But anyone who acknowledges God as the most loving, wise and omnipotent being, who consciously enters into contact with this supremely perfect Being, who constantly strives to fulfil His will and then, having fulfilled these conditions, desires to know the pure truth, will not be left by God to fall prey to the forces of darkness ....

God Himself will instruct him and the human being need only open his heart, listen inwardly and consider his thoughts, and he will truly be on the right track and receive clarification when he desires it. Because God, the eternal truth, also wants to convey the truth to his living creations, but God, the eternal love, also requires the human beings’ will to shape themselves into love too, and anyone who endeavours to do so also aspires after truth, since God, love and truth are unthinkable without each other. And thus every human being who is willing to love and desires the truth is also able to hear the voice of God, Who expresses himself through the spirit in a person .... mentally or, in a state of advanced maturity, also vocally. And a person always receives the same truth, which is totally synonymous with the Word, which is directly transmitted by God’s great love to people on earth through awakened servants and prophets, who have voluntarily offered their service to Him in order to help erring souls in utmost spiritual hardship. For there is immense spiritual darkness and people urgently need help if they want to become perfect ....

Amen

Translation handled by Heidi Hanna

Blessing of mental communication with God ....

B.D. 6859 from June 28th 1957, taken from Book No. 73

Anyone who listens to Me when I speak to him takes the reliable path of ascent .... And I speak to all those who receive My Word, who in turn accept it from those who question Me in thought and who thus also may regard the thoughts they receive as My Words. You cannot think wrongly once you have acknowledged Me as the source of truth by directing your thoughts to Me, once you want to know the truth. Nor can you take misguided paths anymore once you appeal to Me for guidance .... But you must willingly offer Me the opportunity to speak to you, and that always happens when you mentally occupy yourselves with Me, your God and Creator, for every thought of Me calls Me to you, and I follow this call.

You should often occupy yourselves with Me in thought, because this means that your heart is receptive for My communication and because you can only ever gain by this, for then you will also constantly receive the strength to do what I ask you to do, what My communication conveys to you as My will. You have to establish the connection with Me yourselves, because you had once isolated yourselves from Me .... You need not do anything else but think of Me without a will of resistance .... I Am always willing to meet you as soon as I recognise in your thoughts the resolve to make contact with Me .... And then you are truly protected from taking misguided paths, since now that I can speak to you I have also gained influence over you. Thus it is truly not difficult for you to acquire an immeasurable amount of everlasting riches in earthly life, as this is the result of your mental bond with Me.

It is completely impossible to leave Me empty-handedly, it is completely impossible that I will not make use of such a bond and remain silent in you, for I Am only waiting for such quiet moments when you make contact with Me, when you enter into conversation with Me or approach your God and Creator with questions, and I will certainly answer you again in the form of thoughts, if I cannot speak to you directly through the inner Word. This is why every person has the opportunity and the right to communicate with Me, and every person will receive as much as he desires. Even if nothing is visibly given to the body, the soul can still receive unlimited riches for itself. I want to speak to you, and I will speak to every one of you who thus is willing to listen to Me, who wants to hear My voice .... You all should avail yourself of this assurance, you should excel yourselves and devote every free minute to Me, and you would truly use your time on earth well. Then the connection would be established ever more frequently, because you would desire Me from the bottom of your heart, Whom you now recognise as your Father and constantly wish to be spoken to by Him. And you will also gladly comply with everything, you will fulfil My will because you have already adopted My will as your own, because the constant bond with Me also results in a constant submission to My will and because you have become enlightened as to Who I Am and what kind of relationship exists between us .... Think of Me daily and hourly, never exclude Me from any undertaking, constantly let Me be present with you by mentally calling Me to you .... And you will truly not take the path through earthly life in vain, you will grow and mature and reach the goal .... You will join Me once more in order to never ever separate from Me again ....

Amen

Translation handled by Heidi Hanna

The voice of the heart

The voice of conscience ....

B.D. 1565 from August 13th 1940, taken from Book No. 25

You have no better indication for that which is right than the voice of conscience, the voice of the heart, which truly advises you correctly. This voice will often guide you to do what is pleasing to God. And if you sometimes don't really know what you should do, think or say then you may always call upon God in all sincerity and He will inform you of it such that all doubt, all indecision will fade away and your actions will become conscious and unambiguous. Every wrong thought triggers unease in you and every right thought will make you feel glad, for all good spiritual beings around you endeavour to mentally inform you as to what you should or should not do, and if you willingly accept these suggestions they will give you inner contentment, whereas the other way round they will awaken in you a feeling of unease in order to make you become aware of the inner voice. The prompting of spiritual friends into doing a good deed is often the reason that this deed will then also be carried out, for a person on his own is often too weak-willed if he is not stimulated to do good. And if he only listens to the inner voice he will be correctly guided. The realisation of that which is right will likewise awaken him if he wants to act correctly. For his God-inclined will persistently rejects what is wrong, after all, this will attracts the good and knowledgeable forces which will instruct him truthfully. Although adverse forces try just as hard to exert their influence they will only succeed if a person is weak-willed or indifferent and thus complies with every spiritual influence, completely oblivious as to whether he is being instructed by good or evil forces. This is where wicked forces have an easy game, although afterwards the voice of conscience will sound reproachfully and disturb his inner contentment. If attention is paid to this then the opportunity still exists that the good spiritual forces will still be able to be more persuasively effective, but often such silent reproaches deep within the heart only drive the person to try to drown them out, so that he will no longer take notice of them and thus deaden his conscience and no longer hear the subtle voice within. And this is extremely unfavourable for the soul. For then a person will find it very hard to perform kind-hearted actions, since he has insufficient strength to do so, but, since he is not stimulated by the voice of conscience to resist, he will not take refuge in God either, Who alone can make him strong-willed and send him spiritual strength to help him. If, however, a person cultivates the voice of conscience within himself, if he complies with everything this voice instructs him to do or not to do, and if he finally, after every question posed to the eternal Deity, listens to this voice, he is not likely to take any other path than the one which leads to realisation ....

Amen

Translation handled by Heidi Hanna

The inner voice ....

B.D. 3199 from July 25th 1944, taken from Book No. 42

Listen to the voice of your heart, it will show you the right way. A person's will is often undecided which proves that he is influenced by different spiritual forces which want to win him over for them. At this time the person must make a decision; he must not remain indecisive but ought to turn his will in one direction, and then he should pay attention to the inner voice which wants to advise him to use his will correctly. The more diligently he aspires to take the right path, the more clearly he will perceive this voice. Then it will warn him during temptations, it will strengthen his resistance, it will admonish him and always faithfully tell him if the person is in danger of wanting to take his own paths which don't entirely correspond to God's will. But it is almost imperceptibly faint in those who live their life unscrupulously, who care little about right and wrong. And frequently it will be silenced completely because the person fails to listen and the gentle voice will be drowned out by the voice of the world. In that case, the human being will be in great danger, he must make his own decisions and is more likely to allow himself to be determined by ungodly forces and he will act accordingly. A person with the will to live a good life, thus to live according to God's will, is never left without spiritual guidance, he will be guided, his thoughts will be directed, i.e., although his freedom of will is not being curtailed, the thoughts will come so close to him that he has to accept them if he does not consciously reject them. And if he is weak-willed the spiritual forces will try twice as hard to convey their thoughts to him and he will merely need to listen within, i.e., the human being need only enter into a silent dialogue with himself, and he will be mentally clearly instructed as to what he should or shouldn't do.

However, people often don't remain in this short contemplation, their thoughts fly all over the place, one moment here, one moment there, and this results in indecision, in hesitation, both in regards to good as well as to evil .... For this reason you are admonished time and again to pay attention to the voice of the heart, so that you will act clearly and determinedly and not digress from the right path. An indecisive resolve offers God's adversary an excellent target, for this is the start of his control over the former, and every temptation confronts the will with a decision to be for or against it. If, however, the person pays attention to his inner voice he will not have to fight for long, he will resist the temptation since he will be supported by the forces of light as soon as he pays attention to them and complies with their admonitions. Then he will also grow in strength, for his will entitles the beings of light to give him strength, whereas a lack of will prevents them from doing so. For no human being receives strength against his will, although the beings of light are concerned for the human being's soul with utmost love. Yet their activity is subject to divine law as well, which respects free will first and foremost. The inner voice, however, is only audible to someone who voluntarily listens within, and therefore it can never be considered coercion, it can be heard or ignored, it can be complied with but also disregarded, all depending on the person's will. It merely gently admonishes and warns the person, it assists the weak and guides the undecided; it will never push itself to the fore but will only be heard by someone who listens. But he will be guided correctly and able to live his life without worry, for if he complies with the voice of his heart he will also know that he conducts himself correctly and lives in accordance with God's will ....

Amen

Translation handled by Heidi Hanna

Inner voice ....

B.D. 4410 from August 19th 1948, taken from Book No. 51

If you believe you will also be able to hear My voice in your heart. But one thing has to be taken into account, that it sounds so subtle and quiet that you have to listen attentively, which requires a heartfelt immersion and complete detachment from the world. Anyone who waits for Me to speak out loudly will be disappointed if he waits in vain. And yet he could hear Me, for I am always ready to speak to My children on earth. And I always reveal Myself if I am approached in prayer. Anyone who is able to pray intimately and commune with Me is also able to hear My voice, for it is a continuous communion with Me which he now conducts if he immerses himself in everything he desires to hear. I know My own, and anyone who wants to speak to Me belongs to My own if his heart impels him to do so. But My own shall be properly instructed, therefore I Myself will answer their questions which they put to the spiritual world. And if it is necessary that you receive clarification about it, I will announce it to you and it will be as clear as day before your eyes. But how many questions are sent up to Me which I would like to answer and also do so but which are not understood because the questioner does not pay attention to his thoughts which surround him and which he only needed to receive. But such questioners are often erratic, they don't listen to their heart and therefore cannot hear My voice either. Then I can only give them an answer through My messengers, I can have the same conveyed to them which My messengers have heard. Yet again and again you humans should try to hear Me directly by sincerely praying for enlightenment of spirit and mentally entrusting yourselves to Me, so that I don't necessarily need to audibly make Myself known to you but your thoughts are right and you can therefore feel enlightened if you pay attention to your thoughts and understand them as My answer, which they then truly are if only you believe ....

Amen

Translation handled by Doris Boekers

Inner feeling and urge

Innermost feeling guiding principle for way of life ....

B.D. 2104 from October 9th 1941, taken from Book No. 30

The human being's innermost feeling is the guiding principle for his way of life. As long as a person asks questions he neither negates nor affirms anything, and then his inner voice will speak to him to which he only needs to pay attention in order to be on the right path. Being able to affirm is often very difficult as long as faith is lacking, yet only the will makes the decision. If it is good, then the human being will unhesitatingly accept what he is told by his innermost feeling, for with his questioning he opens his heart to the influence of friends in the beyond. But a person whose will is still controlled by the adversary keeps his heart closed to these suggestions. Thus he opposes and rejects them, that is, he negates. Paying attention to the voice of his heart will only ever be done be a person who is willing to do what is right, for he asks questions and waits for an answer. An unwilling person lives without asking questions relating to spiritual knowledge, because he negates everything of a spiritual nature, i.e., a life beyond the earthly life. And someone who does not ask questions cannot receive an answer. A person's thinking mostly revolves around earthly things, and he considers the time spent on spiritual research a waste of time. In that case, however, he is still so materialistically inclined that he lacks the sentiment for the gentle voice within himself. Therefore he will not pay attention to his innermost feelings either. Thus his inner voice will predominantly sound where the love for the world, the sense for all earthly things, for matter, begins to diminish .... Only then will a person occupy himself with deeper thoughts with the result that he will often question himself .... so that he then, in a manner of speaking, will also give himself the answer which, however, was actually mentally transmitted to him by spiritual friends .... For as soon as his will is good and does not reject God he will receive the truth mentally and he can confidently believe his inner voice .... hence his innermost sentiment .... and subsequently do what he is impelled to do. Only the will must aspire towards that which is good .... he must want to do what is right then he will invariably also be shown which path he should take ....

Amen

Translation handled by Heidi Hanna

God speaks to man through the heart ....

B.D. 4736 from September 11th 1949, taken from Book No. 54

Whatever your heart tells you to do, that you should do, for I speak to you through the heart, providing you want to hear My voice. Thus you can let your heart speak or your intellect, i.e. you can pay attention to your feelings or also let reason prevail, thus strive for some advantage through your actions, whereas the heart does not achieve this advantage. But if you want Me to advise you by first asking Me for instruction, then you need only pay attention to your feelings and what you do now will truly be right. Then your heart is merely the mediator of My will and you can follow its voice. Thus you will also be instructed according to your feelings, i.e. you will instinctively reject what is wrong and accept what corresponds to the truth. And this also explains why people who are intimately connected to Me instinctively reject misguided teachings when they are presented to them. This is a sign that their soul resists something that is unwelcome to it, that in its desire for what is right and true it is warned by the spirit within itself to accept something untrue, that it therefore unconsciously adopts a hostile attitude and does not hide its attitude but openly confesses it. Then I Myself will cause this person to express his rejection because I want misguided teachings to be branded as pernicious for the soul. But if a person's inner voice is silent and he does not recognize the wrongness of an action or teaching, then he does not ask for My advice but is convinced of himself or his ability to judge .... He does not ask and therefore cannot receive an answer .... I cannot speak to him through the heart because he is not mindful of his sensations. But the will to reject would nevertheless awaken in him if he were only serious about the pure truth which, however, he could only ever find about Me and through Me. Anyone who falls prey to misguided teachings must look for the blame within himself, for as soon as he demands the truth it will be offered to him. For I always speak through the heart to those who want to be instructed by Me, because I will not leave a person in error who desires the truth ....

Amen

Translation handled by Doris Boekers

Inner prompting is God's instruction .... Subordination of will ....

B.D. 3308 from October 27th 1944, taken from Book No. 43

God informs you of his instructions through your heart .... As soon as you feel prompted to do something, as soon as you are driven to it from within, you will always be instructed by the voice of God, providing you are making an effort to live according to God's will, that you thus strive towards Him and entrust yourselves to His guidance. Then you will be directed by His will such that you have the same will within yourselves because you have consciously submitted yourselves to His will; only then may you comply with the prompting of your heart and your actions will be right and in accordance with God's will. Yet you must seriously scrutinise yourselves as to which power you give the right to guide you .... Heartfelt prayer protects you from the opposing power; however, whatever you do without having requested God's blessing, whatever you do purely to improve your body's well-being, whatever those of you do who are completely apart from God are not His instructions but His adversary's, and they will damage the soul. The person striving towards God need never be afraid of thinking and behaving wrongly, because his attitude towards God also allows him to be accessed by spiritual forces and entitles them to protectively walk by the person's side, thereby also averting the influences of evil forces. Only the desire for God guarantees divine protection for a person, and anyone being divinely guarded cannot go astray, he can only do what benefits his soul. He is guided by God Himself and every path taken by him is important and leads to the goal.

Although the person acts according to his own discretion, in as much as his will impels him to undertake this or that action, it is nevertheless God's will which manifests itself through his will as long as the person gives in to the inner prompting. If, however, he pays no attention to this urging then he resists it, he becomes undecided since his will has not yet entirely submitted itself to God's will. And this is what he has to beware of, for it is always the result of praying less often .... The more intimately he is in contact with God the more clearly he will see his delineated path and the more willingly he will follow the instructions revealed to him by God through his heart. Only the distance from God deprives him of the keen sense for the divine will, for in that case he has to rely on himself and will be unsure as to what he should or should not do. And God's adversary makes use of such situations by tuning into a person's thoughts, by trying to impel him to base his every action on his own advantage. And then the person will have to fight, he will have to struggle in order to restore his connection with God again which will gain him clarity of thought so that he will be able to resist the temptations. Anyone looking for God will not go wrong; however, the path of anyone excluding Him will lead him astray. This is why nothing should be undertaken without a prayer for God's blessing, then people's thinking will be guided correctly and every activity shall incorporate God's will ....

Amen

Translation handled by Heidi Hanna

God's will - voice of the heart .... Inner urging ....

B.D. 4104 from August 13th 1947, taken from Book No. 50

I will place the feeling as to what you should and shouldn't do into the heart of those of you whom I love because you strive towards Me. And if you entrust yourselves to Me in prayer, if you confide your worries or thoughts to Me, you will feel it in your heart and whatever you then feel urged or desire to do, that is what you should do and it will be right before My eyes. If you commend yourselves to Me in prayer you will no longer be able to sin, for then I will no longer let you become sinful. If you appeal to Me for My protection I will grant it to you, and then you can confidently rely on the voice of your heart, that is, you can do what your heart desires. I Am your Father, I want you to come to Me with complete trust, and I truly want to provide for you like a loving father does, I want to give to you what makes you happy, providing it does not cause you damage. And since you yourselves are unable to judge what is beneficial for you and detrimental to the soul, you should come to Me and totally hand yourselves over to Me, tell Me your problems, be they of a spiritual or earthly nature, and I shall answer you, that is, I shall place My will into your heart so that you will want to do what is right and also be able to accomplish it. And thus you can come to Me with all concerns, you will never be left without an answer, for I will place it into your heart. You just have to pay attention to the voice in your heart, you ought to know that every inner urging is always the influence of forces which want to persuade you to accomplish something or to leave it. Forces of darkness will want to tempt you into committing a sin, forces of light into actions which are pleasing to Me. Let the forces of light gain influence over you, then you will never be able to sin. And hand yourselves over to these forces whenever you seek to make contact with Me in prayer, whenever you communicate with Me and always consult Me with all your problems. I love My living creations and My only goal is their salvation of soul. And where there is no danger of this I will grant them everything, even earthly pleasures, if they do not detract from spiritual striving. Yet I always want to be your Mentor, you should always leave the decision to Me and, after heartfelt prayer, ask your heart and it will truly guide you correctly ....

Amen

Translation handled by Heidi Hanna

Hear the speech of God

Prerequisite for hearing God's voice: Detachment from the world ....

B.D. 7258 from January 17th 1959, taken from Book No. 77

You must listen deeply within yourselves if you want to hear My voice. And that requires you to completely withdraw from the material world and engross yourselves in spiritual thoughts .... it requires you to completely empty your heart from earthly thoughts so that it can then be filled by thought currents of a purely spiritual nature. People will always find it difficult to completely detach themselves from the world, but My voice can be heard more distinctly the less the heart is burdened by mental impressions of worldly origin. Once the heart is completely empty the flow of My spirit can pour into it unimpeded, and then you will experience this as an uninterrupted talking to you, as a flowing-over of My spirit into you, as My direct Word which you can hear as clearly as a spoken word. The more you resist earthly thoughts, the more clearly will you hear My voice. And this requires a constant battle with the external world which, impelled by My adversary, wants to intrude time and again in order to disturb the intimate conversation between Father and child. You can prevent this by not yielding to it, by rejecting all thoughts pertaining to the world .... by instantly addressing Me in thought asking Me to prevent this interference .... And your will shall be taken into account, because it is solely directed towards Me.

Only those who are able to detach themselves from the world are therefore entitled to hear My voice, for whom I have become a Concept Which no longer can be replaced by the world .... who have recognised Me as their eternal Father Who wants to turn you into his children and will not let go of you again until He has accomplished His goal. Once this separation from the world has taken place, the world will no longer succeed in winning the human being back, because My direct Word will have granted enlightenment to him and he will not want to miss this light again. However, he will nevertheless constantly have to struggle with the world, since he still lives in the midst of the world and it will try to influence him in every way, because it is precisely this intimate dialogue which My adversary wants to disturb as and wherever possible. This is why it always requires a strong will to establish such an intimate bond with Me that My voice can come through, drowning out the voice of the world. The human being's will can accomplish that, and then he will only ever sing My praises and give thanks to the One Who speaks to him and thereby bestows an invaluable gift upon him ....

For My Word is the visible or audible sign of My infinite love for you, My living creations. It demonstrates that it is in your own hands to establish such close contact with the highest and most perfect Being that you will be able to hear His voice .... and that you have the evidence of this communication when you write His sacred Word down just as you receive it .... This supremely perfect Being speaks to you .... Contemplate the meaning of these Words .... I speak to you from above, you hear My voice, your comprehend what I tell you, and thereby you can recognise your Father's voice Who loves you and wants to possess you forever .... I speak to you because I want you to come to Me of your own free will, so that you will start your return to Me into your Father's house, which I want to achieve by addressing you. But in order to hear My Words your will must be firm and strong, time and again it must look for the heartfelt bond with Me, Who cannot be found on the surface of the world but far away from it .... Consequently, all worldly thoughts must be suppressed and you must listen into the stillness of your heart, and then you will truly hear My Word in all clarity, because My love especially applies to all those who try to reach Me, who desire to hear Me and to whom I therefore reveal Myself according to My promise 'that I will come to My Own in spirit and remain with them until the end of the world ....'

Amen

Translation handled by Heidi Hanna

Listening to God's voice ....

B.D. 5753 from August 24th 1953, taken from Book No. 62

You should listen to Me, and I will always speak to you such that you will also be able to recognise My love for you .... Everything around you can and will change .... but My love for you remains the same, it pursues you whether you are far away or close by, and it constantly seeks to influence you, that is, to awaken reciprocated love in you, which signifies your ultimate return to Me. And if I can address you, if you listen to Me, you will open your heart's door to Me, and then the full strength of My love can be effective, then I can ignite a fire in you which cannot be extinguished anymore, because My love is so powerful that its fire dissolves all resistance, that it takes hold of the person's nature and changes him completely .... that it shapes the person into love. I desire contact with you, this is why I speak to you .... If you listen to Me willingly then you will establish the connection with Me, and then I can revive what is dead, I can give true life to you who are still dead while you are far away from Me. My Words shall change this dead state, for My communication is a ray of love that intends to awaken you to life.

If you then give Me the opportunity to lower My ray of love into your heart, if you make it possible by willingly listening to My Word, you will soon feel the effect in yourselves, you will become aware that you are no longer alone .... you will, as it were, sense the presence of a benevolent being to Whom you will give yourselves without resistance, for My ray of love has the effect that it lowers your resistance when I have the opportunity to speak to you, and you will listen to My Words carefully. And you will always listen to My Words if you withdraw into solitude for a short period of time, if you collect your thoughts in prayer or quietly think about yourselves. Then you always give Me the opportunity to speak to you, albeit you won't recognise My voice at first but merely believe that you hear your own thoughts ....

I always enter your thoughts since you are, after all, pursued by My love which always tries to embrace you when you become silent and turn your vision inwards. In that case you listen, and then I can speak to you .... And the more consciously you practise this turning away from the world and looking within, the more willingly you open the door of your heart to Me and the more clearly will you hear My voice, which answers your questions or instructs you such that your love for Me flares up, because you will recognise Me as a God of love as soon as you listen to Me, as soon as you turn inwards and your thoughts turn towards Me ....

I always want to speak to you, yet rarely do you listen to Me .... But if you seek solitude by turning your thoughts inwards you will hear Me speak, even though you will not immediately recognise it as an expression of My love, because the intellect cannot grasp as yet what the soul has already felt or comprehended. Yet My communication will ever more consciously become an indescribable blessing for you and all those whom you inform of the fact .... that the Father speaks to His child as soon as the child wants to hear the Father ....

And you all can establish this bond with Me, you all need only listen carefully in order to hear Me, and I merely want to stimulate you to sharpen your spiritual ear, to practise listening to spiritual communications by often withdrawing into solitude and longing for My presence. Then I will be with you and speak to you .... Then I will come to you Myself in the Word, and then you will also know that I love you and want to gain your love as well ....

Amen

Translation handled by Heidi Hanna

The audible Word ....

B.D. 3381 from December 27th 1944, taken from Book No. 44

The inner Word certainly sounds clearly and audibly, yet only to someone who listens within and who, due to his way of life, has so shaped his heart that God Himself is able to express Himself through this heart. The human being's soul has to be so intimately connected with the spiritual spark within that it can hear its voice at all times and that the spiritual spark, which is an emanation of God, is able to express itself such that the person can hear its voice like spoken words, so that the Words sound in him and thus cannot be misunderstood. Just like people who speak to each other from person to person, God speaks to people through the heart. This process cannot be explained in any other way, yet it is only understandable to someone once he has heard the divine voice. He feels God's Words in his heart and is ecstatically happy to receive this grace, for then he will have no more doubt, no unbelief, no question which will not be refuted or answered to him once doubt or questions arise in him. The audible Word is the evidence for the person that everything he previously believed is true. And the audible Word reveals to the person the heavenly Father's presence .... His proximity, which causes indescribable bliss.

However, it sounds so very gently and subtly in the heart that it can only be heard by paying utmost attention. The most heartfelt contact must be mentally established with God and then the listening will have to start, the awaiting of His grace, which then will noticeably flow into him. But only a person whose heart has changed into love will be able to hear the divine voice, for it is divine love which expresses itself to a person and this can only manifest itself where true love exists. Yet once a person has audibly perceived the divine Word he will never lose this gift of grace again, then he will be able to hear His voice at all times and in all places .... he will only need to remain in heartfelt contact with Him and he will clearly and distinctly hear the answer. He will not be overcome by doubt as to the truth of it because he feels God's nearness and it will also be understandable to him that God manifests Himself audibly. However, as long as the earthly child has not attained a specific degree of maturity as a result of a selfless life of love it will not be able to experience the happiness of this blissful union with God either. Nevertheless, it should always and forever listen within and from the bottom of its heart appeal for this grace, so that it will receive the strength to live according to God's will, and His eternal love will draw close to it .... so that it will clearly and distinctly hear His voice, so that He will speak to it through the heart and the earthly child will feel His love and be abundantly happy while it is still on earth ....

Amen

Translation handled by Heidi Hanna

Reception of the word - order to spread

Knocking at the door of the heart .... Love condition for acceptance ....

B.D. 6511 from March 27th 1956, taken from Book No. 70

All gates will open to you where love is at home, you will always find entrance where My spirit rules, for there the Father's voice will be recognised and joyfully listened to. It is only a small circle .... measured against the myriad of people .... where I can enter when I have knocked on the doors .... There are not many who hear this soft knocking at their heart's door and are immediately prepared to open it to receive Me. But wherever I enter I spread blessings and inner peace, and no-one will want to miss Me who has once caught the ray of My light of love .... who has once heard My address .... He only ever feels at ease in My presence, and once the world comes between him and Me in a disruptive way, then he will feel this as discomfort, and he will not rest until he is in My fellowship again, until he is together with brothers and sisters again in order to also know Me Myself in the midst of them in accordance with My promise .... All of these desire My word, and they will also willingly open the doors if you want to bring it to them. Even if the doors often remain closed to you, even if you often meet with resistance, even if you are ridiculed because of your activity for the spiritual kingdom .... You should not be disturbed by this and try to please the few who listen to you. For true life awakens there and this life spreads even if you cannot observe it. They are incomparable sources of strength which open up wherever My word can be heard, and the power of the word does not remain ineffective while dead, barren territory is around you, although with regard to earthly matters a blossoming can be recorded. They are and remain two worlds which differ completely .... But I have placed you in My world, in the world of the spirit, which is the only truth .... And in this world you should work, i.e. try to spread the spiritual kingdom and lure people from the earthly kingdom into your circle .... Time and again you will find some because there are people in all circles who are willing to love, and because these will also follow you .... But you will only be listened to where love is. Nevertheless, others must hear the teaching of love as well, and it is never detrimental if love is repeatedly emphasised first, if people are found who preach love eagerly, regardless of how their speeches are received .... For even the greatest sinner must be admonished in order to refrain from his sin .... the most unloving person must be inspired to love in order to do a bit of soul-searching .... All doors must be knocked on .... An attempt must be made to awaken life, which is only possible through the supply of My word. Therefore rejoice when you are accepted as bearers of My word and do not be offended when you are rejected, but do not tire in your work for Me and My kingdom, for sparks of love glimmer everywhere which you can cause to flare up .... I Myself knock at the doors of the heart everywhere, and time and again a heart is found which opens itself to Me, which is delighted when I speak to it and is increasingly more inflamed by hot love for the One Who gives life. And I will bless you if you remember these people who are still languishing in death, if you endeavour to awaken them to life .... if you are faithful labourers in My vineyard and only ever carry out what your heart urges you to do .... for you have received Me into your heart and so now I can speak to you and through you to those who shall awaken to life ....

Amen

Translation handled by Christian Taffertshofer

God answers every question through the heart .... I.

B.D. 7858 from March 26th 1961, taken from Book No. 82

Everyone can work in My vineyard if only he has the will to be of service to Me. Yet there are many different things he can do because I only require a profoundly faithful heart which emanates love for its fellow human beings .... thereby awakening love in them again and this will spread and help to gain a living faith in a God and Creator .... And everyone who has a convinced faith of his own can also proclaim Jesus Christ, the divine Redeemer, in Whom I Myself accomplished the act of Salvation .... And he will be of service to Me, he will be My faithful servant, for he will also try to lead his fellow human beings to gain this faith. And I shall bless his will and manifest Myself to him, I will speak to him through his heart, he will sense it, he will be inwardly impelled to accomplish his vineyard work and be stimulated from within to speak to fellow human beings of good will when he meets them. And thus you can all serve Me and participate in the redemption work if this is your will .... The strength to do so will be conveyed to you by Me, Who knows your will and gives it My blessing. For there is great spiritual hardship because people no longer have faith, and My servants must be able to convincingly endorse this faith again if it is to be accepted by their fellow human beings, too. However, this redemption work need not be associated with any unusual activity, anyone can do it if he has living faith in Me and whose love applies to their fellow human beings suffering spiritual adversity, for My spirit works in everyone, even if it is not externally noticeable. And this silent redemptive work is frequently of greater value to Me than work of an externally obvious nature, the latter easily reveals earthly side effects which detract from the redemptive work. This risk occurs if overly eager people want to emphasise spiritual gifts .... if, regardless of where they are, they always expect My direct communication concerning personal wishes .... In that case they no longer allow Me to guide them, instead they try to oblige Me to take their wishes into account .... And then My spirit remains silent .... Then they speak themselves as people and jeopardize My working in them.

I indeed speak to all people through a human mouth if I seek to make the Gospel accessible to them in all purity, and if you humans comply with My will by living up to My Gospel then I will also be able to address every one of you through the heart, so that you will truly receive an answer to every question you have in mind .... But anyone who has not yet shaped himself though love such that he will be able to hear Me by feeling the answer I give to him, cannot expect a communication from those who would like to convey it to him either and thus the latter will pass on words which do not come from Me .... After all, it is My will that you should establish a close bond with Me yourselves, it is My will that you come to Me yourselves, that everyone should shape himself such that I will be able to answer him when he asks .... If you silently assure Me of your will to serve Me and to render redemption work you can also rest assured that I will look after you and you will truly not need any instruction conveyed to you from a fellow human being, for you thereby admit your own inadequacy: lack of love and trust in Me Who knows every question which moves you and Who will answer it if you ask Me .... The silent redemption work rendered by every individual person is truly more pleasing to Me than that carried out due to human influence, for you know that I welcome and accept all of you as My servants if you yourselves offer your services to Me and aim to fulfil My will .... Thus why do you desire confirmations which you expect Me to give to you through a human mouth? You thereby open a door for your adversary who will then try to express himself in accordance with your desire, because you demonstrate that you don't believe in My direct working within you, because you don't believe that I place the answer into your heart when you make contact with Me in prayer .... And due to this unbelief, he whom you should avoid will gain influence .... For he, too, uses fine words and you will seriously have to examine where these words originated from ....

Amen

Translation handled by Heidi Hanna

Open the door of the heart

Opening the heart to spiritual gifts ....

B.D. 6283 from June 13th 1955, taken from Book No. 67

I can only ever give you what you desire, for if I offer you something without your desire you will pass it by because it has no effect on you. For it is the law that My gifts only enter an open heart, that they do not force their way in where the heart is still closed .... And open is a heart that desires .... But an open heart never remains unfilled. This is why it is truly easy for you to come into possession of precious gifts of grace, because you only need to desire them in order to receive them .... And thus people can be .... seen with earthly eyes .... appear exceedingly active and caring and yet their hearts can be empty or filled with rubbish of which they have no use for their souls. The intellect cannot replace what the heart lacks, for what the heart needs can only be imparted to it by Me and does not require the human being's intellect in such a way that it could provide it for the human being. The intellect should certainly also become active and process what is received by the heart so that it becomes the human being's spiritual property. It is of little use to the human being to be given spiritual knowledge as long as he has no desire for it himself, for it will more likely cause him to reject it than to think about problems he had no intention of solving .... No knowledge, not even pure truth, is of any use to him as long as the spirit cannot work in him which gives him full understanding for it. But the spirit cannot become effective in him against his will .... i.e., its working must be requested .... The human being must want to receive light, only then can it shine in him, only then can it become bright in him, only then will he be instructed from within, for this 'wanting' opened his heart. The human being must want to receive, but not believe that he can acquire something through his intellect, for this does not penetrate the divine secrets .... The pure truth is a gift which, however, will not be withheld from anyone who merely desires it. However, the view that truth remains denied to the human being and that it is therefore a vain expectation to ever come into possession of it is completely wrong .... The human being makes himself suitable or unsuitable for receiving the pure truth through his free will, for his attitude towards truth determines whether and when he comes into its possession. And his spiritual wealth will also be accordingly, for through the truth he first learns to live consciously .... conscious of his earthly task and the aim he now seriously endeavours to achieve. Only the pure truth leads the human being to Me, his God and father of eternity, and therefore it should be dearly desired so that it will find its way into the human heart ....

Amen

Translation handled by Doris Boekers

Opening the door of the heart .... communion ....

B.D. 6947 from October 17th 1957, taken from Book No. 74

Anyone who closes his door and denies Me entrance will have to live in want, for only I can provide him with what his soul needs. You humans believe that you can provide yourselves with food and drink everywhere, with nourishment for your soul, and you don't think about the fact that only I can give the soul the right nourishment and that you .... wherever you may go .... always have to approach Me Myself for it, thus you have to open the door of your heart so that I Myself can enter to feed you .... And if you approach Me Myself for this, it doesn't matter where you address this request to Me, for I will always hear you and come to you wherever you call Me. It is not the case that I have stored food and drink somewhere so that you can now provide for yourselves without making contact with Me .... You will only be able to receive the right food and the right drink from My hand, which will enable your soul to recover and strengthen itself for your pilgrimage to the homeland. And therefore I Myself must be able to enter you, you must willingly open the door for Me and now also take supper together with Me, because I Myself want to feed you, because I Myself offer each individual this nourishment he needs for the recovery of his soul .... I only knock at the door of your heart, but you yourselves have to open it and let Me into your heart. So what use is it to you if you fill yourselves with food which I Myself have not prepared for you? Then you will indeed fill yourselves but you will not be able to take the substances from the food which your soul needs to build itself up .... it will remain dead or weakened, it will feel hunger and thirst and no help will be brought to it in its need .... And this is the lot of the souls of those who are eager to penetrate 'God's word', who constantly occupy themselves with the word of God and only burden their minds with it, who seek to fathom the meaning of the divine word by way of study and whose souls come up empty in the process. Thus they believe to nourish their souls and yet only their intellect receives what they call 'bread of heaven', which they now want to distribute again to their fellow human beings. They themselves will go empty-handed, i.e., their souls will go hungry, and their fellow human beings will not be able to receive anything for their souls either if the intimate bond with Me is not established first and I am approached to feed them, if the door has not been opened first that I can enter them in order to pass the supper to them .... All My words had a spiritual meaning but people no longer pay attention to it. And when I said to My disciples: "Take and eat, take and drink .... do this in remembrance of Me ...." so also the spiritual meaning of these words was always only the direct connection with Me .... that they should remember Me as well as receive food and drink which serves as nourishment for their soul. The presentation of bread and wine alone is just as little use to the soul as the reading and listening to the divine word if I am not first sincerely remembered and thus, as it were, the feeding of the soul by Myself takes place .... Nor are mere empty words sufficient to call upon Me Myself .... It must be a call in spirit and in truth .... The door of the heart must be opened to Me and I must be asked to come in .... And I will truly distribute food and drink what every soul needs. Thus the opening of the door is equal to the voluntary turning to Me, the desire for union with Me and the request for the bestowal of gifts of grace, it is the soul's admission of weakness and neediness which wants to be nourished by Me Myself, and through such an opened door I will truly enter the heart, I will administer food and drink to the soul and it will recover, it will mature, it will come to life which it now can no longer lose eternally ....

Amen

Translation handled by Doris Boekers

2762 - ?resNotTranslated?