Source: https://www.bertha-dudde.org/en/proclamation/3213b

3213b Self-overcoming.... strengthened will.... Christ's act of salvation....

August 6, 1944: Book 42

Before Christ's crucifixion God's adversary had great power over the human being's will, and this power manifested itself in the fact that people were not able to live a life of love unless they were exceptionally intimately united with God. The temptations of the world were always too great and their will too weak to resist them. This is his weapon even now, that God's adversary seeks to weaken people's will through the pleasures of the world, and he is completely successful with those who trust in their own strength, who don't believe they need help from above, who don't believe in Jesus Christ and His act of salvation and therefore don't ask Him for His grace, for His help, which earns them increased will. Without Jesus Christ people are still completely under His control from which they are unable to release themselves unless they sincerely call upon God for help, but then they will also soon learn to recognize the significance of the act of salvation and Jesus Christ Himself as saviour of the whole of humanity, and then they will also consciously avail themselves of the blessings of the act of salvation. The path of ascent will become easy for them, for where there is the will there is also the strength to accomplish.... But the weakened will only has the strength to do things which lead to the abyss, and this strength comes to it from below, i.e., it uses the vitality for bad deeds, and the strengthening of this vitality is supplied to it by God's adversary. Thus the weak-willed human being is not in union with God but with His adversary, and he cannot free himself from the latter's spell unless he appeals to God for help, which is granted to him as a grace of Jesus Christ's act of salvation. Consequently, the recognition of the act of salvation must be the first condition, otherwise the human being cannot avail himself of this grace. In faith in the act of salvation the human being can accomplish great things, for his will will experience a strengthening which enables him to do anything if he deeply believes, for the strength of will, which Jesus Christ possessed in abundance, communicates itself to him, he can liberate himself from the adversary's power, he can strive towards God without being pulled back by this power. And he reaches his aim even if numerous temptations make his striving more difficult, but he resists them because his will is strong and accordingly also the supply of strength which Jesus Christ acquired through His death on the cross for people who believe in Him and consciously avail themselves of the blessings of the act of salvation....

Amen

Translated by Doris Boekers