Source: https://www.bertha-dudde.org/en/proclamation/4502

4502 Presenting the divine word in love.... success assured....

December 3, 1948: Book 52

It is truly not insignificant in which way My word is given to you, for the degree of love in which My word is offered is often decisive as to whether you accept or reject it. Everything that is handed out should be given with love, otherwise it does not speak to the heart but has to be accepted by the heart. A person filled with love gives in such a way that he awakens counter-love, and this is of utmost importance when My word is presented, because then full understanding is guaranteed as well as love is involved which brings about the awakening of the spirit. Without love My word remains dead and without understanding, it is spoken but has no strength because then it is just empty sound without life. If the human being wants to make his fellow human being happy, then love for his neighbour is already predominant, and what he then hands out penetrates the heart, is accepted there and, depending on his own will to love, felt as a valuable gift, as a gift of love. Where the giver's love is recognizable, the will to reject will be weaker, for then the word will already emanate a strength to the recipient which he cannot and will not close himself off to. Therefore, the representatives of My teaching must be willing and active in love in order to be suitable for receiving My word from above and to make My word with its strength accessible to their fellow human beings, because the mere transmission of the external word remains without impression, thus it can very easily be something formal, a professional preaching of My teaching without life and thus also without spiritual success. Then My word is without strength because it is only heard with the ears but does not penetrate the heart. For only the soul feels the power, and that in the state of loving feeling and its response. Impulses which the human being as such hardly notices can cause the soul greatest happiness and not be felt by the body, and if the soul now hears My word in such a loving feeling it stands in the midst of the emanation of strength whose source I am.... If it is not willing to love itself and My word is offered to it in love, then the strength will also penetrate it and it will let itself be permeated by it without resistance.... The degree of love of the receiver and the giver greatly influences the effect of My word, and therefore attention must be paid to the fact that the spreading of My teaching must never take place through coercion or violent measures, but My true representatives must be patient, gentle, loving and yet eager if they want to be successful and be faithful servants to Me on earth. It is not enough that My word is only read out or brought to people's ears with fixed phrases. It has to come alive if the preacher wants to help his fellow human beings with compassionate love, if he wants to guide them into truth and thereby into the right knowledge of Myself, and if his love opens the door of the listeners' hearts. Then My word will be received by people, it will be perceived as divine, as truth and accepted, because its strength benefits the soul which recognizes the divine origin and feels drawn to Me through My word....

Amen

Translated by Doris Boekers