Source: https://www.bertha-dudde.org/en/proclamation/4514

4514 The spirit gives life to the word....

December 16, 1948: Book 52

My spirit gives life to My word.... The word alone can be empty sound to him whose ear it only touches if My spirit cannot penetrate his heart in order to make My word come alive in him. And therefore My word can be spoken and also heard and yet remain without impression, for it is dead as long as My spirit cannot have an effect. But if My word emanates from Me it is shaped and also enlivened by My spirit.... For it only comes forth from Me if a heart has made itself receptive, that is, where the spiritual spark was able to establish contact with the father-spirit through loving activity. My word will also be understood there, it will live and stimulate activity. It is enlivened by My spirit.... This is why the written word, the book of the fathers, can only be understood if My spirit blows through it.... if it is read or listened to in the state of connection of the spiritual spark in the human being with the father-spirit of eternity. Otherwise it will only remain a dead word which is received by the ear and perhaps also processed by the intellect but which has no resonance in the heart and therefore cannot have any effect on the human being. It is a dead word as long as the spirit is not awakened in the human being; it will not give the human being anything further, it will be read and put aside again for lack of understanding or discarded. But the spirit is only awakened through love.... A person without love rarely or not at all takes the book of the fathers in hand because it says nothing to him, because he finds no understanding for the written word, although it originated from Me. But loving activity enlightens his heart, he grasps the meaning and the word goes to his heart, it inspires him to obey it.... My spirit works in him and he gains spiritual knowledge, he becomes knowledgeable and stands in truth.... he has awakened to actual life, for now his upward development begins, the inner life stirs, he strives for perfection because his spirit impels him to it.... My word gains life in him. As long as the dead word only touched him it remained without impression; the word which comes alive also changes the human being's nature, for now I Myself speak to him and he also accepts My word as My expression of love, as a gift of grace which is precious to him and of which he wants to make himself worthy.... He strives towards Me and fulfils My will, which I announce to him through My word and which My spirit makes understandable to him.... He has awakened to life and will never lose this life again....

Amen

Translated by Doris Boekers