Source: https://www.bertha-dudde.org/en/proclamation/8052

8052 Free will is decisive....

December 1, 1961: Book 85

The human being must be able to decide in all freedom of will.... The fact that he cannot always carry out his will should not lead to the assumption that he has no free will, for his innermost thoughts and will are decisive for the direction of his will. But in most cases he will not be hindered by Me in the execution of his will. For I want him to experience the effect of his will himself in order to recognize whether he was right or wrongly directed. And with merciful foresight I also know how to direct the effect such that it will bring salvation to the affected person's soul again, yet this does not change the fact that the human being has to answer for the direction of his will as soon as he has caused harm as a result, always on condition that he recognizes in himself the adverse divine aspect, that he is therefore not in union with Me but still exposed to the adversary's influence.... which he himself certainly recognizes insofar as he does not consciously unite with Me. A person who seeks My presence is also inwardly driven to think and want correctly.... A person who lives without any faith whatsoever is influenced by My adversary.... he is in bondage to him and will rarely do and think as it is My will.... Thus his will will also be wrongly directed and he will have to answer for it.... And yet, it is possible that people believe to be of service to Me and yet their will is wrongly directed. In that case, however, the bond of the heart has not yet been established, a foreign relationship still exists internally, the human being outwardly fulfils forms which are intended to feign a close bond.... Thus he regards himself as a vineyard labourer and yet he is not yet accepted by Me as a servant.... as long as the heart bond is missing. Then, therefore, it can only be spoken of as a 'worldly occupation', although it concerns ecclesiastical organisations, and then the degree of love will be decisive for his will and his thinking.... And even then the adversary can still have supremacy, he can influence the intellect and it can then be active in a damaging way: that he mixes spiritual knowledge, which corresponds to truth, with his own intellectual thinking and thereby thus contaminates the originally pure truth, that he changes it because the adversary has an influence on him.... because his bond with Me is not yet intimate enough to protect him from wrong thinking.... It is always the human being's free will which is not curtailed by Me, and therefore it is also possible that pure truth.... emanating from Me.... and that it is always the human being himself who determines whether and to what extent he stands in the truth.... But for a distortion to be prevented by Me would be a disregard of free will.... Moreover, every person is able to direct his thinking correctly himself, because he only needs to turn to Me, as truth itself, because he only needs to seriously desire it in order to then also receive it guaranteed.... Again, this is your free will, which is also certainly inherent in a person who seriously seeks the bond with Me, who has the right relationship as a child with Me and who therefore will also always direct his will as it is right before Me. And therefore no person can shift the responsibility away from himself who believes to have been wrongly instructed.... for it is up to him whether he is satisfied with such instructions or whether the desire for truth prevails in him, which will certainly also earn him such.... The human being's will is free.... Neither My adversary will be able to force him, nor will I Myself exert My influence on a person, because the free decision of will in the human being's earthly life decides his fate in eternity. And this applies in particular to the human being's spiritual course of development. His earthly destiny is also so controlled that he can also let his right will prevail, even if restrictions are imposed on him in the implementation.... But spiritually he decides his state of maturity himself in free will, and he will always think and want correctly if he strives towards Me, if he establishes an intimate bond with Me and has therefore surrendered to Me, so that I Myself can now guide and lead him and he will also attain perfection....

Amen

Translated by Doris Boekers