BD 7475, received 11.12.1959
1 | Indications of disasters....
Soon it will become obvious to you how transient everything is that belongs to the world, because you will hear more and more often about destruction by the forces of nature, about all kinds of accidents and disasters and the unexpected deaths of many people.... And no-one knows whether and when they might have to suffer the same fate, no-one knows when their last hour will come. Yet each person knows that they cannot take anything along into eternity.... Therefore they should let-up in their earthly striving, in their chasing after all sorts of earthly possessions, for when the hour of death arrives they must leave everything behind.... Time and again you will be reminded of this through unforeseen instances when belongings have become worthless through sudden cases of death and all kinds of misfortune. But these are all signs of the Eternal Deity's mercy which are to remind you to remember your own death as well.... All these are signs of His love, which only ever wants to advance your soul's salvation and which would like to help you take stock of yourselves and change your way of life. For everything you do for the world, everything you only do for your earthly life, merely provides you with transient goods; but the spiritual goods you offer your soul will gain you spiritual possessions again which will follow you into eternity, even if you are suddenly and unexpectedly recalled from your earthly life. For spiritual possessions are everlasting, they cannot be taken away from you and will make you very happy in the kingdom of the beyond one day.... Nevertheless, regardless of how often the transience of all earthly things is pointed out to you, you never ever try to mentally assign such destinies to yourselves but go on living as before, and time progressively moves towards the end; a limit has been set, both for the individual person as well as for all people, which no-one can ever determine but which might be the next day for him, because every individual person is in God's hand. People should always remember this and live as they would were they to know the day. Every day they should be willing to leave the earth; they should constantly increase their spiritual wealth and always defer their earthly desires, they should live in awareness of eternity and not just for the moment, since plans for the future can never be made with certainty, thus they should rather count on an early death and prepare themselves for eternity than spend every day merely striving and craving for earthly possessions, for these are and will remain transient and won't gain the soul any advantage. However, only the soul will survive, it cannot perish, and to make sure that its fate will be good, the human being should provide the soul with that which will help it progress towards happiness:.... The human being should only ever accomplish works of love, in that case he would truly take better care of his soul than he is able to do for his body. For the latter will be preserved as soon as the human being considers his soul first, but soul and body need not fear death, which otherwise will always be dreaded by a person and scare him as long as the human being on earth does not bear his actual purpose in mind. Yet anyone who takes care of his soul first is no longer afraid of death, to a certain extent he is prepared every day and death will not take him by surprise, instead he will merely consider it a much welcome change of location.... __Amen
BD 8435, received 10.3.1963
2 | All circumstances of life offer opportunities to mature....
How your earthly life turns out is entirely determined by My will, because I have known from the very beginning which direction your will is going to take during the time of your earthly life as a human being. And according to this will all events will happen to you such that they can influence you to direct your will correctly. So even if you apparently shape your own circumstances of life you will nevertheless be affected by the same measure of suffering and adversities, by destined experiences, regardless of what kind of living conditions you have. And therefore you can go through life with a certain composure since I will, after all, always provide you with the greatest possibility to reach your goal of attaining perfection on earth. Consequently, it is entirely irrelevant for your soul's development as to whether you are poor or rich, whether you are nicely shaped or have physical defects, for all advantages as well as your disadvantages can contribute towards your eager work of improving your soul, just as they can equally be the reason for you to neglect this psychological work.... For it always depends on yourselves, on your will, as to what extent you allow yourselves to be influenced by everything that approaches you externally in the form of experiences, strokes of fate, illnesses and all kinds of adversities but also of wealth, fame, honour and earthly power.... Everything can be detrimental and everything can be beneficial to you.... It depends entirely on what kind of attitude towards Me you find in earthly life.... It depends entirely on whether you allow yourselves to be spiritually influenced, whether you are able to look upon your earthly life as a test of your will, as a means to an end, as a gift of grace by the One Who brought you to life.... It depends entirely on whether you not only place importance on your body or are seriously concerned about your soul.... If the latter is the case then everything will be a blessing for you, no matter what comes upon you, and you will climb the ladder which leads to ascent step by step which helps you to reach higher spheres until you reach the goal when your soul will leave the earthly body.... This is why you should unperturbedly accept everything, always in the knowledge that I thereby intend to attract those of you to Me who are still distant from Me and yet need to find the right attitude towards Me in order to subsequently live your life on earth according to My will, which lets you achieve perfection.... __And when there is a risk of people being entirely distant from Me, then I must indeed use means which are described as an unusually severe destiny of life, yet they are always based on the fact that an unusual resistance towards Me still exists, which I cannot forcibly break but which can recede in view of the immense earthly adversity, which can subsequently push the human being onto the right path to Me and thus show a correctly inclined will, which signifies everything for the person, for then I Myself will be able to take evident charge of his earthly life, and the human being will be truly relieved from all responsibility if he completely hands himself over to Me and lets Me think and act on his behalf.... So everything that can contribute towards a change of will is good, even if it appears to be distressing and unbearable, yet it is not distressing for the soul but fortunate and a blessing, for it matures and reaches that goal which, on its own.... without My indirect help.... it would hardly be able to attain. For I know every individual person's will. And thus I also know to whom I can bestow exceptional gifts of grace, who will use these correctly and derive the most blessings from them.... In that case, I will win this soul over to Me with less severe means, because the resistance, which in the beginning of the embodiment as a human being still firmly controls the soul, will have already considerably lessened.... In that case My means of help need no longer be so painful, slight impulses will suffice that the person will take the right paths, that he will recognise his purpose of earthly life and makes an effort to do justice to it.... And the suffering or adversities which are still imposed on him will be easy to endure, for then the person will already have established the connection with Me and through this connection he constantly receives strength from Me, which makes his ascent considerably easier.... Thus, a person's external circumstances of life are irrelevant for the shaping of his soul.... In fact, difficult situations in life often have more favourable effects on his soul than an easier and worldly-blessed life on earth, which is more likely to be a danger to its maturing.... However, no destiny is so severe that it could not be endured by a person who believes in a Power Which is love, wisdom and might in Itself, for if he believes he will turn to this Power for help, and he will indeed receive it.... For then he will already have the right attitude towards Me and that will certainly guarantee his full maturing on earth.... __Amen