Spiritual Form 1
I would like to remind you that what I’m giving you is of necessity exceedingly fragmentary because we’re dealing with an enormous subject, so just bear that in mind. Tonight I have cut out for you a fragment of the knowledge of God that will at least give you a start in the tremendous potentiality the depth of experience and dimension in our relationship with God. We’ll be continuing that tomorrow night, I’m sure of that.
Now we have talked and looked into various areas, observed how Moses prayed, “That I may know thee;” how Jesus prayed, “That they might know thee.” We’ve observed the relationship of Moses to God, intimate communion. Think of it! There I quoted a scripture last night, something I never finished, I noticed today. We have in Psalm 25, and I gave you this:
“The secret of the Lord is with them that fear him.” Psalm 25:14
One year I was teaching the French pastors in the Pyrenees Mountains down at the Spanish border, way up in a castle. One of them spoke up and said, “Brother Beuttler, would you like to know how this passage reads in French?”
Well, they gave it to me in French. There it says, “The intimate communion of the Lord is with them that fear him.” I like that, “The intimate communion.” You know what intimate communion is in our relationship with others. You share with intimates what you do not share with everybody, and so it is with God. God loves to let us look into some of the secrets of His heart: things that bother Him, things He loves, where He takes you in on things, and Moses had that. He had an intimate communion, an intimate relationship, an intimate privilege. We’ll get to that more in detail tonight.
Now we want to talk particularly, specifically about a God of whom Moses said, “Show me now thy way that I may know thee.” Here are two phrases. If you were with me overseas, we might take a week on the ways of the Lord. For instance: The ways of the Lord in the wilderness; the ways of the Lord in darkness; the ways of the Lord in discouragement; the way of the Lord in perplexity, etc. But now we’re going to look at the Lord Himself, and we’re speaking now particularly of the Father.
“God is a spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth...for the Father seeketh such to worship him.” John 4:24
Do you know why? God seeks true worshipers because they are so hard to find. There are many people who think they’re worshiping, but the Lord is looking for worship in spirit, spiritual worship, not merely soulish worship. The spirit is higher than the soul. But worship on the level of the spirit, and in the Spirit of God, where our spirit and the Holy Spirit are joining together of worshipping Him in spirit and in truth. There are different categories of people that God has a hard time to find. That’s right!
One year, I was on my way to Rome from Nice, Southern France. The flight left very, very early: 6:00 or earlier. Things were pitch dark; it was a messy, raining, miserable day. We were just coming out of the clouds while I was sort of watching the sun come up over the clouds, when I got a heavy spirit of intercessory prayer. It was so heavy that I was afraid I might miss sunrise. When the sun rises over the clouds, sometimes the whole sky is one solid flaming fiery red. It’s a sight to behold. It doesn’t always happen, but sometimes.
I thought, “What will I do? I don’t want to miss sunrise, yet I had this heavy burden of prayer. I’ll compromise and watch and pray.” I prayed with one eye shut, and I watched the sunrise with the other. I guess it worked all right.
That thing got heavier until I just couldn’t watch anymore. I had to give myself wholly to this thing. I said to the Lord, “Father, why is it that when I travel I have to spend so much time in intercessory prayer?” In flight, trans-Pacific flight, anywhere; I may be on a plane hour after hour engaged in Holy Ghost intercession, so I asked the Lord why so often.
The Lord answered me and said, right in here (stomach area), “Because there are so few who share the burdens.” I understood. God is obliged to put a heavier load on the few because the many just can’t be bothered. So it is with worship. The Father seeketh such to worship him.
Now then, in Luke 24:39, Jesus said, “A spirit does not have flesh and bones such as ye see me have.” Now let’s put these two statements in this position: On the one hand, God is a spirit; on the other hand, a spirit has not flesh and bones, therefore the Father does not have flesh and bones. In other words, the Father does not have a material body.
You see, we’re now talking about the Father tonight in particular. He does not have a material body. That does not mean that God does not have a form, but God is a spirit, a spirit personality. Even though God does not have a material body, He nevertheless has a personality. He is a real person with a faculty to feel, to see, to hear, to speak, to smell (the Lord smells a sweet savor). He is a living person: seeing, hearing, speaking and what have you, but without a body.
Now may I shock you, if I promise to un-shock you? Some of you don’t trust me! Well, I’ll go ahead anyhow. You do not see me. No, you don’t. I do not see you. “Oh Brother Beuttler, you are cookoo.”
Well, hasn’t God made the cookoos too? No, I’m not cookoo. What you see here is not Brother Beuttler; that’s his bungalow. Paul calls it a tabernacle, a house. That’s why he could say, “Absent from the body, present with the Lord.” This is our house. He talked about laying off, or putting off, this tabernacle. This is not Brother Beuttler, this is the bungalow in which he resides. His bungalow is showing signs of wear and need, and really is in need for repairs or replacement.
I look at you and all I see really is bungalows. Some of them could stand a new roof. We are spirit personalities. When Paul said, “Absent from the body, present with the Lord,” he clearly implied that when we leave the body behind in death, he, the Apostle Paul, goes to the presence of the Lord. What he leaves behind is not Paul, but his bungalow.
When I’m overseas, sometimes I tell folk that if anything happens to me while I’m here and I die, don’t stand there and say, “Poor Brother Beuttler, he never made it home.”
In the first place I’d say, “Don’t ship me home, I can’t afford to die in the United States.” It’s too expensive, so why ship anybody home. I like to be wherever I finish, and my favorite place would be Cocas Island in Western Australia. That’s my favorite piece of ground where I’d like to be buried. I love it there. There’s nothing there: no houses, no cars, no traffic, nothing but an airport, a weather station. That’s the way I like it.
God is a person. God does not have a material body. We are living spirit personalities. When we die, the bungalow deteriorates, but we, as a person, are going into the presence of the Lord. Later, with the resurrection, God gives us a new bungalow with no toothache, no backache, and no heartache, and no tears. Won’t we enjoy our new bungalow not subject to death and decay? But until then, between our death and the resurrection, we are still spiritual entities capable of seeing, speaking, feeling, etc., just as God is today.
In Genesis we’re told, God smelled a sweet savor. In Psalms it says, “He that planted the eye, shall he not see; he that planted the ear, shall he not hear.” God has no body, but can hear, see, and speak because a spirit personality has the exact counterparts of the human faculties.
Just to save a little time, I won’t turn to Luke 16, but refer to it. Most of you know fairly well anyhow, the story of the rich man and Lazarus. It says there, “The rich man also died and was buried.” Now when he died, he died dead, and they buried him. They buried his eyes, his tongue, and his ears. They buried him, yet it says, “In hell he lifted up his eyes.” Did they take out his eyes and take them to hell? No, when a person gets buried, they get buried, that’s the end. Yet in hell, he lifted up his eyes. In other words,
when the rich man died without God, his body went to the grave, yet he himself, as a spiritual entity, and alive as a spirit, went to hell.
“In hell, he lifted up his eyes and seeth Abraham.” He could see. People in hell can see. “And seeth Abraham” - he possesses the power of recognition. “Afar off” - he could judge distances. And he said, “Father Abraham” - he could speak. “Let Lazarus dip his finger in water and cool my tongue, for I am tormented” - he was self-conscious; he was in torment, etc. I’m using that to show our spirit personalities, which is what we are basically. This is just the house in which we live, the shell. Our spirit personality has faculties of communication independent of the physical body.
Doesn’t God speak? But He has no body. Satan is a spirit personality, and a real one, but he has no body. I’m not saying he has no form. Demonic spirits are personalities, real persons. It’s possible to communicate with them. I’m not asking you to try it. I’m just saying that. Remember in the Old Testament, God had the Satanic spirits before Him and there was King Ahab, whom God wanted to judge for a certain reason. You’ll find it in the Kings, II Kings possibly. God said to the demonic spirits, “Who will go and persuade Ahab that he may fall at Ramoth Gilead?” God addressed demonic spirits. It’s here in the Book.
God said, “Which one of you rascals would like to fool Ahab and get him in a place where I can pour my judgment on him because he did thus and so?”
And it says, “One spirit spake after this manner, and another spirit spake after that manner to God saying, God, I have an idea.”
Another one said, “No, God, I have a better idea.”
Another spirit spoke up and said, “I’ve got the best idea. I know what to do.”
And God said to the spirit, “What is your idea?” in effect.
He said, “I am going to be a lying spirit in the mouth of all his prophets and will deceive Ahab.”
And God says, “Good, go ahead and do it.”
And he did it. They are real personalities. So are the angels of the Lord; so was the rich man in hell.
In fact, he has memory. The dead in hell have memory. He was told, “Remember when thou in thy lifetime had good things?” He has memory. And the rich man said, “Father Abraham, send somebody to my brethren lest they also come to this place of torment.” You’ll find it in Luke 16. He said, “Father Abraham, I pray thee” - prayer in hell! “I pray thee, therefore, Father Abraham, that you send somebody to my brethren.” Prayer in hell! Prayer for other people’s salvation, but too late. The prayer was no longer
answered - shall we say missionary prayers, “Send someone to my brethren.” He was all there, yet his body was in the grave being eaten by the maggots, yet he was fully alive as a human spirit. That is indiscussable.
Now I went into that angle merely to bring out the idea of personality apart from what we know in theology as corporeality; that is to say, the possession of a physical body. We are a living spirit whether we have a body or not. When the body is gone, we are still very much alive as a spirit. So God is a spirit, even though He does not have flesh and bones, that is, a material body.
I affirm something that some of my ministerial peers do not agree with, but is it my fault if I’m right? You remember that I told you about the Lord visiting me in the hotel room for four hours. Well, I’m sharing with you quite a few of the things He gave me. One of them that He drew my attention to was Numbers 12:8. We made reference to it the other night, but did not go very far with it. The Lord drew my attention to this as He stood there, as I told you, and I took my Bible and read it.
Among other things observed, “And the similitude of the Lord shall he behold, wherefore then, were ye not afraid to speak against my servant Moses.” Folk, be careful how you talk about your pastors.
“Have you heard anything?”
“No, not a thing, and I don’t want to.” But be careful what you say about your pastor, whoever they are. “Wherefore then were ye not afraid to speak against my servant Moses.” God is sensitive concerning His friends (well, say the anointed of the Lord). When we touch God’s friends, God takes special notice and we better be careful.
I’ll give you something, but very briefly because I just haven’t got the time to give you the full picture. I know a pastor who had very, very much opposition from his church, his board members in particular. He had a poor salary, poor living conditions. The people treated him like he was the church’s doormat. So are many pastors, but you know, if a man walks with the Lord, and is a friend of God, and is a true servant of God, that’s risky business.
I wish I could give you the whole story. One day in church one of his board members stood up and criticized the pastor, just raked him over the coals. The pastor said in his heart, “Oh God, I cannot take this opposition any longer.” And I’m leaving some things out.
And the Lord spoke to him on the platform and said, “I will take away every one of the trouble makers.” To make quite a long story short, within three months, 12 men of his church were dead and buried - everyone a troublemaker.
If any of you doubt what I’m telling you, ask one of your pastors for me to give your pastor, not you, but any of your pastors, the name of this minister and his address. He
can write to this minister and later tell you, “Yes, Brother Beuttler’s story was confirmed.” If someone here challenges this story, I’ll give one of your pastors the opportunity to get the verification.
Twelve men were dead and buried and the minister said, “Brother Beuttler, we had nothing but funerals in our church.”
And the people were beginning to ask, “What’s happening here? The congregation is dying.”
There was a real swell of criticism against the pastor because he couldn’t get them healed. The 13th one, the worst of them all, stood up on a Sunday morning service, put his hand, his finger out at the pastor from the congregation, and accused him, blaming him for the death of these people, “If you were a man of God, God would have answered your prayers and these people would not have died,” in that kind of attitude.
And the Spirit of the Lord came on that pastor sitting on the platform listening to that mud throwing, and he stood up, pointed his finger at the brother and said, “Brother, God will put you flat on your back, and you’ll never get up again.”
A short time thereafter, the pastor got a call from the man’s wife, “Could you come over and pray for my husband? He seems to be dying of something and the doctors couldn’t figure out what it was.” The story of it is, the Lord did not answer the pastor’s prayer and the man died. I assume he’s still flat on his back, because as a rule, when they die, I don’t think they turn over. Thirteen men, everyone a troublemaker, died within about 3 months.
The pastor said, “Brother Beuttler, you should have seen the change.”
All of a sudden the congregation woke up and realized that the Lord was defending the pastor, and they got scared. Several men came to him and said, “Brother, we had a little meeting among ourselves. We don’t think that you’re being treated right by this church. We have good salaries.” They had business people, lovely cars in front of the church. He was riding around in an old Model T running on 3 cylinders, something like that. It was a disgrace.
They said, “We feel we ought to raise your salary.” So they raised his salary to what was more decent.
They came back later and said, “Pastor, we don’t think you should ride around in such an old car when we have nice new cars.” There were some well-to-do people. It was a nice sized church. “We decided we would like you to take your old jalopy to the dealer, any dealer you want, and the church will pay for it.”
There was a nice new Dodge standing in the driveway, and I said to the pastor, “How come they did that?”
He said, “They didn’t want to die!”
He lived in an apartment with the wallpaper peeling off. It was a disgrace; it was a dump; while some of them had lovely new homes, yes indeed, lovely new automobiles.
I remember them saying, “We think that our pastor ought to live at least how the average business man lives in his congregation. We have decided to let you select any kind of a house you want.” They selected a split-level. And they said, “And build it anywhere you choose.”
So he selected a house, a lovely place, not extravagant, but lovely. The place is in a zoned area of the city, on a new street. The city even let him name the street. He called it Parsons Road, and there they put the house. We were in it for the first time. I said, “Brother, how come they did all that?”
He said, “Brother Beuttler, don’t you see, they don’t want to die.” Nobody wants to die.
He said, “I can ask this church for anything I want.” He had wanted some building; push the walls out, have more room in it, “Nope, cost too much; can’t afford it.”
He said, “Brother Beuttler, anything that I say goes. We enlarged the church, no opposition. We organized the young people in the Christ Ambassadors, no opposition.” Before he couldn’t.
“We enlarged our Sunday school, added to the staff, put in some expense, no opposition. Brother Beuttler, my congregation eats out of my hands. What I say goes.”
How come? “Nobody wants to die.”
And that church grew. Before it was crippled by men who just loved to assert their authority and loved to say, “No.” Now nobody says, “No.” They don’t want to die. And you have the principle here in Moses.
“Why were you not afraid to speak against my servant Moses?” They had used their tongue and went, bla, bla, bla, bla. They had a long tongue. Now nobody in Virginia Beach has a long tongue. No, not here!
I used to have one as a young pastor, and the Lord gave me a dream. I stood behind the pulpit; my tongue came out of my mouth a foot long. It came to a sharp point, and it wiggled like this.
To my right there was a hand with a pair of scissors in it - open. They came over my tongue and clipped it off. The thing fell right down on the platform, and there I saw it wiggle. It couldn’t keep still. I woke up and knew what God meant, “Beuttler, you need your tongue cut off.”
Now Miriam and Aaron, who spoke against Moses, the servant of the Lord, was due for the very same operation. The Lord heard it and came down and said, “Come out, ye three.” Whew! “And Miriam was put out of the camp and became a leper, as white as snow.” Nothing is said about Aaron. I do not know why. I think that Miriam was probably the ringleader of the thing, so that she had the major judgment, but that is conjecture.
Now because Moses was a friend of God, God gave him special privileges. Again, “And the similitude of the Lord shall he behold.” In other translations it reads like this: (And I like them all) “And the form of the Lord shall he behold;” and “the shape of the Lord shall he behold.”
You get that term in the Hebrew; if you like to study it - that term has the connotation of form, shape, likeness, similitude indicating that God has a form. As there is spiritual sound, spiritual sight, spiritual weight, spiritual smell (the Lord smelled a sweet savor), so there is such a thing as a spiritual form, the essence of which is not material, but spiritual. That’s why you can see satanic spirits in forms under certain circumstances.
In our school we had a revival in 1951 that I referred to this morning. I was in charge, in fact I was speaking, and during the service I became aware of some awesome opposition. I stopped and said to the students, “Students, something is wrong in this chapel.” We had about 200 students. I said, “Let’s look to the Lord and see what could be wrong.”
They started to pray, and I saw a whole host of satanic spirits at the ceiling starting about the middle of the chapel on one side, all the way around to the other side about the middle - a whole host of satanic spirits. I could describe them better, but I have personal reasons for refraining from doing so. But there they were. They were the fellows who were hindering the move of God, and particularly hindering me in the presentation of the message God had given me. Well, I told the students what was what.
Note from the transcriber: Part of this story was deleted from the tape. I’ll continue where it starts again.
I can’t tell you how. I could see way out into space to see that these spirits, when they fled, they went so far that they didn’t hang around anywhere near the school. They beat it. And the Lord let me know that they went so far they’re not even around in the proximity.
As I looked over that chapel, I saw in the rear, a thin snow white cloud, in the middle, rotating slowly, thickening as it rotated, spreading out at the same time, and for some moments (though I have no sense of time), it was over all the chapel, a snow white cloud. I knew that I beheld with my own eyes, the presence of the Lord in the form of a snow white cloud slowly active over that chapel.
And then I felt free in my spirit to tell the students what went on. I said, “Students, the spirits have left and in their place, the glory of the Lord is now filling the ceiling of the chapel as a white cloud.” No sooner had I said the word cloud, that the Spirit fell on that student body and God poured out His Spirit for three solid hours. There were spontaneous healings; there were baptisms, call to the ministry, calls to the mission field, all sorts of experiences. For three hours, God poured out His Holy Ghost. These things are real. Underneath these things, we need some scriptural principles so we do not reject what God is trying to do.
So in the case of Moses, who was a friend of God, God allowed this man to behold His form. Now here we’ll have to tread very carefully, and I’ll try to make sure that you don’t get a wrong impression. “And the shape, the form, the likeness, the similitude of the Lord shall he behold.” In other words, God is saying, “Moses is my servant, and I think so much of him that I privileged him to see my very shape, my form,” notwithstanding the fact that God is a spirit, and therefore does not have a material body. That’s what the Lord gave me also sitting on the floor of the hotel room.
“That in heaven their angels do always behold the face of my Father which is in heaven.” Matthew 18:10
The angels of children always behold the face of the heavenly Father of those children. Jesus here clearly implied that children have their guardian angels. I think others do, but we’re with this verse. Their angels, or the angels of the children, always behold the face of their Father, the face of the Father’s children. Now if the Father does not have a face, why did Jesus say these angels are beholding the face of the heavenly Father of those children?
See here is where theologians come around with their super theology. They call it anthropomorphism saying, “Oh that is not to be taken like that, God is an anthropomorphist.” As far as I’m concerned, it’s not an anthropomorphism at all; it’s a revelation of God. You know what? Man, with his intellectual pride, loves to make complex what God has made simple, and in many cases, robs the Word of the supernatural because we want to bring the supernatural to the natural.
Coming back to Moses. In Exodus 33:21-23, we get some light on what God was talking about:
“And the Lord said, Behold, there is a place by me, and thou shalt stand upon a rock; and it shall come to pass, while my glory passeth by, that I will put thee in a cleft of the rock, and will cover thee with my hand while I pass by; and I will take away mine hand, and thou shalt see my back parts; but my face shall not be seen.” Exodus 33:21-23
If God does not have a face, why did He say, “But my face shall not be seen?” Why don’t we take the scriptures as they are? Why do we have to emasculate them? Now the Lord had so impregnated my heart and mind with this: God the Father is a real person,
with a real form, spiritual, not material. And what kind of a form is described here? Look, “I’ll put you in the cleft of the rock, I will cover thee with my hand.”
God was saying, “Now Moses, I’m going to put you in there, put your face in there; you can’t see me. I’ll cover you with my hand. Be sure you don’t look around and look at my face because nobody can see my face and live. Then I’ll walk by. As I walk by, I will remove my hand; then you can look around, and you may see my back part, but my face shall not be seen.”
God covered Moses to make sure the man’s curiosity didn’t get the best of him because it would kill him. Then when God had passed to where Moses could no longer see His face, he could only see His back parts, Moses could look. As far as I’m concerned folkses, and don’t argue with me, it’s no use. Is it my fault if I’m right? When God said that he made man after the similitude, the likeness of God, as far as I’m concerned, there is included, among other things, what I know to be real, that God made man in his material form after God’s spiritual form; with his hands, face, back and the like. To me, when we are going to see the Father, as I see Him in the Word, we’re going to see Him with a form like a human form though the essence being spirit.
Somebody said, “Brother Beuttler, we’ll never see the Father. He’s a bright fire. Whew! So much fire, we could never look on Him.” My Bible says, “The pure in heart shall see God.”
Where are we going from here? As far as I’m concerned, we are going to see the Father. And in the light of this and other scriptures, to me, that is the Father, and that has satisfied my heart ever since.
Let me take you another step. We are told in Jeremiah 23:24, “Do not I fill heaven and earth?” I’ll start with this and resume tomorrow night. We are now moving into the area of the presence of God with two aspects: the omnipresence of God and the manifest presence of God. Now God being God is omnipresent. The Lord burned this omnipresence into my heart. You see, He was preparing me for overseas work. I had to know within my heart that God was present irrespective of whether I feel Him, sense Him or what the circumstances are.
When you’re on a plane over the ocean (and this has happened), and something goes wrong, an announcement comes, “This is the captain speaking. We’re having a slight difficulty.” You know they don’t tell you the truth if they can possibly help it. “Help is already on the way. (I’m condensing.) Please put the backs of your chairs up, tighten your belt, take out your false teeth, take off your shoes, glasses, remove all hard objects, take your pillow, cross your arms, bend over, help’s already on the way...there are provisions for everyone.”
You can feel the tension in the cabin. I was looking out at the ice burgs up north someplace, and the ice burgs were getting bigger in the ocean. I thought, “Beuttler, if you ever do get down there in one piece, you’re going to have a cold reception.”
I know it sounds funny, but it’s not funny up there when you’re coming down slowly. You feel a first bump lightly, then you feel a heavier bump. After that, you’ll receive orders to get off. That’s no picnic. They make it sound like a picnic. “Oh yes, we shall gently land on the water like a sea gull.” It’s not as simple as all that, but there is where the omnipresence comes in.
I had already said good-by to my family, then I pray, “Father, according to Your book, You fill heaven and earth; therefore You also fill this cabin; therefore, You and I are in the same boat.” And it gave me quite a bit of assurance. I wish I could take more time with this area, but I’m not dealing with the omnipresence of God. I want to deal with the manifest presence of God. I’ll go into it now. I’ll give you the experience as I received it first. After that I’ll give you the truth in light of this experience as the Lord gave it to me following the experience.
I was teaching in school, and during that time, we had a great revival, and I was in charge of it. I had also been active in a camp meeting, and God gave us a great visitation. Somehow, some of my ministerial brethren turned against me.
They said, “Brother Beuttler, how is it that wherever there is a move of God, you’re in the middle of it?” Well, I couldn’t help that. I could explain it to you, but we have no time.
I had a night school in Philadelphia at the time on Monday nights. One evening I walked in the night school, came up, sat down at the table, and said to the students, “Students, isn’t the Lord real?” and the power fell. We had outpourings of the Spirit for five consecutive nights in that night school. I had nothing to do with it. I just didn’t get in the Lord’s way.
The folks said, “Brother Beuttler, when you walked in tonight, we could feel the presence of God walk in with you.” Well, maybe so. Anyhow, I got in Dutch because of it.
“Brother Beuttler, we have complaints from some of our leading ministers, that instead of teaching you are having a good time.”
I had a good time all right, but I didn’t put it on.
“And we understand you’re stirring up the emotional Italians.”
I’m not stirring up anybody. There are other people more emotional than Italians.
“We understand you’re working it up.”
I didn’t do anything. They wanted me to stop it.
I said, “Brethren, that’s a move of God and everybody’s happy God is baptizing them in the Spirit and what have you.” Some of the students that weren’t saved, got saved.
They said, “We want you to stop it.”
I said, “I can’t do that; I’m not the Holy Ghost. I didn’t start it. He’ll have to stop it.”
They said, “We think you ought to stop it.”
I said, “I can’t stop it. Who am I against the Holy Ghost?”
They said, “Tell the students that the Lord’s finished working.”
I said, “How do I know He’s finished working?”
They said, “Tell them anyhow.”
Whew! When I heard that, it shook me. I was at the point of handing in my credentials and calling it quits. They should have rejoiced, but they sat on you. I shook. I almost quit Pentecost.
That night I tossed and turned with no sleep. “How is it that brethren who are my superiors are telling me to lie to the students that I believe the Holy Ghost is finished working when I didn’t know whether He was or wasn’t?” Well, that shook me.
Next night I fell asleep, I think from sheer exhaustion. But I was ready to overthrow the whole thing. What I’m telling you tonight is the truth. Tomorrow night I’ll give you the scriptural basis that the Lord gave me following this because I wanted scripture for what He did.
I was in a sound sleep. Folkses, don’t argue with me. If you don’t believe me, just leave me alone. We lived in a camp cottage with three wooden steps on the outside. I say this in the hearing of God. I was awakened out of a deep sleep by the Lord walking up the three steps on the outside of the cottage. I was awakened by footsteps on the wooden steps: step, step, step. I was awakened by the first step, and knew instinctively that it was the Lord. I just knew it.
I heard the Lord... I’ll change this because this could make problems. I must be careful that I do not make leave way for your impression or imagination to go to the side, although this is very hard to convey. I heard the Lord...I must give it to you as it came to me, never mind the rationality of it. I heard Him take the knob to the door on the outside, an old rusty knob, and I heard Him turn that knob. It squeaked a little like it always squeaked a bit for lack of oil.
I heard Him open the door. As He opened the door, I heard the Venetian blinds rattle like they always rattle when you opened the door. I heard Him step through the door. I heard
Him take hold of the knob of the door on the inside, squeak, shut the door, heard the blinds rattle as they always did.
Folks, I heard Him step by step walk through the dinette - not that He stamped His feet, but as one normally walks. He walked into the living room. I heard Him turn around. He turned and faced the door into our bedroom. I heard Him speak in an audible voice, a deep rich masculine voice. I’ve heard that voice since. I expect it’s the same voice I’ll hear when I meet the Lord. I heard Him speak in an audible voice like a man would speak.
He came to reassure me, to tell me, that He was with me, and would defend me against all my enemies. With those words, I heard Him turn around facing the dinette. I heard Him walk into the dinette, take hold of the knob of that door, heard Him turn it - I could tell from that squeak; He opened the door, the Venetian blinds rattled; I heard Him step through the door; heard Him take hold of the knob on the outside again; there was that familiar squeak, and the three steps, and He was gone.
A personal visit from a personal Christ in an hour of deepest crisis where I was ready to overthrow the whole thing because of what these men did who were my superiors. I was hanging in the balance, the ministry and everything, and He decided, apparently, to save Beuttler, “I must pay him a personal visit to reassure him that I am with him and will defend him against his enemies.” And He defended me against every one of them. They are gone. I’m still going. We’ll let that simmer.
For some three months, I asked the Lord for scripture. I said, “Lord, I’ll never share this till I have a scriptural basis.”
Tomorrow we’ll start out with a Biblical basis. I’ll do for you what the Lord did for me to try to show you from the Word, a scriptural foundation for some of these unusual manifestations of the presence of God perceivable by the eye, by the ear, even by touch. I’ll give you them tomorrow night.
Now if you cannot follow me, or take what I said, I suggest for the sake of God, and yourself, leave it alone. If I were you, I’d be careful with my tongue. The God of Miriam and Aaron is the same God today. If you can’t accept it, leave it alone.
For the rest of you that have the witness in your own heart and can say, “I know this thing is real,” you’ll have proof on which the Lord can build in your life and give you revelations; experiences where the Lord can take you into depths that you were never aware even existed, but believe there is a scriptural basis for it. Now we’re not idolizing revelations and experiences, but I’ll give that a balance tomorrow. We’re going to have a brief word of prayer and then I’m through.
(Prayer)
Father, thou dost know that these things are the truth, and also that the half has not been told, and probably never will be told. But Father, open up our hearts. Give us a heart to know thee. Give us an insatiable hunger and desire for a fuller revelation of thyself to our hearts, that we shall know thee-even intimately for your name sake. So that both your heart and our hearts shall be satisfied with a relationship with thee that transcends and exceeds every other human relationship and provides for us a satisfying portion in an unsatisfying world for the glory and praise of your name. Amen
This message is one of the sixty-six surviving transcripts of Walter Beuttler's teaching. To hear his voice, visit the Messages page. To read the story of his life — from the Brooklyn Bridge to the school of the Spirit — see Who Was Walter Beuttler? The True Story of the Man Who Knew God.
The Man Who Knew God
Walter Beuttler was never famous, yet he carried God's presence to more than a hundred countries. His students said that when he walked into a room, the air changed. This is the first full account of a friendship with God that was specific, sustained, and costly. Read the story of his life →