Intimacy with God
INTIMACY WITH GOD Last evening I gave you somewhat of an introduction by way of experience, as you remember, if you were here. Actually, I hadn’t planned it quite that way, but that’s the way it worked out, and I feel we were on the right track. This morning we’re going to look into the Word, and we’re going to turn to the Book of Exodus, Chapter 33, verses 12-16. This is a passage that always thrills me, stirs my heart.
And Moses said unto the Lord, See, thou sayest unto me, Bring up this people; and thou hast not let me know whom thou wilt send with me. Yet thou hast said, I know thee by name, and thou hast also found grace in my sight. Now therefore, I pray thee, if I have found grace in thy sight, shew me now thy way, that I may know thee, that I may find grace in thy sight; and consider that this nation is thy people. And he said, My presence shall go with thee; and I will give thee rest.
And he (that is Moses) said unto him (that is God), If thy presence go not with me, carry us not up hence. For wherefore shall it be known here that I and thy people have found grace in thy sight? Is it not in that thou goest with us? So shall we be separated, I and thy people, from all the people that are upon the face of the earth.
Exodus 33:12-16 Now in this last verse what Moses is saying, so shall we be distinguished, the idea being that the distinguishing mark between God’s people and the other nations was to be the presence of God. And today, the presence of God should distinguish the people of God from all other people. Notice that Moses here began to pray. He had a great sense of need.
He had a long journey ahead of him. The road would be dangerous, difficult, and worst of all, he had a very difficult people to lead. They were stubborn, self-willed, and disobedient. Moses knew his people and he dreaded to lead them into the promised land, so he prayed and said, Show me now thy way that I may know thee.
I’m not saying much about the ways of the Lord. That is a series of studies all by itself, except I make this remark. Very often we learn to know God through His ways: what He does; how He does it; how He works. As we watch God at work, we learn something about His character, His nature.
Moses recognized that, and I wish we could pursue that now, but do not have the time. Show me now thy way. God’s ways differ from ours. That I may know thee.
Some of you, I suppose have known, or do know Hattie Hammond. She and I had a series of meetings in Washington together, and they put us up at the Ambassador Hotel, so after the night service we got together in the coffee shop and had some snacks and talk. She’d say, “Brother Beuttler, what do you know?” I’d say, “Well, Miss Hammond, what do you know?” She told me something there that I’ll never forget. She was in Springfield, Missouri—that’s the headquarters of the Assemblies of God.
They had a huge convention. A young fellow spoke; there were thousands of people there. She sat on the platform as a matter of courtesy, and she said, “Brother Beuttler, you never heard a worse harangue than that young fellow harangued the people. He tore the A/G up and down, left and right.
It was awful. When he got done the power of God fell. The people stood worshiping the Lord—the Lord poured out His Spirit. I was dumbfounded and said to the Lord, ‘Lord, tell me something.
How can You bless a harangue like we have had this time?’” She said, “Brother Beuttler, what do you think the Lord said?” “Well, tell me.” “The Lord said, ‘I’m not blessing one word of all that he said. I’m pouring the spirit of rejoicing upon my people to help them forget everything he did say.’” (laughter) I thought, “Next time I congratulate myself for the Lord’s blessing after I spoke, maybe He uses His eraser.” You know, those things teach me something about God—you watch God at work.
Well, I can’t indulge here. Show me now thy way that I may know thee. I’m going to talk to you a bit this morning about the personal knowledge of a personal God, and then gradually lead up to, and into the manifestations of His presence. I think we’ll get into that by the end of this morning, and I think that this evening I’m going to deal specifically with the diversity of the manifestations of the presence of God—as far as I can foresee.
Here is this cry of Moses, That I may know thee. First of all recognize that Moses is not speaking about an intellectual knowledge of God. We need the intellect; we need to know, of course; we need to be informed adequately; well informed. But in this study that we are having, we are not speaking so much of information about God—although this is information, but a different kind—rather we’re speaking of a personal acquaintance with a personal God in personal experience.
If President Nixon comes on the screen, I know who he is. I may recognize him in a crowd, but I don’t know him. I may know about him, but I do not know him; have no acquaintance. My older daughter, Myra, had a hobby when she was a little girl.
She loved to learn all about Queen Elizabeth. She had books, I would say, they stacked perhaps this high. She could tell you so many things about the Queen—all kinds of information. One day the French Assemblies asked me whether I would like to bring some of my family along, so I took Myra that year.
They paid for her fare.
I said, “Myra, you’re so fond of the Queen. Let’s stop in London on our way to Paris.” So we did and I took her out to Buckingham Palace, some of you know what I’m talking about. You’ve been there. We were there at the gate, watched the guards going up and down.
She said, “Daddy, do you think we’ll see the Queen?” I said, “It’s very, very unlikely.” That girl was so disappointed. She had a stack of books about the Queen this high, could tell you about her horses; her way of living; her responsibilities and what have you—her personality. When we turned, she said, “Daddy, do you know, I still don’t know the Queen.” The reason was, she didn’t even open the window, though she was there—you can tell from the flag.
She didn’t say, “Well, Brother Beuttler and Myra, come on in for a cup of tea and have a chat.” She didn’t, so we had no opportunity. Because of the lack of a relationship, of an acquaintance, we didn’t get to know her. Well, God wants us to know in experience. This Moses amazes me.
Notice in Exodus 33:11, The Lord spake unto Moses face to face, as a man speaketh unto his friend. Now here is a man so intimate with God (this is a matter of intimacy) that God spoke to him face to face, that is to say directly, not in a round about way through a vision, a dream or by sending another prophet. No, He talked to him personally, and yet, even though this man had a personal acquaintance with God already, he still prayed, Show me now thy way that I may know thee.
In other words, the man wanted to know God even more. I was speaking in our school where I’m teaching you know, one morning to the students on seeking God. The teacher kind of challenged me. He said, “Brother Beuttler, why do you teach these students, exhort them, to seek God when they have already found Him.” My answer was, “Because they need to find Him some more.” There is no limit in the disclosure of God to our heart.
Even though this Moses had communion with God, according to God’s own word face to face, the man still wanted to know more of God, Show me now thy way that I may know thee. In Deuteronomy 34:10, we have a similar statement bearing down on the same truth, but adding a bit to it. And there arose not a prophet since in Israel like unto Moses, whom the Lord knew face to face. Between those two, Moses and God, there was an intimate relationship, and an intimate communion, and yet the man prayed, that I may know thee.
Furthermore that man Moses had an intimate privilege. There are three things here: 1) intimate communion, Exodus 33:11; 2) an intimate relationship, Deuteronomy 34:10; and 3) an intimate privilege, Numbers 12:8. I repeated that because I see some of you are making notes, so I thought I’ll bear that in mind and be specific, and give you a chance to put things down. Coming to the intimate privilege in Numbers 12:8.
I’m avoiding some of the context to save time because we have a long ways to go and I like to give you all that I possibly can. With him (The him here is Moses, God is speaking.) will I speak mouth to mouth. That simply means directly without using any indirect means of communication. With him will I speak mouth to mouth, even apparently, and not in dark speeches; and the similitude of the Lord shall he behold: wherefore then were ye not afraid to speak against my servant Moses?
Numbers 12:8 Incidentally, God is very sensitive as to how we talk about those who are personal friends of God. Why then were ye not afraid to speak against my personal friend Moses? That’s the implication, but now it’s specifically the privilege. And the similitude of the Lord shall he behold.
In my studying I love to use different translations. To me they are, may I say, delicimous—that’s a Beuttlerism. You have to get used to Beuttler, but that’ll take a little time. These different translations, to me are remarkable.
Now some are quite modernistic, some have to be watched, some you have to use reservations with, but they throw different rays of light. Some of you might have been at the Tower of London and saw there, without doubt, the chamber or tower where they keep all the jewels of the kings and queens of England. There is a diamond there. I haven’t been there for some years, but I would say this diamond is about this size, somewhat in the form of a heart.
I like to watch it. If you look at it one way, you see yellow sparkle. You change a little bit, now it’s green; look from another angle, now you see red or blue. You have different colors reflected in that diamond, but it is all the same diamond.
So to me, these translations are like a diamond. One translator emphasizes one color of truth, or brings it out. Another—another, another—another, but they’re all the same diamond making allowance and exceptions for modernism that does get into some of our translations—that is something else. Different translators use different terms here.
We have in our Authorized Version the term similitude. Other translations read: the form of the Lord shall he behold; another reads: the shape of the Lord shall he behold; another reads: the likeness of the Lord shall he behold. So you have similitude, likeness, shape,and you have form. I’ll get to this area, I don’t know when, maybe this evening—that’s sure enough—maybe this morning yet.
But just let me say that even though God is a Spirit (we’ll get into that), and does not have a material body, as far as I am concerned, God has a form. I’ll tell you why a little later. For now, we just say that God has given Moses the privilege to behold, the similitude, the likeness, the shape, the form of God. So we have here in this man, intimate communion, an intimate relationship, and an intimate privilege.
For the form we need a little more time at a better place. For this knowledge of God, speaking of this personal acquaintance. We’re not far from Washington, but I don’t think Nixon will ask me up for lunch and say, “Brother Beuttler, let’s get acquainted.” No, I don’t think so. You wonder—well never mind.
(laughter) Let’s see what God thinks of this knowledge.
I think you thought I meant that really—the way you looked so serious. Folkses, I have a sense of humor, and that’s my salvation. (laughter) You took me too serious. Well, you don’t know me.
Ask wife, she knows, and yet she’s said already, “I’ve lived with you for so long and I still don’t know you.” I’m a strange character—I have a sense of humor—I need that. It’s my salvation. I have another salvation, but I need this. I couldn’t take things otherwise.
Do you remember perhaps in John 17:3, Jesus prayed, That they might know thee. So Jesus was interested in the personal knowledge of God on the part of His disciples. He wanted His disciples to know God, and between thee and me I would say, that that is really the keynote of this retreat that we’re having this week, That they might know thee—and you are the “they.” In Hosea 6:6, God makes a comparison or an evaluation, For I desire mercy and not sacrifice, and the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings.
In the days of Israel God was more interested that they might know God than He was in all their gifts and burnt offerings. God is desirous that we should know Him, and that of course, will involve the knowledge of His personal presence. In Jeremiah 24:7 we have a pertinent statement, I will give them an heart to know me. Friends, in the final analysis, God is not known by the intellect.
By the intellect we are informed about God, and that is absolutely essential. What can you do without information? But this true knowledge or this real knowledge of God is a matter of the heart. God says I will give them an heart to know me.
That involves an inner capacity, an inner capability to enter into a personal relationship with God. I pray this many times, “Oh God, give me an heart to know thee.” As we sit together, I am directing my words through your intellect to your heart. If I don’t get down to the heart, I haven’t accomplished much. I think I do, but that’s where I’m working.
I’m working in the heart. Though we have to use the mind as a journal, the heart is the field of my operation. So this is a prayer for all of us, “Oh Lord, give us a heart, the capacity, the capability, to know You in personal experience.” Believe you me, God is interested in that. Jeremiah 9:23.
Oh, I like this—I like it all. Do you know why I like it all? I like the Lord. You know the Lord’s alright?
I think God is tops. I really do. He’s okay. Thus saith the Lord, Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom (in his education, his degrees, his achievements—it’s alright of course, but it’s not the reason for glory), neither let the mighty man glory in his might (the man of authority; the man who says “go and he goeth; the man who can give orders and people better come fly—no.
That’s no cause for rejoicing—appreciation perhaps, but not this. Let not the rich man glory in his riches. Let not the man that has ever so much money in the bank glory that that’s what he’s got. Let not the millionaire glory in his millions.
Let not the man with the beautiful home, wall to wall carpeting, hundred thousand dollar mansion, glory in what he has. That’s something to rejoice about and to thank God for, but to glory about it, the Lord says, “Don’t do it.” But let him that glorieth, glory in this. Now what Jeremiah is talking about is not vain glory as conduct. He’s talking about a sincere rejoicing, an appreciative exclamation of what?—that he understandeth and knoweth me.
Notice two things: God can be understood. Now He cannot be understood in the enth degree. God is infinite, we are finite, but in many, many of His ways God wants to be understood. Do you remember a statement in Deuteronomy 29:29?
I may not quote it absolutely correct, but near enough. The secret things belong unto the Lord our God, but those things which are revealed belong unto us and to our children. I think I have it correct. Here are two huge areas of truth: Things which are secret.
There are secrets about God which He keeps to Himself. There are other secrets which He reveals. The secret things belong unto the Lord our God. For instance, take the trinity, God has not revealed the trinity—only the fact of the trinity indirectly, but He has never revealed how God can be 3 persons and 1 at the same time.
We can try, give illustrations, but none is satisfactory. God has existed from everlasting—God hasn’t revealed, we can’t comprehend that because we’re finite. I don’t have a blackboard here, but it’s not necessary, but you remember Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. God said, Of all these trees ye may freely eat, but there was one tree—not necessarily an apple tree.
We say it’s an apple, but nobody really knows. I’d make it a mango. (laughter) But mango, apple, prune or what, it was a tree with fruit. And God said, For of this tree, ye shall not eat.
God did something there. Of all these trees, ye may freely eat. May I say something that could be controversial? But we won’t controvert.
(laughter) In theology particularly, we speak of man being a free moral agent able to do as he wills. I cannot buy that bit of theology. I have a reason for saying it now because I’m not going to get into a theological dispute. Oh, please don’t take me on.
I cannot buy the theory of the absolute freedom of man for the simple reason: Of all these trees ye may freely eat, but I say the freedom of man, as a free moral agent, was circumscribed. There was a limit to it. He was not absolutely free. He was under duress.
Alright, you may go outside the circle of My will; you can do it if you want to, but if you do, such and such a thing is going to happen. Therefore personally, I would say man’s freedom was relative rather than absolute—Adam and Eve were under duress. If they went beyond, they got into trouble. God has put a limit to our knowledge of God, and folkses (folkses is a Beuttlerism), if we, with our intellectual, carnal curiosity seek to go beyond the circle of the divine revelation seeking to press into things which God has not revealed, I say we are getting into trouble.
If we pursue that, for instance: the origin of sin. Whew! Alright, we trace it back to Satan. Very well, there was pride in his heart, granted.
Where did this pride come from? How come God made it possible? What originated that pride? God must have given consent that pride could develop in Satan’s heart.
If you press that kind of rationale to the enth degree, you will find that before you are aware of it, a question gets raised concerning the integrity and holiness of God. Before long, you have God on the judgment seat; you have God as the defendant and you’re the prosecutor, and beyond that lies the rejection of God and infidelity; and the whole thing breaks down because we are pressing beyond the limits of what belongs unto us. That’s where many a theologian has met his Waterloo, in his carnal curiosity, seeking to press beyond the limits of the divine restraint.
You have something like that in
Colossians, vainly puffed up by his fleshly mind, trying to intrude into the things that God has kept from man—that will lead to disaster. Of all these trees, ye may freely eat. I want to give you a little practical lesson here just in passing. I was a pastor and visited a lady, rang the bell, kept ringing.
I knew she was always at home. She couldn’t go out—I rang, rang. Finally she came. She said, “Brother Beuttler, excuse me, it took me a long time to find the will of God as to whether I should open the door for you.
You know, Brother Beuttler, I believe in being spiritual. I don’t do anything without asking the Lord. I ask Him what I should wear; I ask Him what I should eat; I ask Him about all my personal affairs. Hallu, hallu.” I thought I looked at a candidate that was ready for a certain institution.
You still don’t get me. I thought she needed a psychiatrist badly. I believe in the will of God; I’ve had wonderful leadings. But friends, God has also given us an intellect and common sense.
The only trouble with common sense is that it is becoming such an uncommon thing. (laughter) And you need look no farther than Washington. Some of the senseless things that come out of that place is beyond belief! God is giving us latitude.
I don’t have to ask God what tie I should wear. I look at the weather; I said to Wife this morning, “I don’t know what to wear.” We came prepared for cold and for hot because you have both around. I don’t know, “Dear Lord, what shall I wear today? What temperature is it going to be?” No, there are many things in the area of our ordinary life where God has given us the sense to simply make our own choice—but there is a limit.
Here God provided this limitation. That was in passing. Touching again on Jeremiah, that he understandeth and knoweth me. Two things now: God can be understood within the sphere of what belongs to us—you understand—not in the other sphere.
God has kept that to Himself. And do you know what? I have learned to respect the silence of God. When God does not want to explain, we ought to have enough respect to be content.
I was riding in a car with some ladies. One asked me a question. I forgot the question, but I remember her—she had no business asking, so I didn’t answer. “Brother Beuttler, perhaps you didn’t hear.
I asked you.” I didn’t answer. She said, “Brother Beuttler, don’t I get an answer from you?” I said, “Sister, you shouldn’t ask that question.” I had hoped she had enough respect for my silence, but some people don’t have enough sense, neither respect. We are not obligated to say everything people want to know—and so with God. God keeps some things to Himself, and we ought to learn to respect His silence.
And that has to do also with the area of truth: that he understandeth and knoweth me. Two things we’re asked here to glory about. This is humble, grateful appreciation. I came home from South America one year, and usually I like to bring something—generally do.
But that year I didn’t bring anything. I have a little girl, Norma. I was in the kitchen, had just come up from the south, and I said, “Norma, I’m so sorry, but this time I couldn’t bring you anything.” I forgot the reason for it. And she climbed up on my lap; put her little arm around my neck and said, “Daddy, that’s alright.
Don’t you worry; you are my best present. You’re the nicest Daddy I ever had.” Well I knew that! (laughter) No doubt about it. But when she said that, I felt like going to Philadelphia and buy up the Wanamaker Store and hand it to her—you know what I mean.
Now she was glorying. “You’re the best Daddy I ever had.” And that little arm was around my neck. You know those things are worth millions. God wants us to glory about Him—not forced, but in simplicity, in humility, in gratefulness.
God seems to believe, what has often been said, “Joys not shared are only half enjoyed.” God loves to enter into our joys, and when we glory in the right way about Him, God’s heart itself—He has feelings too; He has emotions; He has an emotional nature; He has a social nature—He too rejoices, and both are satisfied. For it says here, In these things I delight, saith the Lord. I was in a meeting many years back attending a Bible study, and a pastor was teaching.
At the end we stood, and he said to me, “Brother Beuttler, will you close in prayer please.” Well I was so filled up with the spirit of rejoicing, I just got to shouting. I couldn’t dismiss; I couldn’t pray; I simply “hallelujah.” You know what that is; I see you’re good at it yourself. The thing spread right over this Bible study—2-3 dozen people, something like that. And there we were, “Hallelujah, praise God.” He asked me to dismiss, but I couldn’t dismiss—however, that’s alright with him.
Things subsided. We had a message in tongues and he interpreted. This was the interpretation: God is pouring out His Spirit of rejoicing upon His people because a sinner has repented, and there is so much joy in heaven that God wants to share the joys of heaven with His people so that He and they may rejoice together. To me, that’s delicimous.
So that is one of the reasons why sometimes the Spirit of rejoicing comes on God’s people and you just stand there, “Hallelujah, praise the Lord.” It just came and can be again that God lets His people share. Joys not shared are only half enjoyed. Gap in tape losing part of a story, then: A short time before I left, I read the Philadelphia Inquirer. Airlines opening up tourist class to Europe via the Azores—same fare, doesn’t cost anymore.
Oh! I thought, “Now look at that! How often I wanted to stop at the Azores, and now I could have.” So I said, “I know I’m in the will of God with the route that I have chosen. But, oh here is my opportunity—and yet.” So I went to my Superintendent.
I have a Superintendent up there. I made Him my Superintendent in Central Bible Institute in 1931. I’ll tell you how. I was alone in the world; had no home; my folk were in Germany.
Before graduation a fellow walked in—the son of a superintendent, a big husky feller, “Walter, what are you going to do after graduation?” “I don’t know.” “Are you going back East?” “I don’t know.”
“Will you go West?” “I don’t know.” “Do you think you’ll be an evangelist?” “I don’t know.” He said, “Man, what do you know?” I said, “Well, I guess I don’t know anything.” (laughter) He stood there, raising up—and I’ll never forget this—now you’ll learn something from this. I’m not just telling things. I have my reasons. He stood there, “Boy, I’m glad I’m not like you.” I still see that hand of disdain, belittling.
“I’m glad I’m not like you. My father is the superintendent of the Kansas District.” And he was. “And he’s the personal friend of the General Superintendent of the Assemblies of God in Springfield. Boy!
When I graduate, my father is going to give me a church, and I’ll get a big one. I don’t have to start at the bottom like you fellows. I start at the top. Boy! am I glad!” And he went like this, went through that door, and shut the door with a bang.
And that thing was just like a shot into my heart. It really hurt. I was alone and it stung to the quick. I took the sting for a few moments and felt my heart sink, “Where will I go?
What will I do? I don’t even have a place to ship my trunk.” And they told us to get out, nobody can stay in school—but where to? That was my hard luck. I dropped down at my cot, and I said, “Father, did You hear what He said?” (laughter) I pointed my thumb at that door.
You see I pray different from people. I don’t say a theological, ecclesiastical prayer. He’s my Father; He’s my Daddy. Like Romans says, Whereby we cry Abba, Father—that means papa.
In New Guinea they know how to pray. Their skin is scaly from lack of protein. That’s very little to be sure; have very poor English. They call it pigeon English, something like that.
And they pray, “Oh, Papa God, You nice fellow upstairs. Me no am any good, but You, nice Papa God.” I get a thrill out of that. I loved it. That’s their standard prayer.
Oh, and so wholehearted! Alright, here I was, and at once, in one moment, in a flash of revelation, it came just like this, but I have to put it in words. I do not know if you can understand it, but believe it anyway. I have to put it in words, because I cannot reveal to you something so fully in such a moment the way God can.
That’s the Spirit, and we’re of the earth, earthy. “It is true that his father is a superintendent.” That was in the revelation. “It is furthermore true that his father is the personal friend of the General Superintendent, but it is also true that I am your Father, and I am the Superintendent of all superintendents including the General Superintendent of Springfield, and I am your personal Superintendent.” Whew! I lifted up my hands and said, “Father, this day I acknowledge You as my personal Superintendent.” And He has been a good one.
For this fellow, would you like to know what happened to him? I was down in Rio de Janeiro and told this to the national workers. I usually have seminars the world over with these pastors. We got home to the missionary’s house and he said, “Say Beuttler, did you ever find out what happened to that fellow?
I remember him.” I said, “No, I often wondered.” He said, “He became a butcher.” (laughter) He thought his father was going to give him a big church, but he became a butcher—is a butcher today. Friends, the race is not to the swift, the battle is not to the strong. Now we’ll go back to the Azores. Could you follow me in this roundabout way?
I said, “Father, did You perchance read the Philadelphia Inquirer?” That’s how to pray. Don’t bother me now with your theology and say, “Well, God does not have to read the Inquirer. God knows all things.” I know that. I know that.
I know it very well. But I also know that coming this way to God works. There’s an intimacy there; there’s a relationship there, so I pray, “Father, did You perchance read the Philadelphia Inquirer? If You did, did you notice the notice they had there about the Azores being open for tourist travel?
Father, I had wanted to go that way for so long, and now I’m going the other way. I just wonder about this.” He gave me such a witness—not in words, simply a witness as though He were saying (this is a way of saying it), “Well, if you’d like to change, no objection.” And I got such a something—I knew it was alright for me to change if I wanted. I changed. Now the Azores is nothing, but I got the curiosity satisfied, that is to say, we only made a plane stop—what can you do there?
When I got back to school in the fall, I told the class because I was (as my little girl used to say) all tickled up. I thought God was so nice, so considerate in letting me change. It’s amazing what God will do for you. You treat Him right, He’ll treat you right.
You respect His wishes, He will respect yours. So I told the students how nice the Lord was in letting me change after I knew I was going in His will, but He knew my heart. No sooner had I finished when one of the girls gave an utterance in tongues. One of the fellows interpreted.
It went something like this: “God is pleased when He sees that He can please His children, for God loves to please His children and rejoices in their pleasure.” So, joys not shared are only half enjoyed. When God saw that I was happy, then He was happy. It’s almost like parents. You do something for your children, “Oh, Mommy, that is beautiful.
It’s so nice; Oh, my! So glad!” Doesn’t that make you happy? And so we enter into a mutual joy with Him. So let him that glorieth, glory in this: that he understandeth and knoweth me, that I am the Lord which exercises loving kindness.
Oh God is so nice. I just love to boast about the Lord. You know I was in Africa—or going to Africa, and I had looked at my route, and just happened to see Thebes—you know, up the River Nile. Oh, I would have liked to stop there many times, to look at the ancient ruins of Thebes, the Temple of Karnack, and what have you, these famed columns.
But I knew that I had nothing to do there. As I looked at that on my map, I got a witness. The Lord witnessed to me, “You may stop. It’ll be alright.” So I went up the Nile and stopped there, and to me, it was a thrill to see
the fulfillment of prophecy, this vast plain where that huge city used to stand, so powerful, so beautiful, a vast plain—nothing left. Now over on the other side, that’s different—nothing but 2 columns and way back in the hills, the lower palace of the queen. I came home and told one of the teachers. He said, “What did you see in Thebes?” “I’ll tell you: There was really nothing left on the west side of the Nile where the main part of the city stood.” He said, “I knew you wouldn’t see anything there.” I saw a lot!
What do you mean seeing a lot—vast plain with 2 ancient columns standing right in the middle? I saw a lot! People look at it, “There’s nothing left. What do you see?” “Uh, I see a lot!” What do I see?
I know that here was this huge city with 100 gates—one of the 7 wonders of the world, and God had said, “I’m going to wipe Noe off the map” in so many words. And what I saw was the tremendous power of Almighty God, the veracity of His word of prophecy that He could obliterate such a huge city. I saw the might of God in an empty plain. It depends on how you look at things.
See what I mean. These are all a part (there are others) of the kindness and goodness of the Lord. I want to shift gears here. (People sing “Oh, How I Love Jesus.”) Now I want to speak a little bit on the attainment of this knowledge of God, and then that will lead us closer to the angle of the manifest presence.
We’ll need Matthew 11:25-26 at this juncture. At that time Jesus answered and said, I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes; even so Father, for so it seemed good in thy sight. Matthew 11:25-26 Do you notice something? God deliberately withholds some truths from some people, as though saying, “Nope, won’t give you that, nope.” From whom would God withhold truth?
Well, He said, From the wise and the prudent. Who are the wise and the prudent? Are they the learned, the educated, the knowledgeable? No, not necessarily.
This is nothing against education, nothing against being well informed. What would we do without education, without information, without learning? If I lived a thousand years, I’d love to study all kinds of subjects: botany, chemistry, anything. I’m interested in everything, but that isn’t what the Lord talks about.
Who then are the wise and the prudent? They are what we would normally call the smart alecks. Now there are none of those in Virginia, but there are in Pennsylvania. Shall we say the snobs—those with their nose up in the air, the know-it-alls, the unteachable—those you can’t tell anything; they know everything better.
They think they know so much. Do you know why they think they know so much? Because they don’t know enough to know that they don’t know everything. (laughter) And so they think they know an awful lot.
In fact, the more we increase our knowledge, the more we increase our awareness of how little we know. If you draw a circle, and the inside of the circle represents your knowledge, and the circle beyond the things we’re not informed about. Increase your knowledge, and you also increase the awareness of what you don’t know. That’s why Einstein could say, “We know nothing.” That man knew so much that he knew that what he did know was so little in comparison to what there is to know that he called it nothing.
But there are people who are so ignorant that they don’t even know that they don’t know everything. So they’re the snobs and you can’t tell them anything. Then who are the babes? You see, Thou hast hid these things from the smart alecks.
And Jesus said, I thank thee Father—and I do the same. (laughter) Thank you Father for not giving to these smart alecks some of these choice things of the presence of God. Do you know why? They’d trample all over it; they’d trample all over it.
So God said, “Nope, I won’t let you spoil it. No, I’ll give it to the babes.” Who are the babes? The babes are the simple, the humble, the lowly, the hungry, the open. Do you know what?
You read in John 6:44, I think, No man can come unto me except the Father, which hath sent me, draw him. Do you know what is my personal strong belief—that in fallen human nature, there is no desire for God because of sin. And whenever a person feels drawn Godward—has an interest in God—I believe that is the activity of the Spirit of God. If God gives us a hunger: Oh!
I want more of God; I want to know Him; Oh! I’m hungry after reality. As far as I’m concerned, that is a hunger—you might call it desire or thirst—produced by the Spirit of God because that for which we hunger is capable of being attained. The very hunger for more of God we have is not only God’s call to get us to move in that direction, it is also the guarantee that that for which we hunger can be found in God and will be attained if we keep following in the direction of the hunger.
Could you understand that? And hast revealed them unto babes. I don’t remember when I was a babe. I can’t think that far back, but I’ve seen other babes.
They get hungry. Well now, when a baby’s hungry it manifests its hunger—wa, wa, wa. Oh brother! You’ve got to go and do something—a small baby, the mother feeds it.
That thing doesn’t say, “Hey Mom, wait a minute. Before I drink this white stuff, I want a chemical analysis (laughter). I want a complete analogy of what’s water, what else there is. No, it has a hunger, and the mother feeds; it doesn’t ask questions; it goes to work.
There is something there that corresponds to that hunger. Now you give it mustard, but it doesn’t have the appetite, something that mustard would appeal. So it is in this area. Now you cannot press this too far or you get lost.
We just take this little area. Illustrations cannot always be pressed or applied in all aspects—it just doesn’t fit. So it is with God. God gives you a hunger.
You may not even know what you are hungry for except you know it’s God—I want something from God. Do you have a sense of need? A preacher comes along and brings truth that you have never heard, maybe do not fully understand, and in here it’s like a babe: you eat; you drink; and say, “That’s it. Umm, that’s it.
Umm, that’s it.” “How do you know that’s it?” “Oh! I feel it in my soul.” That is the work of the Spirit; God’s presence within you giving you a hunger and with it a recognition to recognize that this is it, even though before you could not have defined it; you could not explain it; you didn’t know it yourself. When it comes within your reach, that’s it.
“Well how do you know?”” “I just know.” “Well how do you just know?” “I don’t know how I just know, but that’s it, Umm, Umm.” That’s the babes. I would think that in a group like this, I don’t see how anybody here would be a snob. It seems to me that in a group like this you’d have all babes. I hope you’re not insulted and say, “That man called us a baby.
I resent that.” Well, only children get into the kingdom (laughter). I don’t see how anybody would be here if they weren’t really in this category. So God withholds some things. Do you know folkses, in some groups where I minister, I no longer share these things?
I keep still. I teach these things all over the world every year, and other things too, but certain groups I have become silent for years. Why? They have become such snobs that I pick up my little bread basket from the Lord and go overseas and teach it there.
Oh! You know when conceit, carnal thinking gets into the heart, it ruins people for this kind of thing. Psalms 25:14, The secret of the Lord is with them that fear him. God shares some of His secrets with some of His people—not with others.
God does not share everything with everybody—it depends. You tell certain secrets to your friends only. I think the older you get, the less secrets you tell because you’ve learned. God is very judicious, but He shares secrets.
He lets some of His people in on some of His things. Do you remember Abraham? God said, “I’m going to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah. I’m going to go down and destroy the city.
Shall I not tell my friend, Abraham, the thing that I do?” Incidentally, I think when the Lord appeared to Abraham in Genesis 18, there were 3 men. I personally believe the 3 men were the trinity, but I won’t argue the point. I’m only stating what I believe. And the Lord said, “I’m going to go down and destroy the city.
Shall I not tell Abraham, seeing he is my friend?” God said, “Hey, I got a friend over there. I can’t destroy these cities without letting him in on the secret.” Think of it! The secret of the Lord is with them that fear him. I was speaking to about 18 French ministers one year down in the Pyrenees Mountains.
We had a seminar in an old castle. I used that verse and one said, “Do you know how it reads in the French Bible?” “No, but I’m interested.” “There it reads, The intimate communion of the Lord is with them that fear him.” Now I like both renderings. They’re both delicimous. The intimate communion of the Lord is with them that fear him.
Talking about the fear of God would take a whole study in itself and we can’t indulge in that, but there is a sharing of secrets, an intimate communion with certain of His people that qualify for it, and we’ll get to those qualifications just a little bit later. So our attainment of an intimate knowledge of God involves a right relationship. In Matthew 11, we simply had, to boil it down without boiling it up, a right attitude; Psalm 25:14, a right relationship; II Chronicles 30:22, you find a reference to some teaching of good knowledge of the Lord.
There is much need among God’s people today to teach the good knowledge of the Lord, and this includes teaching on the personal knowledge of God. In Ephesians 1:15-18, you have the activity of the Holy Spirit. Paul praying, That he might give you the spirit of wisdom and revelation that ye might know. Many of these things cannot be comprehended without the activity of the Spirit of God enabling us to see.
I want to take you for a moment to Proverbs 2:1-5. I better turn to that. I’m now hurrying a little bit because I see that my time is overall getting away. I’m only going to use verse 4 to save time.
What you have here is the knowledge of God involves an esteem of the knowledge of God. For instance, in verse 4, If thou seekest her as silver, and searchest for her as for hid treasures. You see here the knowledge of God is liken to silver being in the ground yet, in a vein, unrecovered. It also likens it to a treasure that is hidden.
Friends, some of the choicest things of God do not lie on the surface. You can’t just pick them up like at a counter from the 5 and dime store. “But, why not?” Because these things are not for the half-hearted, the lukewarm, the indifferent—they are for people who have an appreciation for these things, and who demonstrate their appreciation by doing some digging, and some searching, who go after it with an effort. They are not for the casual; they are for the earnest.
So this silver of the knowledge of God is still hidden in the ground in a vein. You got to go for it. It is hidden in the ground like a hidden treasure. God does not make things so easy for us—not in this area.
Have you ever noticed that God, in His ways, causes you to run an obstacle course? Some things are not obtainable without succeeding in an obstacle course. For instance: Have you noticed in Exodus 33:7 where Moses put the tabernacle—now that’s not the regular tabernacle, but the temporary tent. We are told he put the tabernacle afar off.
Moses took the tabernacle and pitched it without the camp afar off from the camp. Well, why afar off? And it says, it came to pass that everyone which saw the Lord went out unto the tabernacle of the congregation, which was without the camp. Exodus 33:7 Now why didn’t Moses put the tabernacle right next to the camp where people could just slip out in their night clothes almost and move over there conveniently?
No, Moses put it out of the way, afar off. It was an obstacle course because the people who really sought God did not mind going afar off to the presence of God to the tabernacle.
This was, in fact, a way of separating the wheat from the chaff, the earnest from the indifferent, so God put it off in a distance where the people had to make a real effort to get there, because God wanted, shall I say, a select group. He didn’t want droopiest who said, “Well, I got to walk for a whole mile. I’m not going to walk; it looks like we might get some rain.” No, no, those who wanted God never mind the rain. They went.
God has a way of separating people. You know, I had a godly pastor—Swift—and that man knew. We had an altar service on Sunday night, and there were lots of people. He’d sit on the platform, just wait on the Lord.
He didn’t bother going around the altar working at all. After awhile people left, another, a car load, another. In an hour or so, there would be a handful—comparatively speaking. And then he’d get up and say, “Now sister, can I do something for you, can I help you?” And I said, “Brother Swift, tell me something.
When the altar is full, you just go up there and sit. Then when most of the people have left after 15 minutes, half an hour, you start praying for people. How is that?” “Brother Beuttler,” he said, “I’m just waiting for the driftwood to go home.” (laughter) He had something: for the driftwood to go home. He divided them; he knew that the really earnest would stay.
And so God has a way of, not only testing our earnestness, but He assesses us from the effort we are willing to make. If a person has to go a long distance to get to the tabernacle, God knows they mean business. God wants (this is terrible to say—one of the unpardonable sins), God has a select group with whom He wishes to share the secrets of His presence, so He puts an obstacle in between to be sure that most likely He’ll get only those that have to make a real effort—sometimes at considerable expense and inconvenience, to get where God can manifest His presence.
While we’re here, I saw something the other day: There is a statement somewhere in this area where Moses went out to the tabernacle with Joshua. Verse 11: And he turned again into the camp (Moses came back), but his servant Joshua, the son of Nun, a young man, departed not out of the tabernacle. How come? Here is something I wish the Lord would open up to me.
This young man departed not out of the tabernacle. Now what is sure here is, Joshua lingered in the Lord’s presence. Why would he linger? I don’t know, but he must somehow have had an attachment for the presence of God.
He lingered in His presence. I didn’t say loitered. There’s a difference between loitering (marking time) and lingering. This young man, who was so earnest that he lingered in God’s presence when Moses had left, became the leader of God’s people.
I believe there is a relationship somewhere between Joshua’s lingering in God’s presence, which demonstrates a certain attitude, an appreciation of that presence. I believe that lingering was a factor in God’s choice of that man for the leadership of His people. The lingerers in His presence are apt to get from God what those in a hurry to leave don’t get. Mary at the grave of Jesus was another one.
The disciples had already left. “Well, He’s gone. We don’t know what happened. Who can?” Mary lingered, Mary tarried yet at the grave.
Tape ends here.
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 →