Spiritual Form 2
Spiritual Form II For those of you who do not have my notes, there’s a study in there on Visions of God, and that particular study has considerably more material on the presence of God than I am giving you so I’m calling that to your attention in case you are especially interested. Now then, are you alright? If some of you folk have trouble, there are some openings, some gaps over here if you like to shift. If you don’t see my face you’re going to lose some of it.
(laughter) Not because my face is worth looking at in a sense, but often I speak with my face. Its part of my personality, and if you don’t see me you just lose some truth—that’s the way these things work. It sounds strange, doesn’t it, and preposterous? But still, that’s the way it works.
This way, as I said, I can go with you an extra half hour or something like that without getting bogged down. I have so appreciated being with you, and so does Wife. She said, “My, that’s wonderful!” That worship, that spirit, that openness of yours, that responsiveness is a treat. You see, I’m in school; I come from school, and what a difference in receptivity that it’s a real delight to be with you and share with you the things of God.
You know we’re getting so academic in our schools, and so neglecting of the things of the Spirit that the climate is so changed from what it was 25 years ago that it’s hard to believe, even by myself who has seen, and sees these things. The whole posture of people is changing more and more in the direction of the wisdom of this world, and I find it so hard to share so many things—in fact, I don’t anymore, and so it’s a real treat to be in a group where you can just share, and where there is obviously such a receptiveness on your part.
So we’re having a treat. I’ll go back home on Monday for the treatment. (laughter) There is more truth in that than you guess. As Moses had prayed, Show me now thy way that I may know thee.
And the Lord answered him, My presence shall go with thee, and I will give thee rest. Just in passing, what you have there is the companionship of the presence of God. My presence shall go with thee and I will give thee rest. The presence of God becomes a personal companion.
One year I was going on my annual traveling around the world, and I had laid out my itinerary from Philadelphia, Los Angeles, Tokyo, Hong Kong, Manila, Singapore. At that point, I just didn’t know which way to go. I have invitations from everywhere, and I couldn’t make up my mind whether I should go south to Australia and work my way back that way, or go on westward, and come home eventually by way of Europe. I was there sitting before the Lord.
Do you like to sit before the Lord? Oh, that’s delicimous—sitting before the Lord. I’d love to speak to you on it, but I don’t suppose we’ll get into it. I sat before the Lord and said, “Father, I just don’t know where to go after Singapore.” And I sat there just waiting, lingering, but not loitering.
All of a sudden, here it came, and the words were, “I will meet you at the Pyramids.” I knew what He meant. I used to stop in Cairo occasionally for a rest stop out there at the Meina House Hotel right near the Big Pyramid. There you’re alone, and can walk out in the desert. Some of you presumably have been there.
It’s a place where nobody knows me, and that’s where I get rejuvenated. Not a soul around to ask me deep theological questions—nobody to know you, just by myself. So I knew what the Lord meant: you go westward. So I laid out the rest of the itinerary that way.
In due time, we were approaching Cairo on an Indian Airlines flight. I said, “we,” I was alone—usually go alone, sometimes Wife comes with me. We were beginning to let down near Cairo, I would say about 3:30 in the morning. I saw Cairo’s lights coming up beyond the desert, saw them gradually coming up, and I thought, “I wonder where He’s going to meet me.” Near the Great Pyramid there is a rest house; you get coffee, coffee so strong that your spoon almost stands upright, and get a sandwich, coke, sit there look over the Sphinx, what have you.
I like to sit there just by myself—oh for hours. It’s my rest stop, and I thought that’s where He’s going to meet me. I thought that while I sit there, He’ll come along and keep me company, but He didn’t. We were still a little ways from Cairo Airport, and I watched the city coming up in the distance—just the lights—they were letting down over the desert.
And I thought, “I wonder where He’ll meet me.” All of a sudden there was a strong presence—He had come to meet me before we ever arrived, and we rode into Cairo together. I went along with that lovely conscience awareness of His presence. No wonder God said to Moses, My presence shall go with thee and I will give thee rest. Now we’re going to take some scriptures and look into this matter of the manifest presence of God, which is an experience of very great reality.
First of all a statement from John 4:24 where Jesus said, God is a spirit. In Luke 24:39 Jesus said, Behold my hands and my feet that it is I myself. Handle me and see, for a spirit hath not flesh and bones as ye see me have. Now here you have to consider something.
Throughout all eternity, the Godhead, of course, was and is, three persons. Up to the time of the incarnation of Christ—that is to say when Jesus took on a human body being born of Mary—up to that time, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost were spirit beings. This is a bit misleading, but I’ll qualify it—I just don’t know how else to put it. They were spirit personalities, neither one of the three possessing a material body.
When Jesus came to be born of Mary, a change took place in the Trinity, the change being that the second person of the Trinity (Jesus is regarded to be the second), Jesus, through the incarnation, took on a body. So from the time of the incarnation, one member of the Triune Godhead has a body throughout all eternity. That was a change that came about through the incarnation. Jesus, of course, has a glorified body now, such as we’ll have, but He did not have that prior to the incarnation.
He speaks about His hands and His feet, Handle me. They could handle Him; He had a body and they could touch Him. Then He says, A spirit hath not flesh and bones such as ye see me have. So if we’ll put these two statements in juxtaposition, God is a spirit.
A spirit doth not have flesh and bones—therefore, God is without a material body even though He is a real person. Here is where we poor mortals have trouble. We equate personality with corporeity, but actually corporeity—the possession of a material body—has nothing to do with personality. We are persons independent, irrespective of our body.
God is a person: He can see, feel, hear, speak, has a will, has emotion, has all attributes of personality, yet He has no body. Paul said, Absent from the body, present with the Lord. When we die, we are no less a person after our death than we are before our death. Paul called this body a house, a tabernacle.
He said, “I’m going to get a new house.” Now we see our houses. The truth is, you don’t see Walter H. Beuttler. You are looking at my house.
This is my bungalow. I live in this bungalow. Someday I’m going to vacate it, but I’ll still live. I say that because we need to differentiate between personality and corporeity.
Again, Absent from the body, present with the Lord. Paul said he was going to put off this tabernacle, and be clothed with a new house from heaven—that will be our glorified body. We are all houses—all I see is bungalows. Some are newer than others—others are older, and some could stand a new roof.
(laughter) My roof is still pretty good. I suppose if we pulled everybody, we might find an artificial roof. (laughter) I won’t try it—I’ll get in trouble. Think now of God as a person regardless of the fact that God does not have a material body.
Do you remember this morning? We used this passage in Numbers 12, And the form, the similitude, the shape, the likeness of the Lord shall he behold. Now I take this position that God, even thought He is a spirit, spirit personality, and does not have a human body, He nevertheless has a form. This matter is a difference of opinion among theologians, but is it my fault if I’m right.
(Thank you. You’re beginning to catch my humor.) The Lord has made this truth so real to me, nothing could be realer (realer—that’s a Beuttlerism). You can do what you like with it, but I am showing you from the Word, that as far as I’m concerned, God has a form. Look here, why would He say, And the similitude, the form, the shape, the likeness of the Lord shall he behold.
If God has no form, no shape, no likeness, then what is there to behold? You see, I take these things the way they’re written. I know some theologian will say, “But this is an anthropomorphis.” There is anthropomorphic teaching in the Bible, but they use this anthropomorphism to tear away the supernatural and destroy much spiritual truth in the Word that ought to be taken as literally as it is. Here is where I have to go my own way.
I have some scriptures for you: Exodus 33:21-23. Do you know this book Exodus is a terrific book? The revelation of God in this book is tremendous. 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 passes by that I will put thee in the 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 May I add something by way of parenthesis? In Exodus 24 or 34, there is a statement where some men saw God. It says that they did see God.
Jesus said, No man hath seen God at any time. On the surface, this appears to be a contradiction, but it is not. Notice what we just read, I will take away mine hand, and thou shalt see my back parts, but my face shall not be seen. It is written in the Word that there shall no man see me and live.
Seeing God refers to His face—but my face shall not be seen. When Jesus said, No man hath seen God at any time, He is saying, No man has seen the face of God at any time. But Moses and others saw other parts of God, and here you have it. What you have here is simply this.
May I be God for just one minute or so? Well I’ll do it anyhow! (laughter) Would you like to be Moses? (talking to someone) Okay, come on.
We’ll take that corner—I can’t get into that corner. I’ll put Moses in a corner. Come on now. Alright, God said, I will cover thee with mine hand.
Why did God do that? So that the curiosity of Moses would not make him turn around and look at God, because if you do, you’ll die dead. I’ll put my hand on you—I’ll cover you with my hand while I pass by. As He passes by, He takes off the hand and Moses may look around.
Thou shalt see my back part, but my face shall not be seen. What God did there was to shield Moses from seeing His face because Moses would die, but God speaks of His hand; He speaks of His face; He speaks of His back. The impression you get—you can’t get any other one, I don’t think, is that God appeared to Moses in human form. In fact, as far as I, Walter H.
Beuttler am concerned: God, as a spirit personality, has a form which is not material, it is spiritual. God has a form like the human form. When God said, Let us make man after our own likeness, in our image, God gave to man a physical form after the general spiritual form of God. In Genesis 5:3, we have a statement there concerning Adam: Adam lived 130 years and begot a son in his own likeness after his image.
Look here, we have the same terms that God is using of man, and therefore, it seems so logical to assume that God speaks the same way of man as it is spoken of Adam and his son—that man looks like God. There is a certain resemblance there. I’m speaking now, of course, of form. To me, Exodus 33 makes quite a point and so does a statement in Matthew 18:10.
Take heed that ye despise not one of these little ones: for I say unto you, That in heaven their angles do always behold the face of my Father which is in heaven. If God doesn’t have a face, what do they behold? I know they change that and say, “Well that simply means the angels are in His presence.” But to me, that isn’t what it reads. Revelation 5:1-7—and I don’t know how people can get around this.
Follow this closely. And I saw in the right hand of him that sat on the throne a book written within and on the backside, sealed with seven seals. And I saw a strong angel proclaiming with a loud voice, Who is worthy to open the book and to loose the seals thereof? Take note: I saw in the right hand of him that sat on the throne.
Somebody’s sitting: now this is God, that is obvious from the context—that’s the Father. And no man in heaven, nor in earth, neither under the earth, was able to open the book, neither to look thereon. I’ll jump to verse 5. And one of the elders said unto me, Weep not: behold, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, hath prevailed to open the book, and to loose the seven seals thereof.
Now this is Christ. I’ll go down to verse 7, And he came and took the book out of the right hand of him that sat upon the throne. The Father sat upon the throne; He held a book in His right hand; Jesus came and took the book out of the right hand of him that sat upon the throne. Again, you have here the description of a form like the human form, and so I would conclude—and this is very real to me—that God, as spirit, nevertheless has a form.
We know from elsewhere that spirits have forms. Demons have forms—I’ve seen them—as far as that is concerned. Angelic beings have forms, and as far as I’m concerned, God has a form. And someday, when we get to heaven, we’re going to be permitted to see the face of our Heavenly Father.
If the angels always behold the face of the Father, how much more will the sons of God be able to see His face? You see, we are sons; the angels are only angels. We are made a little lower than the angels; we are finite. I have to take a plane to go back to Allentown.
Angels don’t have to do that, but when we get to heaven, we’re going to have a greater rank. We are going to be sons; we have greater privileges. And you mean to tell me, angels can see my Father’s face and I, His son, am not allowed to see it? I won’t believe it.
Besides that, the pure in heart shall see God, and that satisfies me. So the others can go on with their theology if they like it; I prefer this, because that is what satisfies me. A passage in Jeremiah 23:24 brings us now to the threshold of the presence of God. I’ll introduce it this way.
In 1950 thereabouts, the Lord had been awakening me many, many times during the night especially at 2:30. I’m going to let you in on something. We have an extra service and now I can get into some other things. The Lord would awaken me, on the dot, at 2:30 at night—many times—and that meant (sometimes) to stay up, sitting in His presence, half hour, an hour, and sometimes through the rest of the night.
And the next night—2:30. A presence in here, a worship that would rise up on the inside—it often reminded me of the incense that was being burned in the tabernacle. The incense just rises so that it woke me up. I look at my night watch—2:30, and I know: time to be up.
Another time, the Lord sang for me—I told you that—different ways, or He would even knock. You can think of this what you like, but I know what I’m talking about. Have you ever read the scripture, Behold, I stand at the door and knock? Many a time the Lord has awakened me at night (rap, rap on wood) right next to my ear.
I’ll give you a scripture yet for something like that before we get done. I don’t know about tonight—maybe so. I look at my watch—2:30. Do you know that many times I can tell from the way He knocks what He wants.
That’s right. I can tell whether there is something urgent (short, fast knocking sounds), and I know what it means: Get up, quick. Or sometimes, it’s so gentle, barely audible—oh this is hard to explain—so delicate, that I know He comes as a lover just for a little while of fellowship, nothing special, but that is special—a little while of fellowship. It’s remarkable.
Some of you have had similar experiences. He’s done it time and again—and 2:30. I began to wonder, “Now what is there about 2:30? What’s so special, why 2:30?” I knew there is no hour that’s sacred, or more sacred than any other, but why 2:30?
I guess I could say, I pestered the Lord for months. Every once in awhile, “Lord, why 2:30?” It just interested me—that’s not the right word, but I just wanted to know. One day He gave it to me, one night. By the way, the night is not only for sleeps; the night is also for…Oh, the choicest things I’ve gotten at night.
Oh yea, I could speak to you along that line, but I mustn’t indulge. And the Lord gave this to me: “By 2:30 you have had enough rest to stay up awhile with Me without falling asleep, and when we get done, there is enough time left so you can go back to bed for more rest for your day’s work.” I thought He was so considerate: enough rest to stay up an hour and still enough time left to go back to sleep because He knows we need it for the day. And I thought that was so considerate, and has been a great help to me.
But, I’ll tell you something: this kind of thing requires discipline, self discipline. The spiritual life is one of the most disciplined things that I can think of. For that, I can’t be up all hours of the night watching the late show, the late, late show—or whatever comes, I only speak from hearsay. I have to get to bed.
I don’t socialize at night; I can’t afford it. People hang around talking, doing this, doing nothing, 12:00 o’clock, 1:00 o’clock, and say, “Why I couldn’t be up with the Lord.” Well, I couldn’t be either, in that case. But when the time comes, 10:00 o’clock or so, 9:30 sometimes, we’re going in—with the chickens! Oh no, they’re in already!
(laughter) But then during the night, if He comes, you’re in condition. Oh yes! You know I’m glad for that extra night—I have more latitude now. Parenthesis Pastor: “You can go Monday, if you want.” Beuttler: “I’d be excommunicated.
I already expect some kind of a something in the school for not teaching my classes on Monday. I gave them library assignments, and they’ve already said, “And no teaching?” One night the Lord awakened me; I was awakened (I’m measuring my words here.) by the Lord walking past my bed, but I only saw Him as He disappeared at the foot of the bed in white glistening garments. I said He walked past the bed—that was obvious. I just saw Him disappear at the foot of the bed in white glistening garments—full size (not His face, just from behind), there He walked right past the bed.
I heard the rustling of His garments. I’ll get into this area of sound—manifestation through sound—I have it down here on the menu. I heard that rustling sound, and the closest I can come to by way of description is to say it sounded like poplar leaves—the leaves of the poplar tree—that rustling sound when the wind blows them. That’s what it sounded like.
And my room was filled with the presence of God. I looked at my watch, night dial—2:30. I knew it was time to be up. I got up, and I had a chair there next to the stove where I’d be comfortable.
The chair was waiting for just something like that. And I sat there, simply sitting in His presence until quarter to five. At quarter to five, I had become quite tired and weary, and I said, “Lord, do You mind if I go back to bed?” I waited for no answer; I just went back, and promptly fell asleep. And folkses, and I mean this literally, I was awakened a second time by two hands coming over my shoulders like this and pulling me into a sitting position in my bed.
I said nothing. They literally pulled me up and I sat in bed. I don’t know whose hands they were. They weren’t Wife’s.
She was in her room, I was in mine. There was just a tiny little room there in the cottage—now we have a nice house, but then we had a camp cottage. I don’t know if they were the Lord’s or an angel’s—I cannot say. You have scripture for that.
For instance: The angels came and took Lot by the hand (right?), and pulled Lot and his wife right out of the city or they would have been destroyed with the city. Now don’t ask me how that can be. I do not know how it can be, I only know it be. (laughter) You have the incidents in the Bible.
An angel came to Peter by night and smote the man on the side (laughter from demonstration given) to wake him up. It woke Peter up. He slapped him on the side (it’s in Acts) to wake him up. “Well, but they’re spirits.” “I know they’re spirits.” “Well, how can that be?” “I don’t know, I only know it be.” You can do with it what you like.
Again there was that presence. I got up and stayed up now in that presence until about 7:00 o’clock (something like that) and I said, “Lord I have to get ready for school now.” So I got ready. Now that was unusual, and I had no idea what the Lord had in mind. That morning I had my first class in the Book of Hosea.
That’s a wonderful book, isn’t it? Where God gives us an insight into His broken heart. I had been teaching about 10 minutes when I sensed a presence. I shut my book and said, “Students, there’s quite a presence here.
Let’s just pause with our study and see what that presence means.” At once we had a very powerful utterance in prophecy. It just electrified that classroom, and hands went up, and oh what a presence of God in worship. Then everything got quiet. Then the Spirit of God put on an operetta.
Did you ever hear an operetta in the Spirit? A girl started out singing and she went way up to K (I’m no musician)—way up to K, then stopped as though she was at a road sign. Another girl, a fellow, a girl and they sang answering each other in the Spirit. Then we had the interpretation, and the interpretation had to do with the love relationship between Christ and His church.
Then the power fell again, and there was rejoicing. One girl over here got the Baptism with the Spirit. The hour went by, the bell rang; we were supposed to leave the classroom, but nobody left. Everybody was just praising God.
Another class came down the hill to get into this classroom; they couldn’t get in because we didn’t get out. So they stood outside in the vestibule, and while they stood there wondering what they should do, the Spirit fell on them, and they went off. (laughter) Another hour went by and we were still here. The bells rang again and the 3rd class was supposed to get in now during the 3rd hour, but they couldn’t get in—we were still there.
The vestibule was filled with the others, so they stood outside wondering what they should do. While they wondered, the Spirit fell on them on the outside of the building, and they went off. By the time noon came, the Spirit fell upon the entire school. For dinner, there were only about 6-7 students there out of several hundred—at least in the 200 somewhere.
Now when Bible school students don’t show up for dinner, there is one of three reasons: Either they’re sick, or either they’re in love, or else they’re in revival. This was revival and we had about a 10 day revival that was sweeping out all classes—God moving in a mighty way for that length of time. It began during the night. I believe that without this during the night this revival would not have come.
I believe it had its origin in this meeting of the Lord and waiting on Him during the hours of the night. This meeting the Lord at night spending time in His presence is of tremendous value in this area. Again, Jeremiah 23:24. I told you that the Lord had been training me during the hours of the night, and this incidentally that I gave you, was part of it.
Then the Lord had so impressed me one night with this scripture, Do not I fill heaven and earth. This became such an intense reality to me, and has been ever since, that I have no trouble drawing nigh to God anywhere at all; it doesn’t make any difference in what environment I find myself. I know God is there. You know, this is very practical.
When you’re on a transatlantic plane, and you find they are out over the water, and they start turning around for no apparent reason. Then after awhile the crew goes to the emergency exits, still way up, and they don’t make an announcement. (I have that against TWA ever since.) Then you look out, and lo and behold, a huge cloud is coming out of one wing. I didn’t know what it was—I thought we were on fire—and a huge cloud coming out on the other side.
Now I know they were dumping gas, but I didn’t know it then; I thought it was fire, but they were dumping gas. Then comes the announcement, “We’re having a slight difficulty. (Laughter) We are returning; help is already on the way (a little difficulty!). We are now preparing you for an emergency landing on the water, just in case it becomes necessary.
Please take off your shoes; take out your false teeth; loosen your collar; take off your tie; open your shirt; (yep) remove all objects from your pockets, pencils and the like; put your seat in an upright position; tighten your belt as firmly as you can; take a pillow—put the pillow over your face; cross your arms and lean on the seat in front of you and wait for instructions. If need be we shall gently land on the waves, and gently bob up and down like a seagull until help arrives.” (Laughter) My!
They made it sound like a picnic, and some of you probably have been flying or are fliers, and you know this is a dangerous operation at best—this dumping of the gas and what have you—a slight difficulty! That’s when I said “Goodbye” to my family—each one. That’s the fourth time now. Oh yea!
That’s when I sweat—everybody sweats. Nobody says anything. I said, “Father, to the best of my knowledge I’m in Your will, and if this is it, so be it. But Your Book says, Do not I fill heaven and earth.
If You fill heaven and earth, You fill this cabin, and if You fill this cabin, then You and I are in the same boat.” (Laughter) That’s what I said. I said “Goodbye” to the family already and I committed myself to the Lord, and said, “Lord, one thing I know, if we go down, You’re going down too.” Now I knew He wouldn’t drown or something, but it was nice to know—and do you know what? When I said, “You and I are in the same boat,” I felt the sense of His presence.
He was there. Now we were able to get to land; we didn’t have to land on water, but at the time, it was an open question. They took no chances with that. In those situations, it’s nice to know He fills heaven and earth.
Down over the Amazon jungles on a plane that’s having trouble trying to reach a landing field across the Amazon, sitting by the window, and you watch the trees come up. Slowly they’re moving up, and they’re hurrying serving sandwiches to keep passengers occupied—and nobody eats them. (Laughter) They’re all watching the trees! Everybody’s watching the trees coming up, and some of them were high.
You wonder how soon is one of them going to brush the undercarriage, and then, of course, zoop. It’s nice to know, “Father, You’re here too. You fill this place.” On another occasion in the same area, a lightening coming down over a wall of clouds and lit up bright, and you didn’t know what it was going to hit next. It’s nice to know, “Father, You’re in this cabin too, so we’re together, aren’t we?” To me, this omnipresence is real.
It’s not merely a theological fact; it’s an intense reality. Jesus said in Matthew 6:6, And thy Father, which seeth in secret—And thy Father, which is in secret shall reward thee openly. That’s such a help in prayer: this knowledge of the omnipresence of God. You pray; you feel nothing; you see nothing; you have nothing; everything is empty—it makes no difference.
And you can say, “Father, I thank You for Your presence.” “Yea, but I don’t feel Him.” “Well, thank Him anyhow.” “What for?” “Well, He’s there.” “Wouldn’t that be telling a lie?” “No, that would be telling the truth, for once.” We think He’s absent when we can’t feel Him. He says, “I’m everywhere.” He fills this room; He fills your home. You can walk in tonight and say, “Father, I thank You for Your presence.” “Well, I can’t feel Him.” That’s got nothing to do with it.
He is present, not because you feel Him to be present, but because it says that He is. The Book says it so therefore it’s so—that’s the omnipresence, but then the manifestation of His presence—I like to call it (Oh, I change it sometimes) the personalized presence of God, or the localized presence, or the manifest presence of God—and that is where we’re going to move into now. I must speak through my experiences. I have no time to explain to you the methods, save perhaps to say: Do you remember when Jesus said, Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, ye have no life in you—and drink His blood, but we don’t do that now.
Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man. Now He was the embodiment of the truth of God—He was the Word, the truth, the life. The experiences which God, in His mercy, has given me is really personified truth. It is the embodiment of truth, and if you will eat the experiences that I give you—if you’ll accept them; if you’ll taste them, there is truth in those experiences that become your meat and your life; it is truth personified—except ye eat the flesh.
So God is using this means, in my case, to impart truth to people—they’re not simply stories; they’re the embodiment of the truth. They serve as illustrations, but they also are demonstrations of the truth so that we know how the truth can be applied and does work out in personal experience where we live. The teaching I give you is not theory, it is truth applied to our daily experience where we live, and can live for you—that’s where we operate—and so I’ll give you something here to introduce this presence.
I had a weekend in Altoona, Pa. Monday morning I was at the railroad station reading the New York Times. As I was reading I got a little check in my spirit; I knew what it meant. You see, you learn the checks of the Spirit—you learn that.
I knew what it meant—no words, just a little presence inside—I knew what it meant. What did it mean? Don’t read the newspaper. Alright, I folded it up; held it in front of my face and said, “Father, what do You want?” At once I got a Spirit of prayer and intercession—an intercessory type of a Spirit—alright that was it.
I had intercession all the way into Philadelphia. That night as always—then I had a night school in Philadelphia in connection with our school in Green Lane. I thought, “I’m going to go to a Chinese dinner.” I had a Chinese appetite, and the Lord checked me. I was already half way up to the Chinese restaurant when He checked me on the way up.
I knew what He meant—no eat. So I went to the Y where I had a hotel room—a room the night school gave me to spend my time. I walked into the night school; sat behind the table on the platform and said, “My! Isn’t God real tonight.” And the power of God fell, and we had a move of the Spirit from that night on for five consecutive Monday nights.
Someone said at the end that night, “Brother Beuttler, when you walked in tonight, we could feel the presence of God walk in with you.” But the reason was: I spent all day without eating and giving myself to the Lord. Well, some preachers didn’t like it, believe it or not. As I later discovered, the pastor of the church where we had the night school didn’t like it, because people said, “Hey! You want to come to night school.
We had a move of the Spirit in night school. Somebody got the Baptism in night school; we had a wonderful presence in night school—and the pastor didn’t like it. So he called up the district and complained about Beuttler, “Beuttler is stirring the people’s emotions. He’s got a lot of Italians there; he just whips them up; has a big time and calls it revival.” (Laughter) I don’t whip up anybody.
Two officials of the district came to see me in my office at the school, “Brother Beuttler, we want to have a talk with you,” and I could tell from their tone something was up. “We have complaints about you.” “Oh? And what’s the complaint?” “You’re not doing any teaching at night school. You’re stirring up the people and have a good time, and some ministers do not appreciate it.” I said, “That is strange.
God is pouring out His Spirit and I thought that’s a wonderful thing.” “Nope, we’re getting complaints and that has to stop.” I said, “What!” “We want you to stop it.” “But,” I said, “Brethren, what if the Spirit continues? I didn’t start it; I merely cooperated with the Spirit, and put nothing in His way.” They said, “We believe that He’s finished working.” I said, “But how do you know?” They weren’t even there. They said, “We believe He’s through, and we want you to tell the students the Spirit is finished working and you’re going on with the classes.” They wanted me to tell these people an outright lie—and that shook me—and they were my superiors.
I said, “I can’t do this. If the Spirit works, I’m not going to stop Him. Who am I?” They were adamant and finally left. Then I had a camp meeting in New York State, and the Spirit just moved with a wonderful week of meetings…..
Gap in tape - part of story is missing. He said, “Brother Beuttler, we want you to stop whatever it is that gets you associated with all these so-called movings of the Spirit. I’m getting complaints. People say, ‘Wherever there is something doing, Beuttler is in the middle of it.’” (Clapping and laughter.) Oh!
I thought they’d be glad—I’d given myself to fasting and prayer and obedience to the Spirit. And he talked very strong. For a whole hour he let me have it. He was a good man, but I don’t know what stirred him up—well, you know.
That shook me. That night I couldn’t sleep—did nothing but toss and turn. I was so discouraged; I was getting so despondent—here my superiors in the district are telling me to stop the thing and tell the students a lie yet. The president of the school criticizes me for having this move of the Spirit in a camp meeting, and there was the night school.
There were three—oh yes, and in our school we had a revival, and Beuttler was in the middle of it. I think it was the greatest revival we ever had—it was going for awhile. And I got shook. I thought, “I’m going to quit.
If this is Pentecost, they can have it. If this is what school is like, I’m through. I’m going to quit the whole thing.” I was despairing; I was being knocked over by the attitude. The next night I fell asleep, and folkses.
We lived at the time in a camp cottage that had three wooden steps coming up. I was awakened out of a deep sleep by someone’s footsteps walking up the three steps outside the cottage. I was awakened when somebody stepped on the first step—I woke up. And I instinctively knew it was the Lord, but don’t ask me how.
I heard Him walk up outside the three steps. I heard Him take hold of the knob of the door on the outside. The knob usually rattled; it was a used sort of a thing—and I heard that rattle. I heard Him turn the knob as it scrapped through the turn, and I heard Him pull the door open.
As He did, the venetian blinds rattled, as they always did. I heard Him step through the door, take hold of the inside knob, pull the door shut behind Him, the blinds rattled as usual. I heard Him walk through the dinette. (Mimicked sound on floor, but wrong kind of noise.) The floor isn’t right, but I heard Him walk every step.
He came through the dinette; He stopped outside the bedroom. We had no doors then, just an opening in the camp cottage. I heard Him turn—as He walked in, I heard Him turn around facing the door where we were. We had double decks then; I was on the upper deck, Wife on the lower.
Then He spoke in an audible voice, a rich, deep, masculine voice, an audible sound, words sounding like you would sound—not as strong as I speak, but He just spoke as an individual would speak in a conversational voice. He had come—let me get this straight—He had come to reassure me—He reassured me that He was with me, and that He would defend me against all my enemies. I heard Him speak in an audible voice. With that I heard Him turn back again facing the dinette and the door.
I heard Him walk out. (Walks on floor pacing his steps making sound of someone walking) I heard Him walk over to the door; I heard Him take hold of the knob, pull the door open; the blinds rattled again; I heard Him walk through and go down on the first step; I heard Him take the knob on the outside and shut the door behind Him, and the blinds rattled; I heard Him go down the remaining steps. And He was gone—a personal visit from a personal Christ in a time of deep distress when I think I would have turned my back on the whole thing.
I think that’s why He did it. By giving me that visit, He enabled me to go on, and I came out on the top. I didn’t know who the preacher was that sent the complaint to headquarters, but I can be like a bloodhound. I said to myself, “I’m going to get him.
I’m going to find yet who it is.” And I’d open the conversation here and there about the revival and the move of the Spirit and the night school, and every once in awhile somebody said something that seemed to point to one preacher—the pastor of the church where the night school was. I had suspected somebody else though, but somebody made the remark that pointed toward him; somebody else that pointed toward him. It didn’t say anything, but I got the pointing.
One day he came up to the school. Now that man never had anything to do with me. He was one of these aloof, touch-me-not characters. He was at school and saw me and said, “Hello, Brother Beuttler, how are you?” I thought, “He’s my man.
He’s too friendly.” That wasn’t like him; he’s covering up; he’s trying to lead me off the track. “Hello Brother Beuttler, how are you?” He never did that; he didn’t give a hoot. I thought, “He’s my man—too friendly to be real.” I said, “Fine. I would like to have a talk with you.” “Oh certainly.” “Come up to my office at such and such a time.” “I’d be glad to.” My, he was nice!
He sat there and I pulled my chair up close to him. I wanted to see the whites of his eyes. “You know brother, I want to ask you something. Are you the one that complained to the district about the moving in the night school?” (Much laughter over demonstration with someone in audience) He said, “I am.” “Why did you say I stirred up the Italians?
(That’s the only way I could figure it out.) If you had a complaint, why didn’t you talk to me? Why did you go to the district?” “Well, you know how it is.” I said, “Would you like to know what happened and why?” He said, “I really would.” When I got done with him, tears (literally now) came down from his eyes, and he bent forward and said, “Brother Beuttler, could I have that too?” But the man never called the district and told them he changed his mind, and that he apologized.
He never told the district that he let that sit, but the fact remains that the Lord came in an hour of crisis, and as far as I know, rescued me from turning my whole back on things. I just want to pursue this a little bit here. It’s after 10 o’clock. Can you take a few more minutes just to finish?
I don’t like to let it hang there without scripture. I said, “Father, I’ll never speak on this if You don’t give me some scripture to support this in principle.” And the Lord drew my attention to Genesis 3:8 where it says that Adam and Eve heard the voice of the Lord God walking in the cool of the day. That’s what it says, and they heard the voice of the Lord God walking in the cool of the day. I looked at this passage and I find that before Adam had said anything, he and his Mrs. had already been hiding themselves.
I thought, “Why voices don’t walk.” And somehow it came to me that this word “voice” literally means “sound.” So I turned to the Hebrew Bible, and, lo and behold, my Hebrew Bible reads, and they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the cool of the day. And modern translations, I cannot be precise which version, but I rather think it’s the Revised Standard Version that also has it, and they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the cool of the day.
“Oh,” I thought, “Here we have the personalized presence of God.” Incidentally it says, in the cool of the day. What does that mean? That God is so considerate of our comfort. He didn’t come in the heat of the day, but in the cool of the day.
God is considerate even of our comfort. The Lord gave me another scripture. I told the Lord, “That’s good, but I want more.” And I got I Samuel 3:10 where it says of Samuel, and the Lord came, and stood, and called. In Beuttler’s case, and the Lord came, and turned, and spoke—same thing.
And I believe Samuel heard the Lord come—and the Lord came, and stood, and called. Now in closing we’ll turn to the New Testament. That’s a delicimous verse. John 14:21, and he said, He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me.
Our love for the Lord is not evidenced by what we say, but by what we do. And he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father. Well, I thought the Father loves everybody, but here this love is conditioned, as though saying, the Father loves those that love me, that keep the commandments. What you have here is a special love.
It is talking about tokens of His love. And I will love him, and the token of his love—the evidence, the reciprocation of His love is in this word “manifest.” And I will manifest myself to him. You can go to the Greek here if you like, or different translations, and this is what you get. For this word manifest: I will make myself real to him; another: I will show myself to him; another: I will plainly show myself to him; another: I will make myself known to him.
I think you find in the Pulpit Commentary, which I think is based on Thayer’s Greek Lexicon, anyhow it’s the top authority in New Testament Greek. It says that in the Greek this word “manifest” is so strong that it can mean nothing less than a manifestation of the presence of God perceivable by our human faculties such as sight, hearing, and what have you—so strong that it can mean nothing less than a manifestation of the Lord perceivable by our human faculties.
On this we’re going to build. Tomorrow morning we’ll go into sight, hearing, and touch as part of the manifestations of the divine presence. But tonight I think we’ve had enough. I have.
And so I’ll say, “Goodnight to you. It’s nice to be with you again.” Now all these things I’ve told you, these experiences, they are the absolute truth, nothing added, nothing embellished, so it was. Well what is it? And I will manifest myself to him.
Oh, another: I will reveal myself to him; I will disclose myself to him; I will plainly show myself to him. Here it is, John 14:21. Why should we not experience the personal presence of a personal Christ in our lives, the presence of God? How shall we close?
Show me now thy way, that I may know thee, and may the good Lord say to everyone of our hearts tonight, My presence shall go with thee, and I will give thee rest.
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 →