God Revealed through the Senses
God Manifested To Our Senses Good morning to every one of you. I suppose that quite a few of you will not be present this evening so I thought I’ll tell you this morning that it was a very, very great pleasure, as well as a privilege to come down here and spend this time with you in the presence of the Lord and in the meditation of His word. It was really a most delightful time, and be sure that we enjoyed ourselves immensely. The Lord bless you real good.
We love your way of worship—that relaxed, effortless worship. How I hate religious mechanics manipulating a song service: 1, 2, 3, 4; 1, 2, 3, 4, 1, 2, 3, 4. Oh brother! This is more like heaven.
Who wants mechanics? We want dynamics, freedom, a relaxed atmosphere; and that is what we so appreciate, as well as your warm reception. I don’t do much socializing—some people get offended, but the truth is, I just can’t afford it. When I’m done speaking, I have had it, and the best thing I can do is clear out and be by myself.
People like to talk, like to ask questions and I just don’t have the reserves for it. So that is the reason, and I just need to get away and find myself again for the next meeting. Last night we had started with some of the deeper areas of the things of the Spirit of God with respect to the manifestation of His presence. I gave you that incident how the Lord walked, and I told you I want to put a little foundation under that.
I didn’t use that term, but I told you we were going to look into the scripture that relates to that. After the Lord had given me that experience, do you remember I told Him I would never use it unless He gave me a scriptural basis. I’m very, very strong for scripture. While there are amazing experiences in God, revelations and manifestations, for myself I must have a scriptural basis, for we cannot afford to move out into areas where we’re beyond the foundation of the word of God.
Now that can be done, but it is very delicate and we have to have a real grounding in the things of the word of God. But in teaching, I do not go beyond that because there are dangers and I do not want to contribute to that. I made a statement in one meeting where I said, “I believe that there is spiritual color.” I’m not dwelling on that, but you’ll find the statement in Revelation 9 where a reference is made to evil spirits having crowns like unto gold.
That is a reference to color. These are spirit beings—like unto gold. I’m merely dropping that for you to show you that in all these areas that I mention, there is a scriptural base. Do bear in mind that our time is extremely limited.
With this subject I’m giving you, I should have a whole week with you every morning, every night to really dig into the word. So I’m doing the best I can within the time available. I had told the Lord, “I want scripture,” so He gave me Genesis 3:8. Then I told Him that was not enough.
I wanted a better, or at least a thicker foundation (if that’s the word), and He gave me II Kings 7:6. For the Lord had made the host of the Syrians (get this carefully) to hear a noise of chariots, and a noise of horses, even the noise of a great host: and they said one to another, Lo, the king of Israel hath hired against us the kings of the Hittites, and the kings of the Egyptians, to come upon us. Wherefore they arose and fled in the twilight, and left their tents, and their horses, and their asses, even the camp as it was, and fled for their life.
II Kings 7:6 The Lord had made the host of the Syrians to hear a noise of chariots. There were no chariots there; there were no horses there; there was nothing there, but the Lord caused the Syrians to hear the noise. Through the nature of the noise, the Lord gave the Syrians the information, the picture that He wanted them to have to get them to leave. I told you last night that many a time the Lord has knocked to wake me up (knocks on pulpit), right next to my ear.
Now then, that does not mean that He literally knocks on a board. He is simply causing me to hear the noise of a knocking that conveys to me by itself the message: it’s time to get up. Do you understand? It is God’s way of manifesting Himself, His will, His direction through the medium of sound.
In Acts 2:2, we have a Pentecostal base for this. Now when I use the term Pentecostal, I am not using it in a denominational sense. Folkses, God is not a denominationalist. Neither am I.
I’m in the Assemblies of God for many years, but I’m not a denominationalist. I go to all kinds of groups that want me. The church is not any one denomination. God has His people in all kinds of denominations—and I think non-denominations.
His church is found in all groups irrespective of our denominational dog tags. So when I use the term Pentecostal, I do not use it in a denominational sense; I’m using it in an experimental sense—that is to say with respect to experience. Acts 2:2, And suddenly there came a sound from heaven. Now this is the Pentecostal experience, and I use it in an experimental sense—be sure of that.
Not any one group is the church—I want to be sure you get that. I love to mix with different people because God has His people everywhere. And so here the Holy Ghost fell on the Day of Pentecost. Suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting.
Here is the coming of the Holy Spirit; God manifesting His presence, the presence of the Spirit of God through the medium of sound. They heard the Holy Ghost in His coming like a mighty rushing wind. (Whisss sound) And people must have thought, “What is that? Ooh!
I hear a rushing sound.” It was the Spirit. What’s the meaning? There is such a thing in Pentecostal experience—again I’m not talking about denomination, not at all. In our experience of the fullness of the Spirit, there is such a thing that on occasion, God will manifest the presence of the Spirit through the medium of sound perceivable by our human faculty of hearing.
That’s what happened here, and I maintain without equivocation that the hearing of the presence of God when the occasion and need demands it in the judgment of God is part of our Pentecostal inheritance. If I err not, it was Hattie Hammond that told me once how she heard a whole orchestra play in the meeting. We’ve had it in our school already—I didn’t hear it; others did; I had other things. But there is such a thing.
In fact, in our school during a time of revival, God manifested His presence through the sense of smell. We had a tremendous move of God, and the fragrance wafted through the chapel that we recognized as the fragrance of the presence of God. We had a lady there, the wife of the music director who was at home minding the children so she could be in chapel. When she came home he said, “Mary, since when do you use perfume?
What kind of perfume is this?” She said, “I’m not using any.” “Of course you are.” What happened was that the fragrance of the presence of the Lord carried with her on the way home and her husband detected it. That happened only once. While I think of it—we should not pray for those things. Don’t you ever pray to hear, or see, or smell.
God will have to deal with you. These things we must not strain after. We may have a desire that somehow the Lord will meet us, but don’t ever say, “I want what Brother Beuttler had. I want to hear you walk, Lord.” The Lord will not answer your prayer.
He cannot afford that. Then why do you tell us about it? Because, God in His dealings with us and association with us, will manifest Himself on occasion—like I told you last night, but the manner of His manifestation and revelation is altogether a matter of divine discretion. We must not tell Him how to meet us—only to meet us.
The prerogative of how belongs to Him. Never, never try to force these things. I was speaking in a church in Philadelphia. A pastor got so inspired he went to the Lord and said, “Lord, I want what Brother Beuttler had.
I want to hear you walk by me.” He prayed a long time; I guess many days. He said, “Brother Beuttler, I prayed for the same experience and what do you think happened? Suddenly I heard such a terrible noise. It scarred the daylights out of me and I said, ‘Oh God!
Please don’t. I don’t want it.’” He said, “God just showed His displeasure in his asking an experience like Brother Beuttler. I’ll never do it again.” I just want to warn you here—don’t strain; open your heart, (sings) Nearer my God to thee, then let Him do what He wants. Do you understand?
Furthermore, in my case, I’ve had many of these things over the years. I’m persuaded that I had them to a great extent, in my case, because of the ministry. I tell these things all over the world, and many times folk have said, “It is those experiences that help us see the practical side and help us to apply.” I think the ministry is a big factor in it, so I want to caution you. Nevertheless, when the Lord does make Himself known, having had teaching on it, you will be able to say, “I know.” I was in a church and I was speaking from Revelation, Behold I stand at the door and knock.
And a lady after said, “Brother Beuttler, now I know, now I know.” I said, “What do you know?” “Why you know,” she said, “Time and again I have been awakened by knocking, and once I heard my name called, and I thought maybe I’m going cookoo. Now I know I’m not cookoo at all. That is the Lord and the next time I’m going to respond to Him.” You see, you’ll be able to recognize His working after you’ve had some teaching on it. So you have this in the Pentecostal experience there—heard a sound of a mighty rushing wind.
And while we’re in Acts, There appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire, and it sat upon each. On each head there was a little flame. Each one had a little flame over their head. That was the presence of the Spirit.
It says, There appeared. Obviously they saw these little flames of fire. In other words, the Spirit of God manifested His presence through the medium of sight. They could see the presence of God.
Well we might say, “But God is Spirit; the presence of God is Spirit.” Yes, but God, when He so chooses, makes His presence hearable, seeable and feelable. Now don’t tell me I need a course in English. I might be able to stand one, but I do this purposefully: hearable, seeable and feelable. Why here we have sat, and haven’t you felt His presence?
And you know what it is to have in here the glow of His presence—that’s all part of the manifestation of His presence. Let’s turn for a moment to Exodus 3:1-4. This is another thing the Lord has made so real to me some years back. I’ll skip because of the time; I’ll just take the essential things.
Moses was in the backside of the desert. Now Moses kept the flock of Jethro his father in law, the priest of Midian; and he led the flock to the backside of the desert and came to the mountain of God, even to Horeb. And the angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush: and he looked, and, behold, the bush burned with fire, and the bush was not consumed. And Moses said, I will now turn aside to see this great site, why the bush is not burnt.
When the Lord saw that he turned aside to see, God called unto him out of the midst of the bush, and said, Moses, Moses. And he said, Here am I. Exodus 3:1-4 Verse 2, The angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a flame of fire out of the midst of the bush. He looked and said, Behold the bush burns with fire and the bush was not consumed.
Moses said, I will now turn aside to see this great site. How come? When the Lord saw he turned aside to see, God called, Moses, Moses. What was that burning bush?
The bush was not burning at all. It looked like it was burning. It was there to arrest the attention of Moses. And when the Lord saw that Moses turned, then God spoke.
Sometimes God arrests our attention, and unless we respond, He won’t do a thing. I don’t believe God would have said anything to Moses had the man not responded. But what was that flame? Well, it is called the angel of the Lord.
It is also called the Lord. Now we’ll let the theologians argue who this angel was and who the Lord was. We’ll leave that to them; we’ll get the practical benefit, namely that there is such a thing as a manifestation of the presence of God perceivable by our human facility of sight. Here is the flame that was the presence of God.
Incidentally, Israel had that experience for some 40 years. By day they saw the presence of God, the shekinah glory—that is to say, as a cloud by day; as the appearance of fire by night, a fire—that is, an appearance of fire which they could follow by night; an appearance of a cloud they followed by day. They had a manifestation of the divine presence for 40 years to guide them as they went through the desert. These things shouldn’t be strange.
The strange thing is that people don’t believe and get the implication. Notice for a moment in Luke 3:21-22. Here you have a manifestation of the presence of God, the Holy Ghost. Now when all the people were baptized, it came to pass, that Jesus also being baptized, and praying, the heavens were opened and the Holy Ghost descended in a bodily shape.
Luke 3:21-22 Now look at that: the Holy Ghost has no body. The Holy Ghost is spiritual essence; He is a rrrreal person. I put the r in there to try to make it real. He is a rrrrrreal person; He has intellect; He has sensibility—that’s why we can grieve the Holy Ghost; He has will; He has emotion and all those faculties of personality.
He has no body. God is a spirit; the Holy Ghost is a spirit—no body, and yet He descended in bodily shape. He didn’t descend with a body; He descended with a form like unto a body, a physical thing. There you get clearly the idea that a spirit has form.
I do not know whether spirits can change their form. I do not know that. I do know they have forms. You find it in the scriptures where angels had often appeared in the likeness of men.
You have in the scriptures where evil spirits have their forms, their shape described. For instance—oh there are a number. In Revelation 9 you have spirits in the form of locusts come out of the pit in the last days, and those locusts had breastplates. They had the faces of men, and they had the hair of women at the same time.
Other descriptions are made, and there you have a whole picture of spirits, yet they do not have physical bodies, you see. And there are others like that. The Holy Ghost descended in a bodily shape like a dove. Here the Holy Ghost took on the form of a dove.
He can take on other forms. In the upper room in Acts 2, there was the manifestation of a flame. Like a dove upon him, and a voice came from heaven, which said, Thou art my beloved Son; with thee I am well pleased. So you have here John actually seeing the Spirit of God in a bodily form without having the body.
That raises the principle that spirit personalities have, or can take on, forms. The first time I saw an evil spirit as clear as you. It was a serpent about this long just as clear as anything could be. Now there was a reason for it, but I do not want to take time with.
But these things have practical applications. This isn’t just an idea—they can be used—that is the principles can be used. We had a revival in our school some years ago that I had already made reference to, and the Lord awakened me every morning at 2:30. And I had to stay up clear through the night at that time.
The Lord would tell me what He was going to do in each meeting. I had charge of the revival; we had meetings morning and evening. I could name every meeting before it began. The Lord gave me what songs to sing; whom to ask to sing a special; what they were to sing; which stanza they were to omit—the whole thing was Spirit directed.
Once I made a mistake. I don’t know what happened, but as the Lord had given me during the night the format of the service, there came a point where I was to take a back seat, so to speak, and take my hands off the meeting. Well the time came, and for some reason, I did not take the hands off the meeting. I kept talking, explaining some things, and our Dean of Women stood up and gave an utterance in prophecy.
And this is what she had. Now let me get it straight. “Oh, that thou wouldest but keep silent. This is His day, for then He would speak.” She never knew who it was meant for; she told me later, but I told her, “That was for me.” “Oh, that thou wouldest but keep silent.” I said, “Lord, I’ll do that very thing,” and sat down.
I said, “I’m not going to touch that meeting with another remark or anything until You give me the meeting back. You took it out of my hand; You have to put it back.” I took my hands off that meeting for 2 hours while the Lord worked a tremendous finality in that service that morning. That’s the revival I’m talking about. One morning the Lord awakened me at 2:30, and I’d sit there quite a long time.
The Lord gave me a message, and I knew this is the message. It was from Joshua I think. I preached it in chapel and the longer I spoke, the harder it became speaking. I had such opposition from somewhere that I was brought to a complete halt.
I couldn’t get another word out, so I said, “Students, I cannot speak any more. Something is wrong; I have such opposition; I don’t understand it. Let’s look to the Lord and see if He will somehow let us know what is wrong with this meeting.” As far as I knew, I had made no mistake. So these 200 or so students—I guess a little better than that—bowed their heads and started praying.
At that very moment, I saw a huge host of coal black evil spirits on the ceiling arranged like a U. They started about the middle of the chapel and back and around and over on this side to about the middle, a huge black host of satanic spirits. So that was it. I knew right away these were the fellows that were doing the opposing, that brought me to a complete standstill of speaking.
I couldn’t get another word out of my mouth. I told the students to pay attention now, stop praying, and I told them what I saw—those things were there. With that one of the girls gave an utterance in tongues; one of the boys interpreted. The interpretation confirmed the accuracy of what I had said, but added that Satan had come into the revival in order to destroy it.
So that was it. Now I knew. I said, “Students, it seems to me that the only reason the Lord would give us this revelation would be that He wants to do something about it. Let’s pray again.” And these things were there watching.
“Let’s pray again and ask the Lord to show us what to do with this enemy.” They started to pray, and in a moment of revelation like this (snaps his finger), I had the whole answer. You know these things take God—you can’t combat them on your own. I had the answer like this. I stopped their praying saying, “You don’t need to pray anymore.
The Lord’s given me the answer. All I ask you now is to cooperate with me and do what I tell you.” So I said, “Will all of you please stand.” They all stood—now we had the girls on this side, the fellows on this side. I said, “Girls would you please, all of you walk up and stand in front of the platform close together.” And a whole bunch of them came up, a hundred or so, and there they crowded around the front. I said, “Men will you please do the same thing and gather here to my right.” So they all came up, everyone.
It’s marvelous when you have cooperation. I said to the girls, “Girls, will all of you now hold each other’s hands. Fellows, will you do the same thing.” So they all held hands, then I stepped forward and asked for the free hand of the nearest girl and the nearest fellow. Now we were all united.
That’s what I had in the revelation. Then I said, “Be sure you notice, everyone of us hold our hands together up in the air unto the Lord.” And 400 hands holding each other were lifted unto the Lord. I had to connect the two groups. And I said, “As our hands are up, we’re going to affirm”—by the way some times, many times affirmation of God’s promise gets you better results than mere petition.
Think that over. “Let’s affirm the victory of Jesus over these enemies.” And those things were up there watching. We didn’t say, “Oh Lord please, hallelu, hallelu, hallelu. Oh Lord.” (Spits on hands) No, no.
JESUS IS VICTOR and somebody started to sing, Jesus Breaks Every Fetter. And that song went through that place, and folkses, these things at the ceiling went out of that chapel like this—zoom—and out they were. And the whole thing was clean. There I stood and looked over the chapel; told them to go back to their seats and sit down; the enemy had fled.
I felt in my spirit not to do anything. You know that’s a great secret sometimes in the Spirit, not to do anything, but to be poised Godward, under no strain, but with readiness for whatever God wants. And I looked over this chapel—somehow I just looked over the chapel, I guess I was glad these things were gone, and back in the chapel over near the ceiling I saw a little white cloud. The cloud rotated just about this speed, shall I say.
I can’t be accurate here, slower than that. It rotated and as it did it spread out slowly and thickened—but kept rotating. As it continued to do that, it gradually thickened until it was solid white and slowly spread over the whole chapel. Here was a white cloud at the ceiling and all over the place where these spirits had been and I knew that I beheld the glory of the Lord.
I saw the presence of God as a white cloud over this chapel—and that was as real as my looking at this white shirt over there. I held steady and just looked. Here I can’t find words for an explanation—I’ll try it, but it’s not satisfactory. Somehow, I don’t know how, it seemed that my spirit could look way out beyond our chapel—far into the distance into the realm where evil spirits have their abode.
They are the prince of the powers of the air. They dwell in the air—or in men when they have the opportunity. I could look—not with my eyes now—no, but my spirit had sight. Our spirits do have sight.
After we’re dead and our body is buried and decayed, we still see in heaven; we see the Lord; we see the angels; we see each other. The spirit has sight. I had no time to go into those ramifications. I could see way out, and all around the chapel.
I could see everywhere for a far distance—how far I wouldn’t know. Through that I got the revelation that when these spirits fled, they just didn’t go outside the door and hang around there—they beat it. They beat it; they must have thought, “Whew! Let’s get away from this place.
This is no place for us.” And it wasn’t. The Lord let me know that they were far away. I didn’t see them, but whew, they were gone instantly. They had cleared the surroundings.
Then I felt free to say something, and I told the students what I just told you. I said, “Students, these things aren’t even hanging around on the outside. They’ve gone so far away—they’ve had it.” And the power of God fell, and the Lord poured out His Spirit for 3 solid hours. That was our morning, way into the afternoon.
Here you have a case of a manifestation. Now how that takes place, I do not know. I can only say that it takes place. The mechanics of it—well it wouldn’t be mechanics, let’s not explain.
But there it was. Here the very fact that these things can be both seen and heard has practical implications, so when there is a satanic intrusion—there is such a thing as discerning it, and by the help of God being able to deal with it. Of course, I suppose you would put that under the category of discerning of spirits, if you want to give it a label. I’m cautious with labels.
I have learned not to try to label too much because God is too varying in His doing, but anyhow I would suppose that that’s what it would come under. Sometimes, of course, people put on an act, and that makes them actors. Even there, the Spirit of God will help us. We had a girl in school who time and again got extensively—I was going to say electric fits, not electric fits—what do you call these jobs—epileptic fits.
I’m getting foggy. Time and again she’d fall down and there she would lie out, and students you know, “Oh our poor sister. Oh Jesus hallelujah. Oh, let’s all pray.” Oh, they would fuss over her.
That would happen over and over and over again. We had a classroom on one side of the girl’s dorm and I had a doctrine class. Sometimes I’d make a shortcut to my office and go through the girl’s dorm’s wing to get down there instead of going outside into the weather. This day I decided I’d sneak through the dorm and got out there and there was a whole bunch of girls filling the hall outside their washroom, “Hallelu, hallelu, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, hallelujah.” I said, “Girls, I’d like to get through.” “Hallelu, hallelu.” I said, “Well, what’s the trouble here?” “Oh, sister so and so has had another fit.” And from the washroom they said, “Brother Beuttler, would you come in please and pray for our sister?
She’s had another spell.” “Alright girls, if you’ll make room for me, I’ll come in.” I went in there and looked at her, and they stood there, “Hallelu, hallelu, hallelujah.” Something came over me. Do you know I almost got angry—a provocative something in here. I looked down at that girl and bent toward her and said, “Get up and stop that nonsense of yours and behave yourself.” She got up and had no more fits ever, and then it turned out all she did was put on an act.
She loved to have people make over her—hallelu, our poor sister. She had no more fits. She didn’t have any fits—she put on an act, and the Spirit gave me such a revulsion that I told her to stop that nonsense, get up and behave herself—and she did. The Spirit of God knows.
Well now I hope I’m not leaving you way behind. Are you coming with me? I don’t want to leave you in timbucktwo. I think you’re with me.
These things are real, the truth. The only thing here is I did not have enough time to prepare you for the full course due to shortness of time. I’m going to shift gears a bit and come now particularly to the nature of God’s presence, and that brings us back to Exodus 33. That’s a wonderful chapter; I never get tired of it.
Now we’ve used this passage in 14: My presence shall go with thee and I will give thee rest. I talked to you about the omnipresence alright, but now we still have the omnipresence; we’re not leaving that out of sight, but I want to talk to you here more particularly about the manifest presence of God within our being—call it if you like, the glow. Do you know what it is to have that inner sense of His presence that makes you feel like saying, “Hallelujah, He’s so real, Oh praise the Lord”—Coming from down here, such a sense of His presence?
Well I’m talking about that, although it could take in a sense of His surrounding presence. So here, My presence shall go with thee and I will give thee rest. I’ve traveled quite in excess of a half a million miles by air over the years; I think it’s considerably more than that—most of the time alone, yet not alone, because of the companionship of the presence of God. Here I want to show you how this thing works.
Last summer I came from Singapore up to Bangkok with Tai Airways. I got a bit early to the Singapore Airport, and it was before check-in time for the luggage, so the man said, “We’re not ready to check in the luggage, but I’ll take it anyway. I’ll see to it that it gets in on the right truck.” Well you know I’m always wary with the luggage because irresponsibility is such a problem. So I let him go ahead, although I really shouldn’t have, but I did.
At least I was free to go upstairs, have a cup of coffee, something like that. So we got to Bangkok, and it so happened as we arrived several other large jets had also just arrived. There was a BOAC from London, a KLM from Amsterdam, a Lufthansa from Frankfort and there was a Greek one from Athens, what have you, and passengers and luggage galore. The airport is too small to begin with because Bangkok has terrific air traffic.
It’s one of these cross points there, and everything goes through Bangkok. The result was the place was full of people, and piles and piles of luggage from different flights, and I stood there waiting for my luggage. Here was the conveyor belt, and I kept looking for the things to come along, but they didn’t come, and I stood there an hour, and my luggage hadn’t come. The other passengers I knew already had gone.
They got theirs; they left, and I was with passengers of other flights without the luggage—that looked bad. I went over to Tai Airways desk and told them that apparently my luggage has been lost. It could be back in Singapore yet for all I knew. They got all the information that they needed.
They said, “We’ll do our best to trace it.” But you know the best couldn’t be good enough, and you’re crippled without your luggage in travel like that. So I thought, “I might as well go to the hotel and hope they’ll call up and say they found my luggage.” “No,” I thought, “I’m going to go back to the conveyor and see if perchance it had come while I was at the desk, or whether it was coming.” So I went back, looked all over, nothing. I stood there, nothing was coming.
I thought, “Well, it’s no use.” Almost an hour and a half had gone by now. It’s much too long. So I thought, “I guess I’ll have to get reconciled. Maybe buy new stuff in Bangkok and write it off as one of those losses perhaps.” Just as I was going to turn, I felt the Lord’s presence in here, and folk, at the same time, it just seemed the Lord was standing to my left at the conveyor belt.
And I had such an inner sense of calm, peace, tranquilly—I know they’re all synonyms, but they’re all good—that I thought, “Well, the Lord has come to stand with me. After all, He is my travel companion. If He comes and stands here, why should I leave? So I’ll stand too.” And we stood at the conveyor belt.
I had that sense of His presence. He was so real to my left. So I thought, “Well, as long as He stands, I’ll stand.” And I kept my eyes on the conveyor. His presence was so real.
I suppose it lasted about 10 or 15 minutes. I thought, “Beuttler, here’s President Nixon.” That’s lunch. I guess you know better than to let me go. I stood there and said, “Oh, thank You Lord for Your presence.” I kept looking, whew.
Here comes one case, and in a few moments, here came the second one. I was so delighted; my luggage was mixed up with the luggage of another flight, but because He came to stand there, I thought I ought to stand there. I thought, “Why leave without Him?” He kept standing long enough until I had my luggage. I picked it up and discovered He wasn’t there.
My companion had come to detain me at the conveyor belt so I’d wait long enough for my luggage. More than an hour and a half had gone by. He knew it was coming, so He came along and helped me. To me, that is super delicimous.
That’s the reality of this thing. My presence shall go with thee, and I will give thee rest. Now I could carry this on almost into infinity with other things, but its better that I go to different areas. I’m taking Psalm 31:19-20 next.
Oh how great is thy goodness, which thou hast laid up for them that fear thee; which thou hast wrought for them that trust in thee before the sons of men! Thou shalt hide them in the secret of thy presence from the pride of man; that’s especially their words; thou shalt keep them secretly in a pavilion from the strife of tongues. Psalms 31:29-20 Folkses, here the presence of God is a shelter—a shelter, an area, a broad action, something in which you can hide from what people say to you, and about you, and against you.
There is a shelter of the presence of God. Some years ago, we had a teacher in school, a lady teacher, a missionary who had no use for my going overseas. I don’t understand it. To this day she was always against it, even talked to the students against it.
One day she found out I was going to Liberia. “Umph! What time are you going?” I said, “The first week in June.” “Ugh! That’s no time to go to Liberia.
What you need it better leading from the Lord.” I said, “I’ve had His leading.” “No, no, I come from Liberia,” she said. “It’s going to rain so much the nationals can’t even get out of their huts. They’ll be washed out, rained out. They can’t come.
That’s no time; that’s the worst time of the year.” “Well,” I said, “They’ve asked me to come. This is the only time I can go, and I know God wants me to go.” “Nope, it’s not the Lord; it’s not the Lord; not the Lord.” How did she put it? “I needed sharper discernment.” Well, I went, and lo and behold, the sky was clear. It was the week of the full moon, and we had sunshine by day, and full moon by night every night.
Once it rained during the night just a little sprinkle. The Lord even turned on His big light in heaven, so to speak, and showed the nationals the way. Well, it happened to be the time of full moon, of course, but by night it was bright and they said, “Brother Beuttler, we’ve never seen it before at this time to have such a rainless spell.” This time the Lord knew. When I came back and said, “Do you know what the weather was?
We had clear weather, no rain and full moon every night.” The answer I got was, “Umph.” (Laughter) Oh, when people talk to you and don’t understand, you need to have that inner something from God that holds you steady. I went to France. I didn’t want to go because my Father fought in France; my Grandfather fought in France—German, French have been traditional enemies, and the Lord had asked me to go to France. He dealt with me during the camp meeting.
I said, “Lord, I have no money to go to France.” That was my first excuse. Actually, I didn’t want to go. They had an evangelist and one night the evangelist said, “Folk, before I speak I want an offering. The Lord told me this morning ‘You take up a special offering for Brother Beuttler, and it must be no less than $500.’” So he said, “The camp committee agreed and we’re taking up an offering for Brother Beuttler of no less than $500.” The offering I think was $580; my ticket I think cost $552 to France and back—something like that.
I went back to the Lord and said, “Lord, even though I have the fare, I still can’t go. I have no contact.” You see, I didn’t want to go. I was at school and was called to the phone. A pastor from Philly called and said, “Brother Beuttler, how would you like to come down to us and have Italian spaghetti?” Well, if you talk Italian spaghetti to me, I’m ready, you know.
I said, “Sure, be glad to, but what’s the idea?” He said, “Oh, I have a friend here from France I’d like you to meet.” Now I wish I hadn’t said yes to the spaghetti. (Laughter) I smelled a rat. I went and the man said, “Brother Beuttler, I’ve heard about you. Have you ever thought of coming to France?” I said, “Oh, it’s passed my mind.” (Laughter) And then I… Gap in tape, then: …there for quite awhile tearing me to pieces.
Finally I spoke to the Lord in my heart. I said, “Father, do You hear what they are saying about me?” And when I said that, I felt a strong enveloping presence, and an inner sense of His presence, a great calm. It was the shelter of the presence of God. They still talked; I still heard what they said, but there was no more reached in the deep.
I had a fortress now; I could shake it off. And finally, I asked to be excused. I told them I would like to leave. They agreed, and I had the feeling they were relieved.
You know, you get the feel when people don’t want you. They seemed relieved. I went out to a park; it was cold, rainy. I had a nylon raincoat; I pulled that up; took my French beret that I always wear when I wear something on my head; pulled it way down over my ears; put the tips under, because it was so cold.
The rain kept dripping down from a pine tree; ran down over my face; I didn’t care. I sat there shivering; I said, “Father, please let me go home. Send somebody else. Please, do me one favor, let me go back home.
They don’t want me; they don’t want the message You gave me.” And there was such a presence, but I got no light. I went back to my cold hotel. Oh, it’s so miserable cold in France in June up there at that time. Do you know about that?
Oh, it’s miserable cold, rainy, cold, damp, wind blowing down from the English Channel, what have you. Ugh, it’s cold there. I like the South, not the North. I said, “Father, alright tomorrow is Sunday the end of the week, unless You do something, I’m going to find my ministerial grave in France.” What I meant was, “I’ll be done for and word will get back to Springfield, and goodness knows what report those French will send.
I’ll have had it if You don’t help me. But if You want me to be buried in France…” I meant it spiritually, but I thought of the tens of thousands of white crosses in Normandy. When you come in through Lehard, go down to Paris by train. Oh, it’s a pitiful sight.
I guess they’ve done away with that now. I think they’ve took the men home. But at that time, white crosses as far as the eye could see, straight lanes, from the train, miles upon miles into the distance. And the train going on fast, a Paris express, running down there mile after mile.
You look ahead and nothing but a sea of white crosses; a terrible sight. I think they did away with that now. But I said, “Lord, there are others here. I’ll be just one of the men that lost their lives in France,” though I meant it spiritually.
Sunday morning came and the Lord gave me a message; woke me up. The message had to do with the Lord’s visit, His personal visit to us. I haven’t spoken to you on that—when the Lord visits you. I said, “Lord, this is it.
This will be the last straw. They’ll never, never take that.” I got to speaking; had a lady for an interpreter. We were going about 10-15 minutes when I felt in here someone down there had an utterance in tongues. I stopped and said to her, “Will you please tell this congregation somebody has an utterance from the Spirit?” She said, “Oh Brother Beuttler, we’re not doing that in France.
That isn’t our custom.” I said, “Well, how about doing it now?” “Oh, but Brother Beuttler, it just isn’t done like that.” I said, “Sister, the Spirit has an utterance somewhere in the audience.” We stood there arguing while they wondered what it was all about. I said, “Would you please?” She said, “Brother says” (putting the thing on me, you know), “Brother says somebody has an utterance from the Spirit and should give it.” A lady stood up and gave a beautiful utterance in tongues.
A man stood up and gave the interpretation. In the interpretation God confirmed that He had sent me to France; that He was giving them His word; that He was seeking to bring them into a new dimension of an experience in God, and that they should receive the word. With that the Spirit of God fell, hands went up all over this large crowd shouting and praising. To my surprise, behind me where the refrigerators were (laughter), I heard praises and “hallelujah.” They got to shouting behind me; they melted.
I heard a voice at the other end of the platform I thought I recognized and looked over, and this is what I saw: (somebody praising God in French, then “hallelujah, hallelujah, glory to God.”) And I kept looking, and I saw tears coming down here, and this was the pastor that was so opposed. He came over, threw his arms around me, literally. Now the French are good at that. (laughter) He asked for my forgiveness and said, “God has sent you to France, and we want you to stay as long as you can.
Tomorrow we have a special outing of the churches and we want you to stay and speak.” The whole thing changed, and folkses, God opened up France for ministry, and French North Africa. This man was the leader of all my future visits, so many I lost track counting. They had my whole family come over to France and paid all of the expenses. One year they sent me to Japan over the North Pole from Paris, paid all expenses.
This man who was so against me became the strongest Beuttlerite in France. Just a week ago or so, I had an invitation to come back and be the speaker at their national convention in June, and I’ll be going to Belgium, and we two are going to have a nice French-American hug and reunion because I haven’t been there for a number of years. But don’t lose sight of something: It was the presence of God that held me steady, a shelter to envelop me, to protect me, to shield me against their words until God could break through and turn hostility into friendship to the glory of God.
These things are real. The presence of God is a companion; the presence of God is a shelter, and we’ll pray again with Moses, Show me now thy way, that I may know thee. And again I say, may the good Lord say to everyone of our hearts, My presence shall go with thee, and I will give thee rest. And to those of you who are leaving, “Goodbye and the Lord bless you real good.”
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 →