Attainment of the Knowledge of God
Praise the Lord! You want to know something? I think the Lord’s all right. I find no fault with Him, none whatever.
Now then, I’m dividing my subjects into two branches: one for the evening services, tonight and tomorrow, and one for the morning. It’s the same subject, but two branches. The one branch has to do on how to get there in our pursuit of the knowledge of God. During the evening services, I expect to speak to you on the knowledge of God, on knowing God, on what God is etc. That’s our great objective.
In the morning services, I’m taking the way of how to get there. In the evening, it is largely - where we want to go, taking that in conjunction with the morning. It’s one thing to know where we want to go, it’s another thing to know how to get there.
Normally, I would do both in the evening, but with the few days, there’s not the time. So for you, I have reserved the area that has more particularly to do with how to get there. Of course, in the evening, presumably most of you are there, you’ll get the objective as well. So it really is very profitable for you to be with us in the morning so I can share with you how to arrive.
I’ve already made reference to John 17:3, “This is life eternal that they might know thee.” This personal experimental knowledge of which we are speaking - that is life.
When I began with you, I made reference to the reply of God to Moses when God said, “My presence shall go with thee.” I pointed out that there is a companionship, a manifest companionship, of the presence of God that is more than an adequate substitute for any other companionship. We’ll get into that between the morning and evening services.
But this is life eternal, not that they may know about thee, but that “they might know thee.” Bear in mind we are dealing with a personal knowledge of God. You folk know who I am, but you don’t know me. I’ve lived with this girl over here for some, I don’t know how many years, 40 or something. I think it was last year when she said, “Daddy, I don’t think I know you yet.”
Well, I’m a hard character to get to know. I often get misunderstood because people don’t know me. “Why did you look like you’re mad at the whole world?” you might ask.
I look mad when I’m intensely interested.
“Why look mad?”
I know nothing about it; that’s just me. You’ve got to know me. I have a sense of humor - that’s my salvation, or part of it. You know what I mean? So it is with God. How do we get to know a person? We can learn about a person, but in the final analysis, a true knowledge comes through continued association, fellowship. They say you have to live with a person before you get to know them. So that’s the area of which we’re speaking about knowing God.
It’s not so much knowing about God with the mind. We’re dealing more particularly with knowing God in the heart. Here we get help from Jeremiah 24:7, where God said to this great man: “I will give them a heart to know me.” Now the heart here is not a reference to our blood pumping station. The term heart here refers to the seat of our personality.
I’ll get into personality this evening when we talk about God’s personality. But I will give them a heart-our innermost feelings and emotions, the capabilities of our inner personality to comprehend God.
This is what we can pray, “Oh Father, give me a heart to know You,” the idea being: enable me to really know you. Here is a divine assist we are getting: “I will give them an heart to know me.”
There is more to this than research, and I believe in it. I love to study, but in the final analysis, folkses, the true knowledge of God does not come by acquiring information about God in the usual manner in which we acquire information. That has its place, but it takes more than that. In the final analysis, it takes revelation of God to our hearts by the Spirit. In the morning services, we’re going to get into the area of revelation. Perhaps at the end this morning, more likely beginning tomorrow morning, I want to take you into that area.
But God enables us. If you say within yourself, “Oh I wish I knew God. I just don’t know how. Father, give me a heart to know You. Give me the capability of knowing You.” God will answer that prayer.
We have Christ’s prayer. He was interested that His disciples should know Him. We have the assist of God Himself to enable us, and now we have God’s delight in our knowing God.
We’re going to Jeremiah 9:23-24. These are two deliciousmous verses. Do you know what I mean by deliciousmous? Well, delicious, but super delicious. That comes from Beuttler’s dictionary.
“Thus saith the Lord, Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, neither let the mighty man glory in his might, let not the rich man glory in his riches: But let him that glorieth glory in this, that he understandeth and knoweth me, that I am the Lord which exercises lovingkindness, judgment, and righteousness in the earth: for in these things I delight, saith the Lord.” Jeremiah 9:23-24
Do you notice two things here: 1) that he understandeth and 2) knoweth me. In other words, God can be understood. That does not mean that we know all about God. God is infinite. We are finite. God does not reveal everything about Himself to man. Look at Deuteronomy 29:29, “The secret things belong unto the Lord our God, but those things which are revealed belong unto us and our children.”
Here are two areas of truth. All truth is divided into two segments: 1) truth not revealed, and 2) truth revealed. I have learned long ago to respect the silence of God. God does not tell us everything we would like to know. Some things He keeps to Himself. I could raise a number of questions right away, but there’s no time.
We may learn to know those things which are revealed and within the circle of the revelation of God - that he understandeth and knoweth me. That is what God is after; that’s what we’re after this week.
So again, “Let him that glorieth, glory in this.” Look here; there is such a thing as glorying in the things of God. This glorying is not a boastful, gleeful, proud, or gloating, but it is a sincere, deep appreciation of God. “Let him glory in this, that he understandeth and knoweth me.” Have you ever heard children glory in their parents? Of course you have. “That’s my Pop; that’s my Mom.”
I came home from South America one year, and usually I like to bring something from somewhere, but that summer, I either couldn’t or didn’t for lack of opportunity or what. I came home without a present for my little girl, Norma. We were in the kitchen and I said, “Norma, I’m so sorry that I didn’t bring you anything.” I’ve forgotten the reason for it.
And that little girl crawled up on my lap, put her little arm around my neck and said, “Daddy, that’s all right. You are my best present because you are the best Daddy I ever had.”
Well, I knew that. But when I heard that glorying, I felt like going to Philadelphia and buy out the Wanamaker’s Store and give it to her - only I couldn’t of course. I was so delighted with that little arm around my neck and, “You’re the best Daddy I’ve ever had. You’re my best present because you came back to me.” Glorying! Nobody could accuse
that child as being stuck-up. Of course, I was the best Daddy she ever had, I realize that. You know what I mean - the glorying?
In like manner, the Lord even encourages us (that’s the Book) to glory in the fact, an appreciative, humble rejoicing, that we understand and know Him. God wants to be understood. Within the sphere of revelation, God may be known, wants to be known. God often gets falsely accused.
After I came from Germany years ago, 1925 I think, a German lady talked about God. Well, I wasn’t saved, and she wasn’t saved. She said to me, “I’ll tell you something, Walter, I know there is no God.”
Well, I didn’t know whether there was or wasn’t. I couldn’t say. I didn’t know either way, but she knew. I said, “I really do not know either way, but how do you know there isn’t?”
She said, “All through the war, I prayed the Germans should win, and they lost: so, there is no God.” How stupid can people get!
God wants to be known. Obviously, she was way off in her understanding of God. There have been times when people have prayed scripturally, and been refused an answer, and later on were glad for it.
I was at a convention in Chicago years ago. There was a Pentecostal mother whose son, that very week, was being executed in the electric chair for murder. She was a Pentecostal woman. She had been so perplexed when her boy was a small child, because he was very sick, given up to die. The mother prayed and insisted, “Lord, You’ve got to raise up that boy. Lord, You have to heal him.”
Have you ever heard people clobber God and take the Bible and hit Him over the head with it? “Lord, You promised in Your Book. You said, ‘Call unto me and I will answer you and show you great and mighty things.’ God, here it is. Can You read, Lord? I demand.”
So she said, “I demand that You raise up my boy.” And God did, and the boy died a murderer, and she wished she had never insisted that God raise up that boy. She wished he had died when a child.
All right, folk have said, “Brother Beuttler, God never answers prayer contrary to His will.” Don’t you believe it! There are times when God answers prayer contrary to His will, and the answer will become the punishment for our audacity. You have that in the Bible. The Israelites said, “Oh God, we want a king.”
He said, “No, I’m your king.”
They said, “No, we want a king.”
God said, “I’m your king.”
“No, we want a king like the other nations.”
God said, “All right, we’ll get you a king.”
They got the king, but they regretted it. There is such a thing as our being so adamant, demanding of God, when we know that God doesn’t want to, or else give Him no choice, that God might finally acquiesce and say, “Very well, have your answer.” Later on comes the regret.
I was sitting next to a girl in Bible school when I was a student. She was in love with a fellow, and one morning she said to me, “Walter, if he doesn’t marry me, my life won’t be worth a thing. I don’t give a hoot for my life without him.”
Now I happened to have been in prayer meetings with this boy. Her fellow was in a conflict between wanting to marry this girl and following the Lord’s will, as he felt God didn’t want him to go through with the consummation of that marriage. We prayed with him, and he admitted, “I know God does not want me to go into this marriage, but I love the girl, and I just got to have her.”
I was in the meeting, and Oh how the Spirit dealt with that man! There were utterances, tongues and interpretation. They were real warnings. Nothing did any good. He had told her of his conflict, so she had said to me, “If he doesn’t marry me, what’s the use living?” They got married, both recognizing the Lord had other ideas, but they had their ideas.
Quite a few years later, I ministered in a church and saw this girl. She had changed, but I recognized her. I said, “Well, good to see you. How are you?”
She said, “Oh fine, Brother Beuttler. How are you?”
“Fine,” I answered. “I’m glad you’re getting along so well. How is the husband?”
She burst into tears and said, “I’ve got no husband. The fellow I married got to be a drunk. He couldn’t go past a booze room. I’d find him in the morning hours when I noticed he was missing. I’d go downstairs and find him at the door steps so drunk that he couldn’t’ put the key in the keyhole and open the door, and I have to drag him upstairs and put him to bed. That’s the life I’ve had with him. Brother Beuttler. To tell you the truth, my life with him has been a living hell.”
Back there she couldn’t do without him. Now she has to do with him. See what I mean? There are times when God does let us go ahead, and even acquiesce, “All right,” and answer your prayer.
We need to know God. God does not always do what we think God ought to do. We think we know for lack of a knowledge of Him. “So let him that glorieth, glory in this that he understandeth and knoweth me.”
Again, what about God then? “That I am the Lord which exercises lovingkindness, judgment, and righteousness in the earth: for in these things I delight, saith the Lord.” To know God in His goodness, His lovingkindness, His righteousness and glorying in these wonderful attributes of God rejoices His heart.
I was raised in Germany, you know that by now. For some reason, I do not know myself; I was in the geography classes in Germany intrigued with the Azores. You know the islands of the Azores in the Atlantic. I don’t know why I was intrigued. I always wanted to see the Azores.
Well, many years went by. The Lord had given me a very specific call to go overseas teaching, and I began to travel. I had gone to Europe many times. I couldn’t tell you how often. It was always a case of New York - Amsterdam, New York - London, New York - Paris, New York - Zurich, New York - Frankfurt, you know. It was always the same, back and forth. You get tired of it, and I could never go by way of the Azores.
For one reason, in those days, the airlines did not have tourist class travel by way of the Azores. If you wanted to go that way, you had to pay first-class, and that of course is plenty, so it was out for me. And yet, I was hankering to stop at the Azores.
One year, the Lord had clearly led me - and I’m talking about the goodness, the niceness of God now. I’d been going to Europe for some years, and always planned the Northern Route, as they call it, and was going again. I was so sure of being in the will of God. I went from New York to Frankfurt, Stuttgart, Zurich, Rome (I went to Italy that time for meetings). I laid the travel plan before the Lord, which I usually do, or always, and got a real witness. In other words, “That’s right, you’re on the right track. That’s it.” I was sure I was in the center of the will of God going the way I did. The tickets were purchased, and everything set.
One morning I picked up the Philadelphia Inquirer and saw something in the paper, “Airlines opening up the Azores for tourist class travel to Europe.” They gave the date, and it was already in effect. I had selected the Northern Route because I thought the other was too expensive. I thought, “Oh, I could have gone the same way for the same cost,” but I had the inner witness that I was in the will of God going the way I did.
So I went back to my Father. I have a peculiar way of praying, but it works. I said, “Father, did you perchance read the Philadelphia Inquirer? And if You did, did You notice an item that the airlines are opening up the Azores for tourist class travel, which means that I could go by way of the Azores just as well as the other way. Father, for so long I’ve wanted to take that route. How about letting me change?”
Would you believe it? I got a witness right in here (stomach area). Now I cannot describe this because it’s better felt than telt. Some of these things you have to experience. And there was such a “yes” witness (that’s the best word, I guess), as though the Lord was saying, “Well, if you’d like to change, no problem.”
“I was all tickled up,” as my little girl used to say when she was especially happy. So I had the ticket changed and went by way of the Azores. Now there’s nothing to it. We just made a refueling stop, but somehow my curiosity had been taken care of.
What delighted me was, not so much the Azores, but the fact that my Heavenly Father (I wish I could take an hour and a quarter on the Fatherhood of God right here, but we can’t do that.), but my Heavenly Father was so considerate, so good, that even though after He had given me the witness that I was right in the center of His will, He let me change.
So I came back to school, sat in class teaching one day and said, “Students, I must tell you something about the Lord,” and I told this story of how good the Lord was to let me change my travel plans just to give me the stop in the Azores. Would you believe it? No sooner had I finished when there was a powerful utterance in tongues, followed by an interpretation, which went something like this: “God is pleased when He sees that He can please His children, for God, as a Father, loves to please His children, and He is pleased when He sees that they are pleased.” We had a real shouting time.
Now if you can follow that. Have you ever done something for your children, something real nice? All right, they can say, “Hey, Mom.” Or they can say like our smaller girl who is so appreciative, “Oh, that is wonderful, Mummy or Daddy. Oh, do I ever like that!” You see them beam, and when they beam, you beam because they beam. It gives you a double joy when your children appreciate and express their appreciation of your goodness.
The Lord’s blessing to me in class, when He saw that I was “all giggled up,” so pleased at what He did, He was pleased because I was pleased and let us know. So that even the Heavenly Father seems to believe what has often been said, “Joys not shared are only half enjoyed.”
The Lord loves when we appreciate what He does for us, and even gives expression to it. You know we’ve got an awfully nice God. You know what I mean? He’s the nicest God around, no kidding.
When the Lord dealt with me (that’s too strong a term, but I’ll let it go), taught me overseas travel, I had my own principles the Lord gave me on how to engage in world travel for Him. One of the things He had given me was that I must make no side trips. You know, go here; go there; look at this; take in that. No, you go about your work. I can make rest stops on the way, that’s all right, but no hither, thither.
For many years, as a student - I’m always a student - I had been intrigued with Egypt, and particularly the ancient city of Thebes. You’ve read about it in school, remember? It’s
the city of 100 gates, the fabulous, one of the Seven Wonders of the World. There are only ruins there now, and few of them. But the city had intrigued me to no end.
I was in Kenya, Africa and had to go from there to Ethiopia, to Cairo and on into Europe. I was waiting before the Lord, and looked at my map (I like to study maps). Would you believe it! As I looked at this map, my eyes fell, quite naturally so, on the location of ancient Thebes. It has a different name today, but can’t think of it. As my eyes fell on the name of that place, suddenly I got a witness from the Spirit to stop.
Was I ever thrilled! Can you imagine that? My Heavenly Father having known of my desire for many years of stopping there in that ancient city of Thebes and looking around. (I used to teach history) I had no intentions of making a stop, even though it was on my route. I looked at it, and here was the witness of the Spirit. I knew my Heavenly Father permitted me a stop. Believe you me, I took advantage of it from early morning till late at night. What a blessing that thing was to me showing the goodness of the Lord. See what I mean? Our Father is a good God, and this is part of learning Him in that area of the knowledge of God.
Luxor is the name of that city. There is a temple there, the temple of Karnak. While it’s in ruins, you walk in there and behold such magnificence and enormity that you stand there speechless and wonder how people could ever put a structure like that together.
As we pursue this, there is a matter that has to do with our attitude. I’ll take you here to Matthew 11:25-26:
“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 see something here? There is truth, which God deliberately withholds from some people. Can you beat that? God is saying, “No, I’m not letting you in on that one. I won’t let you in on this truth.” God deliberately withholds some things from some people. Who are the people? The wise and the prudent. Who are the wise and the prudent?
Some say, “Well, they’re the educated.”
“No, God has nothing against education per se.” It all depends. It has been said many times, “God does not put a premium on ignorance.” That isn’t the question.
The wise and the prudent are the snobs. They don’t have snobs down your way, I suppose. You know, the people that stick their nose up, the know-it-alls, the intellectually conceited. Not everyone who’s intellectual is conceited. There are some people who are as dumb as could be, yet are full of pride just the same. But there are intellectuals (at least they think they are) who are so filled with conceit that they take the attitude that they know it all. Very often such people don’t even know enough to know
that they don’t know it all. The more we know, the more we don’t know. What I mean by that is that the more knowledge we have, the more we are aware of how much more there is to know that we still don’t know.
Somebody said to Einstein, “My, but you know a lot.”
He said, “I don’t know anything.” Think of it! Einstein!
Well, that man knew a lot, but he knew so much that he knew enough to know that there is so much more to know that he didn’t know; that what he did know was nothing to what he did not know. So he said, “I don’t know anything.”
Thou hast hidden things from the snobs, the conceited, and hast revealed them unto babes. Who are the babes? Oh, the open, the humble, the simple, the hungry, those who have an insatiable appetite, hunger within them for knowing more of God. They’re simple; they don’t analyze everything to the point of destruction.
The other day, I mentioned to you about finding a lotus flower on the sidewalk in Bangkok, Thailand. Well, I didn’t tell you the whole thing. Eventually, I took that lotus flower apart. I was curious to see what it looked like, but I didn’t tell you what I did after that. I took it to my hotel room and took it all apart. I wanted to see all the inside to satisfy my curiosity, and I took the lotus all apart and spread it out.
I remember saying, “So that’s how that looks on the inside. Now at long last, I know.” All right, I knew, but after I got done with my analogy, I made another discovery, “I had no more lotus.” I learned something from that. I hope you can follow me.
By nature, I’m analytical, very much so, study right down to the finest point. That’s me. But there is such a thing in this area as being so analytical with the truth, that in our very analogies, we destroy the very truth we seek to find. There are areas of truth, which we do not acquire by the normal, intellectual processes of acquiring truth. There are areas of truth that are brought to us by the Spirit of God past our rational processes by direct impartation and you say, “I see.”
But it didn’t come by the process of learning; it came by direct revelation. I hope we’ll get into that. God has things for the humble, the simple, the open, the uncritical. They get things the others do not get.
Have you ever watched a baby being nursed by its mother? Have you ever heard a small four-week old baby say, “Hey Mom, before I drink this white stuff, I want a chemical analysis. I want the amount of phosphorus, protein, etc.” Whew! Whatever is in there?
No, it doesn’t ask any questions. There is something in that baby, something given by God that when it gets the right thing, it goes to work. It asks no questions. “Hey Mom, is that going to kill me? You sure this is the right stuff? What is this all about?” No.
Now I know this can be argued over, but I don’t argue. There is such a thing as God giving you and me a hunger, a spiritual hunger, for something concerning God, that you cannot even define what you’re hungry for. All you know is, “My soul is athirst,” if you want to use that term. My heart is hungry.
“Hungry for what?”
“I don’t know, but it’s God I want. I want more of God.”
“Why do you want more of God?”
“I don’t know what it is. All I know is I have a hunger for something from God.”
“I don’t know.”
Along comes a preacher. He announces his subject. Hey! Well Hallelujah! That clicks, that’s it. That corresponds to what I felt in need of. I didn’t know what it was. Now I know - this is it.
“How do you know this is it?”
“It fits; it helps; it meets my need.”
“Well, can you prove everything he says?”
“No, I can’t prove it, but I know it’s real.”
“Well, how do you know it’s real?”
“Oh, I just know it’s real. That’s from God.”
May I develop this just a little bit? Do you know that God puts into our hearts an undefined yearning, hunger, thirst, longing (whatever you prefer). May I tell you that that something which you feel (if you do feel it) is absolutely, positively from God? Jesus said in Matthew 6:44 (if I err not), “No man can come to me except the Father, which has sent me, draw him.”
Now look here! In the world there are only three spirit personalities, principal personalities. God is a spirit. We’ll get into that tonight. Satan is a spirit. We won’t get into that. And humans are spirits. There is the divine Spirit; there is the satanic spirit; there is the human spirit. Now then, supposing we have a hunger, yearning, longing for an undefined something found only in God. Man, in his natural state, without divine aid, has no interest in God.
Any interest you feel at any time: need of prayer, need of the Word, need of God, that never comes from the human nature because the human nature is alienated by the fall of man. As Jesus said, “No man can come to me except the Father draw him.” That hunger is the desire put there by God. If you say (if you can say), “I have such a hunger for God, such a yearning for God, I want more of God,” that has been put there by God.
More than that, God does not fool us or tease us. If we have this desire for knowing God in a greater dimension, that very desire is not only put there by God, that very desire is the divine guarantee that if we will keep in the pursuit of that for which we hunger, we are going to arrive, the thing will materialize, it will be consummated. It is the divine guarantee that this hunger will not only draw us God-ward, but will also be satisfied as we pursue it in the direction of its hunger. Can you follow me? It’s a guarantee. This thing is awaiting us. God isn’t kidding us.
You know when I was a boy in Germany; we had a dog called Peter. We had some kind of a town festivity. You know boys are rascals. If they’re not rascals, I don’t know if they’re boys. We had Peter, and we were eating hot dogs, and that Peter drooled. Oh did he drool for a hot dog! They were too good for him. So I took a string, tied it to a hot dog, threw the hot dog over the branch of a tree, and let the thing down on the other side in Peter’s proximity. There he was drooling, longing.
When he came near enough, he’d take a leap. I’d pull the string, and up goes the hot dog. He didn’t get it. So I played with him, up and down, up and down. Finally, I let him have it. God doesn’t do that. He’s not going to dangle a thing in front of us and just to be mean, pull it out of sight.
That thing which you feel God-ward is of divine origin. Our own human nature couldn’t give it to us. Satan wouldn’t give it to us. He’d destroy it if he can. There’s only one other source left, and that is divine origin. So if you perchance feel that hunger, that yearning, that longing, God will give you things of which you haven’t read, you haven’t heard, you cannot fully explain, but you know - that’s it.
I’m assuming that I have somewhat of a select group, so I’ll share something here in the morning that I wouldn’t in the evening. After all, when you come out like this in the morning, there must be something there. It’s almost like the Lord with Peter, James and John when he took them up to the mount. Did you know the Lord had a little inner circle, and they got things the others didn’t get?
Some years back, the Lord had put something in my heart, a hunger for God, a fresh hunger. I wanted something fresh from God, and I didn’t know what to do about it, just didn’t know. Yet, I was so hungering. So, during the nights, I would get up very often 2:00, 3:00 o’clock. I would get up in the middle of the night for no other reason than to cultivate fellowship with the Lord in sheer faith.
I’d get up, sleep or no sleep, and I’d sit on a chair. I’d just sit there and keep my mind on the Lord. I used to say, “Lord, you must be awfully lonesome at night with so many of
Your people asleep. I’m going to get up and try to keep you company for a little while.” I said it just like that. And I’d sit there and just keep my mind on Him to keep Him company.
It got to the place that I put a second chair and said, “Now Lord, You sit here, and I sit here, so we’ll sit together.” It was all sheer, naked faith. And I’d sit there, felt nothing, got nothing, absolutely nothing, but I figured He’d recognize it. And I’d sit there half an hour, 45 minutes, an hour, then go back to bed. I did that night after night after night.
One night I sat there and all of a sudden I was aware, without any doubt, that the Lord was walking up toward me from behind. That was the first manifestation of His presence I had during those nights. I have had others, and I’ll give you some of them, I think.
I perceived (that’s a better word) the Lord walking toward me from behind. I didn’t turn around. The thing was so real, if I had turned around and even seen Him, which I don’t think I could have, it would not have made it any realer. I perceived Him bending over my head like this. He was standing. I was sitting. He was bending over my head, as real as could be. I literally felt (literally - let’s forget that word, it could be misleading). I had the distinct sensation of drops falling on my head. If you can picture yourself having drops of water fall on your head right now. If you can imagine how that would be, it was just as real as though literal drops of water were falling on my head. I had the sensation of drops falling on my head. I knew He was bending over, and I knew instinctively that what I felt was a manifestation of His appreciation. I felt the tears of His appreciation falling on my head in appreciation that someone would get up in the middle of the night for no other reason but to keep Him company.
I cannot prove this nor adequately explain it, though in our night study, we can throw some light on these things, because we’ll get into the manifestation of His presence. All I can say is to declare with absolute assurance, and let it go at that. The Lord walked up from behind, bent over me, and let me feel tears. I’m not saying they were literal tears. That’s why I use the term sensation. He let me experience a sensation of tears falling on my head and caused me to know instinctively that they were the tears of His appreciation that someone would get up in the middle of the night, not to beg - gimmy, gimmy, gimmy - but simply to keep Him company.
While we’re at it, that marked the beginning of an entirely new change of direction in my life. From that night on, I didn’t get up to keep Him company. From then on, He awakened me when it was time to keep company. And He has done that so often I couldn’t tell you how often.
I’d be in bed. Mostly it was 2:30 a.m. There were times when I felt a hand on my shoulder. Wife was on the other side sleeping. There would be a touch of a hand on the shoulder; a touch of a hand on the side; more often a rising of the Spirit’s presence of worship in here (stomach area) that would break my sleep. And I’d wake up with a presence.
One night a song came up. I was in a deep sleep. I was awakened by the chorus, “Up from the grave He arose,” and I knew it was time to get up. I’d get up and just sit there in His presence.
Folkses, if you’re interested, these are areas that I seek to introduce you to, or lead you on into. It has an aspect of sitting up with Him, sitting in His presence, waiting for Him, as expressed in my notes that some of you have showing the steps. Waiting objectively in His presence is a very important component in the school of the knowledge of God.
I could not tell you how often He had awakened me in that manner. That went on for a long time, months. It developed into years. He still does it at times, not as often. I think He knows I just couldn’t take it physically.
You know what? I asked the Lord once, “Lord, tell me something. Why is it almost always at 2:30 on the dot? Surely there is no sacred time, a special time that’s better than any other time. That couldn’t be it.” For months I got no answer, but I can be a pest. Time and again I would say, “Lord, by the way, don’t forget, I’m still interested in why at 2:30.”
Sometimes the Lord keeps us waiting for answers to see just how much we really do want things. After some months, I got the answer. I’ll give it to you. It didn’t come in words, but it came with a sudden flash of revelation, and I have to put it in my own words, but correctly. “It is 2:30 because by 2:30, you have had enough rest so you can stay up with me awhile without falling asleep. When I’m finished, there will be enough time left so you can go back to sleep so you get more rest for the work of the day.”
That sounded so reasonable to me. So all right, He knew I needed more rest than that, but at that time, I could take it. Incidentally, here is where the discipline begins. This thing of the knowledge of God involves tremendous self-discipline.
After church, or any time, no staying up half the night with “I Love Lucy,” or something. “Oh here comes the late show, let’s see what the late, late show is like.” Oh no! This thing requires terrific self-discipline. When you’re in this life, you go to bed on time, 9:30, 10:00.
“Nine thirty!” you exclaim.
“Well, make it 10:00; make it 10:30.”
But I had to learn that, “Beuttler, if you are going to be able to follow this, you’ve got to get to bed.”
After a service, people say, “Let’s go out. Sister Hallamasnuskie wants us to come over for some hoagies and coagies and fellowship after the service.”
“Oh yes. Well, when will we get home?”
“Oh midnight or so.”
“Oh no! After the service, I’m not coming to your house. I’m going over to the Ramada Inn, maybe have a quick snack downstairs with toast, cup of tea at the most.”
“What for?” you ask.
“Well, to be ready for when He calls.” Folks, there is discipline in this thing. You’ve got to watch the way you do things. Oh how people waste their time.
I’ll have to close. I just wonder how much I should give you here. Are you in a hurry to get going? Do I have a few minutes left? I’ll close with this.
We had a great revival in our school, a terrific move of God. I was in charge of the meetings and the meetings were simply phenomenal. It shook the school for ten days.
Every morning at 2:30, the Lord awakened me on the dot - every morning. That meant I had to stay up with Him for the rest of the night, no more sleep. It was something special. In fact, I got so tired, one night I stood against the wall because I’d fall asleep on Him sitting. As I stood against the wall, I fell asleep standing up, and fell forward and just caught myself before I lost my balance enough to hit the floor.
During those hours, the Lord would show me what He was going to do in the service. Every service I announced at the beginning of the service what kind of a meeting we were going to have. Students who were in school in 1951 will remember that. I’d say, “Students, today we’re going to have wash day.” And the Spirit so moved, we had confessions all day long. And so it went.
One night the Lord awakened me. Now this happened only once. I don’t want you to think this is a daily thing. The Lord awakened me by singing for me in an audible voice. That was the only time He did that. I was awakened by the sound of a man’s voice singing. As it awakened me, I saw the Lord stand by the window, full size, dressed in white garments (that’s not the only time I’ve seen Him), looking my way. His garments were right down to the floor. He kept on singing.
I sat up. Wife never knew what was happening. It wasn’t for her; it was for me. It had to do with the revival. I sat up, bolt upright, and He kept on singing two stanzas of a song I never heard before or since. The first stanza had to do with sin and forgiveness; the second stanza had to do with grace and glory. When He got done with the second stanza, suddenly He stopped and He wasn’t there. I was by myself. The room was filled with His presence.
I looked at my watch and it said 2:30. I knew it was time to get up. I went out to the room and sat in my chair that was always waiting for me. I was there sitting in His presence for say some two hours or so. Oh, what presence! I was just enjoying and
musing in that presence, and mulling over the experience of the Lord coming and singing for me in an audible voice. It was audible. I heard it. That’s not the only time, but one of the very few times. Oh, I was thrilled. Wouldn’t you be?
I was thinking about the second stanza, about grace and glory. I noticed in my spirit that I was avoiding the first stanza, sort of avoiding it, of sin and forgiveness. When I came to the realization that I was sort of avoiding that first stanza, I recognized something must be wrong. Why would I shun the first stanza unless something was wrong?
Well, right away I got the answer. I saw two satanic spirits. I have to change that. I must qualify that. This is hard to explain. There were in front of me, two satanic spirits, two demons. The one was in front. I saw him and looked at him as clear as I see you, just as clear. I could even describe for you his shape, his face, his colors. He had colors. In fact, he had bands of color, green and yellow throughout his whole form, not material form, it was a spiritual form. The Lord gave me his name.
The other one I didn’t see, but I knew instinctively that he was behind the first one, and that he was of the same kind. That was part of the revelation. I even heard both of them move, just like the Prophet John in Revelation heard movement. I could trace their movements. I heard them move; I could imitate the sound they made, the spiritual sound, but I’m afraid to do that. I’m afraid of what use you might put it to. I could imitate for you the sound right away. I heard them. I saw the first one, knew the second one was the same. I heard both; they had the same names.
I said, “Lord, what are these spirits doing here?”
And the Lord let me know, “They are here to put pride into your heart to cause you to sin this day through pride, because of the way you have been used by God in this revival.”
And the revival was phenomenal, out of this world. Mrs. Beuttler was there. It has never been repeated. “They are here to inject pride into your heart because of the way you have been used.” So the Lord warned me against giving these things an opening in my heart to think that I was anything special, and so seduce me to sin through pride and thus destroy the move of God in the school.
Tonight I’m going to give you some scriptures. I won’t repeat these things, but I’ll give you scriptures tonight applicable of other areas of which I speak. You will recognize these very same scriptures are applicable for this type of an experience.
One thing this kind of teaching should do is this: There are some of God’s people, and I have met them, whom the Lord has blessed with phenomenal, supernatural experiences, and because of their ignorance, the people’s ignorance, their inability to have any basis in scripture, they have rejected them or been talked out of them by others, and missed the benefits, and the blessings for lack of knowledge. When we get acquainted with these things from the scriptures, when God gives us an experience we can say, “I know, here is a scripture, here is the principle for it.”
I could take you to the Book, if we had the time, to prove to you from this Bible, that spirit, spiritual beings, that there is such a thing as spiritual weight, spiritual color, spiritual sound. Oh there’s more. I know only one scripture that shows spiritual color, but one’s enough.
When we know that we have a biblical basis, then we do not make the mistake of throwing away an experience God wants us to have, or fall for the deception of the enemy.
So we’ll let that rest. I’ll pick up right here tomorrow morning and go on more in this particular area, particularly our pursuit of this knowledge of God, and a new revelation of God by learning how to wait for God and seeking His face in cooperation with the leading of the Spirit.
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 →