This morning the Lord awakened me at 4:00 o’clock with His presence. You know, it’s remarkable how the Lord works with His presence. Some of you that have been with me now, and on some occasions, I with you, you’ll recall how much I speak about the presence of the Lord.
The presence of the Lord is a remarkable thing. We had a pastor visiting just a few weeks ago, and he knew about our leaving on a round-the-world journey. He did not talk about it much at all. He was concerned about my physical problems rather than the trip. He wanted to know if I would go anyway.
I said, “Yes, I expect to go.” So he left, he and his wife. Then I received a letter. He knew that I was coming by way of Honolulu. And he wrote and said, “Brother Beuttler, on my way back home, the Lord spoke to my heart to ask our church board to send you a $100 gift from our missions account for a little vacation in Honolulu.”
We were so thrilled. We were there 2 1/2 days and just about cost the $100. Now this is what I’m leading up to. On the morning when the vacation was finished, we were leaving, I think around 2:30. The Lord did not (may I put it reverently), bother me while we were in Honolulu. Now don’t get this wrong. The Lord did not bother me in this sense: Many, many times the Lord awakens me with His presence, often very early to pray and wait on the Lord. We had two full days in Honolulu. In other words, He let me sleep in. He knew I needed a rest.
You would be surprised what a full program I had. I have so many invitations for ministry the world over, I do not know where to go next, and that’s the truth. I just don’t know where to go next.
So at home, I’m very, very busy - always out in ministry. And the Lord knew I needed a rest, so He let me sleep in. Of course, He does that anyhow... but the Lord let me sleep, and on the last day when we left, early in the morning, the Lord awakened me with His presence, and I knew what it meant: “Time’s up. It’s time to start work again. The vacation is finished. I need your attention.”
I was sitting there in the presence of the Lord. I knew right well what that signal meant, that presence in there (pointing to stomach area): “The vacation is over, it’s now time to think of the meetings and to get yourself poised for Auckland.”
So early this morning, I think it was 4:00 o’clock, He awakened me with His presence. I knew what it meant: “Time to start work.” You think this is only a matter of speaking, but you just don’t know the hours spent in the presence of the Lord waiting on the Lord.
So 4:00 o’clock this morning, “the bell” rang ding a ding a ling - so to speak - the inner presence, time to get up. This is your work, so now we’ll get started. As I was sitting before the Lord this morning, He very clearly gave me the subject that we are going to pursue this week, and the subject is: Knowing the Spirit. Knowing the Spirit, getting acquainted with the Holy Ghost.
Now there is more to this than we are able to do this week. I taught that subject in school.
I’m no longer teaching, as it was getting too hard for me. I’m in my 69th year, and the tempo in school was just getting too fast. The tempo was speeded up while I had to slow down. And so I resigned my 32-year position in the school just this coming May. I’m going out to the Assemblies to minister all over the world. That includes the United States, of course, where our home is.
I used a whole semester in school, 4 months, for this subject. Here we have only a few services. I say that so you will understand that while we try to cover as much as possible, it still will only be a very small portion, but we want to get acquainted, and God wants us to get acquainted this week with His Holy Spirit, particularly His personality. We’re barely going to get a start this morning, and this evening we’re going to continue wherever we break off this morning.
You understand, I’m not an evangelist. I’m not a musician. I can’t play the piano for you. My work is to share with God’s people all over the world what God has shared with me. In case you’re interested, this is my 9th trip around the world. It’s Wife’s 3rd trip. Wherever I go, I share the things, which God has shared with me.
Now then, we will turn to the Gospel of John 14:16-17:
“And I will pray the Father, and He shall give you another Comforter, that He may abide with you forever; Even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it sees Him not, neither knows Him: but you know Him; for He dwells with you, and shall be in you.” John 14:16-17
Did you notice something here? Jesus said that “the world cannot receive the Spirit.” It does not say that “the world may not receive the Spirit,” but it says that “the world cannot receive the Spirit.” That is to say, the world is incapable of receiving the Spirit - not that it merely may not, but that it cannot. It simply cannot; it is incapable of receiving and knowing the Spirit.
Then the Lord gives two reasons:
1) “Because it sees Him not.” Here I must use the German translation. Well, I see nobody. In German it says: (reads the verse in German), then says, “Isn’t that beautiful?”
Well, what does the Bible say, “If any man speak in another tongue, let him pray that he may interpret.” Well, I can interpret without praying for it. It’s my mother tongue, you know that.
In German you have this statement: “Because she (that is the world) has no eye for him.” Now that is a German expression that needs explanation down here.
It works like this. It is a German saying when people observe that a certain young man has an interest in a certain young girl. He has the tendency to let his eyes wander in her direction. And after awhile, people observe it. They notice that he likes to look her way.
We have it in Bible school. Our girls would sit on one side, the fellows on the other side. Of course these youngsters get interested you know. They wouldn’t in New Zealand, but they do up there. You can observe eyes wondering from one side to another when they shouldn’t.
Now in Germany, they discovered that, as they do here, of course, and they will say, “He has an eye for her.” That is to say he has an interest in her. The German Bible put exactly what the Lord had in mind; that “the world cannot receive, and cannot know the Spirit because she has no eye for him or no interest in him, no love for him.” There is nothing in the world, which has any interest in the Spirit of God.
Now if we are going to know the Spirit (the Spirit of God is a real person), we need to have an interest in the Spirit. I hope you understand when I say that the Spirit of God is a real person. I do not mean the Spirit of God is a human being. You see, we are very poorly informed in this area. That is to say, many people are poorly informed.
When we speak of a person, we are apt to think of a human being, of a material body. Well, the truth is that our material body has nothing to do with us as a personality entity. It is not our body, which makes us a person, not at all. The person is within. This is our house. Paul called it a tabernacle. Shall we say, this is our bungalow?
When you look at me, you do not see Beuttler. You only see the house, the cottage, in which he lives. This is our tabernacle, as Paul put it. We are intrinsically spirit personalities, and we live in this house. I do not see you as a person. As I look at you, I only see the house in which you live. I see small houses, bigger houses, he houses, she houses, beautiful houses. I see houses that could stand some new roofing. My roof is holding up pretty well. These are our houses.
We are persons, independent, irrespective of the body. That’s why Paul could say, “Absent from the body, present with the Lord.” He speaks about “laying aside, putting off, the tabernacle of his flesh.” When we die, we don’t get buried, the body does, the house does, the bungalow does.
The spirit, the person, the spirit personality goes to be with the Lord. Satan is a person, but he does not have a body. I’m not saying he has no form. I have seen him. Not only that, he and I had a debate. Some of you in the earlier years heard me tell about it. He and I had two debates, two combats in a hotel room. I’m not describing that here, and don’t intend to during this week. He’s very, very real. He can speak, he can see, but he doesn’t have a body.
Demons are personalities. They can hear; they can speak; they can think; they can reason. They have all the faculties of communication. They have forms, but they do not have bodies, that is, material bodies. They have spiritual bodies. There are spiritual bodies, but they’re not material. In Corinthians, Paul speaks about a spiritual body, but it’s not made of flesh and bones, it’s made of spiritual essence - It’s not material, it’s spiritual.
Angels are persons, but they do not have material bodies. God is a person. I’m speaking now of the Father. But He does not have a material body. Some of you that were with me years ago, I spoke to you on the personality of God, and spoke about His form, etc.
Now the Spirit of God (of whom we speak this week), He is a person. He does not have a material body. I do not say He has no form, but He is a real person. He has constituent elements of personality. I’ll explain that in a later session. He has faculties of communication. He can hear; He can speak; He can touch. It’s all the faculties of communication. He does not have a body. The Holy Spirit can be treated like you can treat any other person. I’ll go into that this week. The Spirit of God has a will; He has feeling; He has intellect. We’ll go into these areas.
We want to know the Spirit. To really know the Spirit, we will need to have an eye for Him. I hope when you come, if you do come, that you bring with you an eye for the Spirit, a love for the Spirit, an interest in the Spirit. Through that, we’re going to get to know Him.
Notice what Jesus said here, “The Spirit of truth whom the world cannot receive because it sees Him not, (has no eye for him, has no interest in Him) neither knows Him.” The Spirit can be known you see. “But you know Him for he dwells in you and shall be in you.”
Notice two things here, two requisites for the true personal knowledge of the Spirit:
1) An eye for Him, an interest, a love.
2) Also an experience. In the final analysis, the Spirit of God is known by experience.
We can know about the Spirit intellectually, and that is absolutely necessary, but we’re going to go this week way beyond a mere intellectual knowledge about the Spirit. We’re going to go over into the area of a personal knowledge of the Spirit in experience.
It’s one thing to know a person outwardly, because we have certain information. It is another thing to know the Spirit personally in experience. Did you notice how Jesus put it? “Neither knows Him, but you know Him” for two reasons:
1) “For he dwells with you” and;
2) “Shall be in you.”
What you have here is the personal presence of the Spirit of God, shall I say, the companionship of the presence, His Spirit, and His abiding presence within us. We reach that point (and we can reach that point), as we have a real genuine interest in the Spirit of God. That means a lot. That has wide ramifications.
You know, in the final analysis, we learn through experience.
Have you ever observed the statement in the Word, “Taste and see that the Lord is good”? Have you ever observed that? “Taste and see?” Well, what is taste? Taste is experience. Let me tell you that some truths (we’ll deal with the Spirit now) concerning the Spirit will never be known by us apart from experience in the things of the Spirit. There are things which no man can teach us. They must come through, or by means of, revelation in conjunction with experience. “Taste and see that the Lord is good.” I said to you, some things cannot be conveyed. Some truths can neither be shared nor known apart from personal experience. “Taste and see.”
Whenever I get to Singapore (Singapore is almost my second home in the world), there is one fruit that I always go after. Hopefully I’ll be there when it’s in season. The fruit is mangosteens. Now I suppose some of you folk that have been over there in the area know what they are. I do not mean mangos, but mangosteens.
They’re like a walnut, have a thick brown shell and inside there are slices of snow white meat, almost the shape of an orange within. You just break it apart (the slices come apart), and when they are chilled in the refrigerator especially, they are the most refreshing, deliciousmous (a Beuttlerism) flavor. (Now that’s not in the dictionary. When I say deliciousmous, I mean it’s better than delicious.) Do they taste good! I could eat a basket full, and you can. You won’t die from it. The more you eat, the more you want.
You say, “Brother Beuttler, what do they taste like?” “I can’t tell you.” The nearest I can say is they taste like some kind of a perfume that I couldn’t identify. There is no such perfume, I don’t think. They are so good.
“Well, why don’t you tell us what they’re like?”
You have to eat them to know. There is no language; there is no person that can describe their taste. It just can’t be done. You have to taste. Um! Wow! Umm!
And hopefully this week, the Lord will bring some of these into the experience of the Spirit of God that we’ll be able to say, “My, I never thought this was like this.” But it takes an eye for the Spirit, and this eye for the Spirit has a diversity of ramifications and applications.
I was teaching in school one year on the book of Hosea. That’s a wonderful book, you know. I had been teaching for about ten minutes, I would say, and I could suddenly, shall I say discern, a presence of the Spirit over the students like a cloud coming down and stopping or resting about this high over the average head.
Now I always had a policy in my class and that was, the Spirit of God is always sovereign. I will not deprive the Spirit of His sovereignty. In other words, in class, as in a meeting, as far as I’m concerned, He can do what He pleases – He is God. I never, never interfere with the sovereignty of the Spirit of God.
So when I noticed that presence, I shoved my notes back and said, “Students, there is quite a presence in this classroom. Let’s see what the Spirit wants,” because I knew instinctively, inasmuch as the Spirit came down like a cloud, if you please, and then rested over the average head about this high, obviously something was up. So I let the students know, and we were just sitting there in that presence. They knew right away that Brother Beuttler says that; then it’s so. They counted on that. They could do that. There we were.
There was quite a bit of quietness, totally still; so often people get too rambunxious. All of a sudden as we sat there, off to my left, one of the girls began to sing in other tongues. It was a beautiful singing. She was way up to K or someplace, came down again, went up again, down again, then stopped as though somebody cut her off.
One of the fellows began to sing the interpretation the same way. He went up and he went down, then stopped. Another girl continued, a la la lu. Oh did she sing, like an opera singer, and interpretation. That went on like this. By the time it was finished (there were a number of students involved), the Lord had given us an operetta in the Holy Ghost. It was beautiful. The operetta had to do with the love relationship between Christ in His church.
When it was finished, there was a powerful utterance in prophecy that electrified that class, hands went up, we were praising. While we were, one of the girls to the left got the Baptism, and the Lord swept over that classroom by His Spirit. Time was up, the bell rang, nobody stopped. They kept on praising the Lord.
Another class came down the hill to get into the classroom, but we didn’t get out, because they had to use the classroom next. They stood out in the vestibule wondering what they should do because they couldn’t get in. While they stood out there, the Spirit of God went on them and they went off. They kept going out there for an hour. We were still in there shouting, praising God. God did a mighty work by His Spirit.
Another hour went by and the bell rang again. We still didn’t get out and they in the vestibule didn’t move. The third year class came down the hill. They were supposed to get in, but the vestibule was full, the classroom was full, so they stood on the outside. They wondered, “What shall we do? Where will we have class?” While they wondered, the Spirit fell on them and they went off.
When the noon hour came, the Spirit of God had fallen upon the entire school. At dinnertime, there were only about 8 students who came down for their meal.
Now when Bible school students don’t come to meal, something is wrong. Either they’re sick, or else they’re in love, or there is revival. Well, we had revival. God poured out His Spirit in that school. For about ten days there were no classes, and the meetings went on night and day. Students came down by night while others slept. There was nothing organized. It was a continuous meeting where God did a mighty work, BUT it took an eye for the Spirit.
We need to respect the sovereignty of the Spirit. Just because I had an interest, an eye for the Spirit, I could discern that cloud coming down without having been aware of it beforehand, and resting over the whole group and stopped. God moved and gave us a mighty visitation.
I could tell you many things in this area. I might have some tonight, but in the meantime, I must let you go. At least we had a chance of introducing our subject, get acquainted with each other, and as mentioned before, we’re going to tell, with the help of the Lord, on knowing the Spirit.
So for this morning, God bless you, have a nice afternoon and I’ll look for you this evening.
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Walter Beuttler (1904 - 1974)
Walter H. Beuttler was born in Germany in 1904. He immigrated to the U.S. in 1925. In 1931 he graduated from Central Bible Institute. He served on the faculty atWalter H. Beuttler was born in Germany in 1904. He immigrated to the U.S. in 1925. In 1931 he graduated from Central Bible Institute. He served on the faculty at Eastern Bible Institute from 1939-1972. During a campus revival in 1951, God called Beuttler to “go teach all nations,” and for 22 years he travelled around the world ministering the word of God. He retired in Shaverton, PA with his wife Elizabeth. There he continued his ministry until he went to be with the Lord in 1974."Spiritual hunger presupposes a spiritual capacity. Such hunger originates with God (John 6:44). This hunger is, in fact, God Himself hungering for Himself through our spirit on our behalf. It is the call of God for the truth for which we hunger and is at the same time a divine guarantee of its satisfaction when this hunger is not diverted into other channels and thereby destroyed. “Blessed are they that hunger—for they shall be filled.” The earnest seeker after the God of the Word as well as the word of God, can expect to find in these notes “treasures of darkness and hidden riches of secret places” (Isa. 45:3)."