Winter
2009
Responding
to Gods Call
Walter
Beuttler
Sometimes
I feel frustrated in my selection of those areas that perhaps
would be the most helpful at the time. Those of you that would
like to pursue this area on your own should get my notes.
I would recommend that you pay attention to those sections,
those individual subjects that have to do with “The Knowledge
of God:” “Seeking God,” “Waiting For God.”
Those two really go together. They are really the key. “Visions
of God” takes you into the very depth of the area in these
things, the price tag as well. By all means the introduction
to “Seed to the Sower, Bread to the Eater.” There is
a lot of truth in there that will poise you, that sets you
in the right direction, and I would say perhaps “The Parable
of the Sower.” Those who are really studious would well
consider giving some time to the area of “Principles of
Bible Interpretation.” Between those two you can get quite
a ways in your own pursuit in the areas of “The Knowledge
of God.”
Yesterday morning
I chatted with you as to the attainment - how to get there.
Of course there are many facets, many aspects. You understand
that. I had mentioned to you a right attitude. There are smart-alecks.
Now there’re not likely to be here in a morning group like
this. There probably would be some in the evening. I mean,
that would be true anywhere - that snobbish kind of attitude.
As I told
you yesterday, the Lord deliberately withholds certain truths
from some people and gave you the scripture for it. I had
mentioned also with you: Psalm 25:14, “The secret”
or as I told you yesterday from the French, “The intimate
communion of the Lord is with them that fear him.” Now
what you can do here in your own pursuit since we don’t have
time of course, is to take your concordance,
if you have any, and look up passages on the fear of God.
Study the fear of God and see how that applies to us, and
then consider that “the intimate communion of the Lord
is with them that fear him.”
I think you have a bookstore here
in this church. I think they would most likely sell Cruden’s
Concordance of the Bible. Nowadays they have a thin one on
India paper about this thick. Well, that is just about a must.
If you do not have such a concordance it’s worth the investment.
It’s worth its price in gold whatever it is. If you’re interested
in pursuing this area on your own, and I hope you are. I say
that this morning, not tonight because tonight I imagine we
have much more of a mixed crowd.
In
II Chronicles 30:22 we have an area that I want to touch on
very briefly. This has to do with the teaching of the Word
of God.
“And
Hezekiah spake comfortably unto
all the Levites that taught the good knowledge of the Lord.”
II Chronicles 30:22
So
then there is such a thing as receiving teaching on the good
knowledge of the Lord. We need right, good, sound teaching.
Here is a reference that I want to leave with you from Job
33. This is one of those things the Lord had given me in that
hotel room that I’ve already talked to you about.
“If
there be a messenger with him, an interpreter,
one among a thousand, to show unto man his uprightness.”
Job 33:23
Now
this would apply perhaps more to the ministry, although all
of us have a place in some kind of ministry. But notice the
sentiment expressed, interpreters of God, one among a thousand.
The idea being that God has interpreters, men and women of
God, qualified by God, to interpret God into the lives, the
circumstances of the people - one among a thousand. There
are many preachers. You can get them in the Woolworth’s bargain
basement almost, but having eloquent preachers and having
skilled interpreters of God are two vastly different things.
There
is a great need for us to pray that God will raise up interpreters,
men and women qualified by God, to interpret God, to make
people understand God and to relate God and His Word to their
personal problems so they know how to walk with God in peace
while they are in a world of confusion. Now I said that to
emphasize the need of the Word of God coming to us. Now we
can study the Word, but whatever channel God uses, we do need
to be rooted and grounded in the Word of God.
Last
night I closed with a rather, I think you would agree, unusual
experience. I told you last that tonight I would give you
the scriptural basis. I am personally very strong on having
a scriptural foundation in the Word of God for our experiences.
Otherwise things are too unstable, too risky. Notice something
in Daniel 5, which to me since that hotel visit, has been
a great jewel of truth. The Lord had brought it to me and
I’ll share it with you this morning.
“Forasmuch
as an excellent spirit, and knowledge, and understanding,
interpreting of dreams, and showing of hard sentences, and
dissolving of doubts, were found in the same Daniel.” Daniel
5:12
I’ll
put it this way. This is not overstated. Among other things,
Daniel had a ministry of dissolving of doubts. This in Daniel
is written in Aramaic. A literal translation from the Aramaic
reads that Daniel had the dissolving of knots. You might not
appreciate this as I do, but to me here I have one of the
jewels of truth that are most precious to me for years. Well,
the Lord gave it to me and He did it for a purpose. I might
or might not mention the purpose. Dissolving
of knots-k n o t s. Let’s put it this way.
Once
upon a time our girl Norma was a little girl. She was such
a little tike or what have you. She wanted to put on her shoes.
Mother wanted to help her. You know just a little thing. “No
Mummy, I can do it myself.” She did it all right. She
made two hard knots. When she wanted the shoes off, she couldn’t
get them opened. I remember her saying, “Mummy, will you
unknot my knots?” I never forgot that.
There
are so many people with knots in their lives - k n o t s,
(spelled out) knots, lives that are knotted, lives that are so knotted that the
people cannot unknot them. They cannot find the solution to
their problem. People sit in the congregation before a preacher
or teacher. Some of them have such knotty knots with a cry
in their hearts, “Oh God! Let the speaker say something
that will unknot my knots, that will shed light on my problem, that will help me to see, that will give me the solution.”
Whew!
It’s not simply preaching, oratory and all. Oh no! But interpreters
of God, those who have learned to know God, at least to a
degree, and are able to take God, as it were, and put Him
into their secret problem. Even you can receive something
like that from the Lord, where the Lord uses you in a little
area of truth He has made known to you. You visit somebody,
or somebody visits you, and you have a word from the Lord
and they say, “Oh now I see.” You become an un-knotter of knots.
I
told you the other day; I had the French ministers in a castle
in the Pyrenees Mountains
in southern France. There
were only 18 ministers there, just from a little region in
the Pyrenees. They had this old castle and they were sitting
there in a semi-circle. I sat at a table like this with them
for a week, just 18 men. Sometimes there have been up to 3,000,
other times you have a dozen and a half.
I
was sitting there teaching. I forgot what the subject was.
In front of me sat a Frenchman. Tears started to trickle down
his cheeks and I wondered in my heart, “What am I doing?
Am I hurting the man or saying the wrong thing?” You just
don’t know.
After
the service he came up to me and said, “So you are that
American.” I wondered what I had done did! (Laughter)
I
spoke through my interpreter, and he told me the story. This
man had a friend in northern France, also a minister, who
two years before this visit had a very serious problem. I
do not know what it was, had no idea. I visited in France,
Rouen to the north of Paris. As he told me, this friend of his had
such a serious problem and nobody could help him. He decided
that he was going to engage in four weeks of fasting and prayer,
if it took that long, to get an answer from God.
A
friend of his said, “Say, there’s an American here to speak.
Come over and see what he has to say.”
“No,”
the man said, “I have a problem. You know what it is. Nobody
has been able to help me. I’m going to go on praying.”
But the man persuaded him to come.
Now
this man in the South whose friend he was and knew the whole
story, said to me through the interpreter, “So you are
that American that helped that brother up in Rouen.”
I knew nothing about it. Then he told me that this brother
had this serious problem, whatever it was, and I knew no more
than this mike. He came to the service and said to this friend
that did the crying now in my meeting, “Just think, God
sent an American over here to speak on my problem for one
hour and a quarter. I have got the answer.” To this day,
I couldn’t give you the faintest idea what it was.
What
was it? Well, by the aid of the Spirit I unknowingly interpreted
God there to somebody that had a knot nobody could unknot
but God. You don’t need to tell me (I know that much) that
there are so many people with such tight knots that they’re
beside themselves, and God is looking for you and me to know
Him so well that He can give us a word interpreting God unknotting
somebody’s knots. Here I’d like to take you to Isaiah 50:4,
just in reference. I wish I could get into that, but you have
some of it in my notes on Isaiah 50, where the prophet speaks
of Jesus as though Jesus were speaking. Look here. I’m just
giving you a cue. That’s all I can take time with.
“The
Lord God hath given me the tongue of the learned, that I should
know how to speak a word in season to him that is weary (and
I’ll give you the Revised Version): The Lord God hath given
me the tongue of them that are taught, that I should know
how to sustain with a word him (or her) that is weary.
(Here’s the secret if you read on) He wakeneth morning by morning, he (that is the Father) wakeneth mine ear to hear as the learned.” Isaiah
50:4
Those
of you that took my notes, you have this expounded in the
subject on the “Call of God.” The secret of Christ’s
ministry - just let me hand it to you. The Father awakens
Jesus every morning to give Him what He should say, how to
say it, to whom to say it, when to say it. Now hear this,
as though Jesus speaking, “The Lord God hath given me the
tongue of the learned, that I should know how to speak.”
God taught Jesus how to speak. “A word,” that’s the
substance of what to speak. “To him that is weary,”
that’s to whom to speak. In the Revised: “that I should
know how to sustain.” What a ministry, folkses,
of sustaining somebody with the right word at a time of great
need! That I should know how to sustain
with a word, not a sermon. People are fed up with sermons.
Who wants sermons? We need bread, we need life, we need help,
we need God to sustain with a word.
I
was in the hospital seven years ago and had surgery for cancer.
Things were like this: iffy. The Doctor told Mrs. Beuttler
and later told me, “I didn’t think you’d pull through.”
Well, I knew the chances were slim.
I
was lying there. Oh was I sick! One of our former graduates
in school visited me. He was in the ministry. He sat there
and said, “Well Brother Beuttler, tell me, what medicine
are they giving you.” I told him. He says, “Oh, you
know I was in the med core in the army and know something
about that.” He said it very ominous. “I know somebody
else that had the same operation and they gave him the same
medicine and he died anyway.” (Laughter) Actually it was
the Lord laid it on His tree. I was really finished.
I
think it took about two years or so. I was going downhill
steadily, and I left the office in the school one day and
went home. Now I had a real call to go overseas, and I lay
on the floor for about two hours. Mrs. Beuttler was over at
her office in the school doing her work, but I said nothing.
I went home alone. I lay there on the floor and knew this
was it. I tried to figure out how to write my letter of resignation
so they could get a replacement. I just couldn’t go on.
I
lay there and said, “Father, isn’t it a pity. There’s so
much to do overseas.” I could not tell you how many requests
I get for teaching overseas. I had a letter from Ceylon,
“Please come. You are God’s gift to Ceylon.” That’s
how they wrote. I’ve been there numbers of times. I laid it
before the Lord and said, “Father, isn’t it a pity, so
many opportunities for teaching Your Word to teach them that
they might know Thee, and here I’ve come to the end of the
road.” It really looked it. The Doctor didn’t think I’d
make it. He told me that after I’d made it. I laid it before
the Lord and said, “Father, I have only one little trip
left. I won’t need a passport. I won’t need a Pan American
ticket. I won’t need a visa. It’s just a little trip a few
miles up to Red Hill or some such place. Don’t You
think it’s a pity with so much to do for the kingdom.”
I
lay still for quite awhile completely reconciled that this
was it. You know you get reconciled to things. You make peace
with it because you’ve got to. You have no options. Finally
I said, “Father, I want to tell You
something, if You want me to do some more traveling for You,
You simply have to do something for me. If not, I’m finished.”
I saw nothing, felt nothing, heard nothing, received
nothing. I simply realized, causally like, that I appeared
to feel all right. I said, “Beuttler, you seem to feel
all right, why stay lying on the floor?” (Laughter)
I
got up and went back to the office. I had a snap in my step
and went back to work. I was leaving for a 40,000-mile round-the-world
trip within 4 weeks, and I’ve been traveling ever since every
year a trip around the world and sometimes an extra trip besides.
Coming
back to this brother, “Well, Brother somebody else got
that medicine and died anyway.” Now that was not the word
Isaiah talks about. You know how people talk (in a sarcastic
voice), “So you don’t feel good? Better examine yourself
and see whether there is somebody hanging around in the woodpile.
You have to look after that skeleton in the closet.” Of
all the things they can bring up.
That
I should know how to sustain with a word, not to condemn with
a word, but to sustain, uphold, undergird with a word, to
unknot somebody’s knot. You don’t have to go to Bible school
to be a preacher. This is open for all of us. The knowledge
of God is for all of us. We can be little ministers in our
own church, or going to the hospital with a word from the
Lord. “Oh Lord, help us to be un-knotters
of knots, to help people with their knots.” Never mind
the beautiful sermons. They’re not usually doing it. It’s
a word, interpreters of God, one among a thousand. That’s
how the Word put it.
We
must move on. In Psalm 34:8, I want to give you another little
truth. There we read, “Taste and see that the Lord is good.”
Now I’m making a statement to you here that I do not make
in the evening. This is the only time I’ll make it. I kind
of like to think that folk who come out in the morning - I
know others would if they could - there must be really something
there for folk to bother to come out. It cannot be solely
because we get in air conditioning for a few hours and are
more comfortable than in our homes. I don’t think that would
be the deciding motive.
“Taste and see that the Lord is good.” May I say that there are some truths we learn only through
experience. We can never really know
certain truths without prior experience. Now I know the theologian
would tear that down, but we let him tear away. Look here.
I think I can give you a valid rationale.
I
get to the Far East just
about every year. Singapore is about my second home
anyway. When I get there, or any such area, but let’s say
Singapore. One
of the first things I like to do is look for fruit that they
call mangos teens. It’s not always in season though. For those
who were in the service over there may know what I’m talking
about. I do not mean mangos, I’m speaking of mangos teens.
They are about my flavorite fruit.
(That’s a Beuttlerism-flavorite). They are round about the size of a
walnut and if they’re in the frigerator,
chilled not ice cold, but chilled on a hot day in Singapore. Whew! Singapore is hot
year round. And you’re in there with a basketful of those
things that big. Yum! And you break the shell open, it’s sort
of maroon like, reddish brown. Inside there are white slices,
segments of snow white meat. The closest similarity would
be a tangerine. You take them apart like you would the slice
of a tangerine and eat. Yum! What a flavor! Can you taste
it? I can.
“Well
Brother Beuttler, what do they taste like?”
“I
can’t tell you.”
“Can’t
you approximate it?”
“Impossible.”
“Well,
how will we know the taste?”
“You
have to eat some.” In other words you have to get the
experience. Once you eat them, have the experience, you’ll
say, “Umm, now I know what you were talking about. Where
is the rest?” You can eat a basketful and the more you
get, the more you want. Oh are they good refreshing, umm.
I can’t tell you how they taste. You will never know what
they taste like until you eat some.
There
is a spiritual knowledge, which cannot be acquired apart from
the experience - taste, partake,
participate and see. Not see and taste, but taste and see.
You learn from experience some of these things there, the
deliciousmous of the knowledge of
God. There are areas you get only through the experience.
You
may ask, “Well, where do we get the experience?”
I
can’t give it to you, but there is Somebody who can, and if
you pursue in meditation, reading, contemplation and response
to the area in the notes on “Waiting For
God” and “Seeking God,” there is your way. I’m
pointing these things out so you know where to look for things
that tie in with this particular subject.
“Taste
and see.” We won’t get into this at all, but part of this
subject has to do with the presence of God, which I touch
on tonight a little bit, but do not develop it. For instance:
The presence of God is: a shelter, bread, abode, a home. The
presence of God as a home would take an hour by itself. The
presence of God as a home is where we live in the presence
of God day after day in the home of the presence of God.
This
appreciation of the home of the presence of God comes largely
through experience. We have the truth in the Word of the home
of the presence of God, but its delightfulness, its restfulness,
its pleasure, its tranquility - the tranquility of the experience
of the home of the presence of God takes experience to appreciate
it. Then we know what it is to dwell in the home of the presence
of God while your husband raises Cain in the house and scares
the daylights out of everybody. (Laughter) It’s a shelter.
Let’s
see what we’ll take next. I’m going to take you to Revelation
3. I’m developing neither of these things for the sake of
covering more in the expectation that I’m dropping enough
of a seed so that this word, this seed, will get planted in
your heart, and after I’m gone it’ll do some growing and bear
some fruit, some real fruit, not artificial fruit.
Some
of you might remember a British teacher by the name of Donald
Gee. Some of you might remember some of his writings. When
he was a boy he wanted to raise tomatoes. The vine grew but
the tomatoes didn’t. He was so, so disappointed that his mother
had pity on him. Every morning he walked out to see if tomatoes
were on his vines. His mother had pity on him so she decided
to buy a nice tomato and tie it on with a string. Little Donald
Gee went out to see about his tomato and came in rejoicing.
He told his mother that he had grown a tomato.
He
took her out to look and took a second look and saw the string.
Now I’m not talking about attached fruit. I’m talking about
real fruit. If you take these things and plant them in your
heart, take them before the Lord, water them with the Spirit
with devotion, these things will bear fruit long after I’m
gone. That’s what I’m hoping for.
“Behold
I stand at the door and knock.” Revelation
3:20
I’m
taking you here, or trying to, into one of the great secrets
and the areas of perhaps our most frequent failings in these
matters. By the way, I’m going to take you here into some
experience, but only tonight will I give you the Biblical
basis so that this morning, if you can, take me for granted.
The reason I do it that way is I do not want to Biblicate
this morning. Tonight the time does not permit such duplication.
Tonight I’ll give the Biblical basis for such manifestations.
This morning I merely describe and show what is what, tonight
you’ll get the foundation.
“Behold
I stand at the door and knock.” Bear in mind we are dealing
here with a truth where perhaps most people’s failure occurs.
As we go along you will see why. “Behold I stand at the
door and knock.” The Lord took me aside one night with
this passage and while I always had heard it preached for
the sinner, the Lord let me know this has nothing to do with
the sinner. This is not for the sinner, except secondarily.
It’s primarily for the saint. The Lord is really speaking
here primarily to Christians.
“Behold
I stand at the door and knock.” What the Lord is seeking
to do here is to visit His people. Now I cannot take time
to speak to you on the Lord’s visits. I have two messages
on that. I merely state here that the Lord seeks to visit
His people. There are times when the Lord wants to visit you
and me. That’s one reason why David said, “What is man
that thou art mindful of him, and the son of man that thou
visitest him.”
After
I’m done here we’re going to Oakley. If any of you should
happen to be there, I expect to speak once on “The Lord’s
Night’s Visits.” He’s a great visitor, especially by night.
“The Lord’s Night’s Visits” - what He does, why He does it,
how we are to respond when He visits us by night. I cannot
tell you when I’ll be speaking on it, but I’m sure it’s coming
up in some meeting.
“Behold
I stand at the door and knock.” He wants to do something
for us. When we go visiting somewhere, normally speaking,
we knock at the door: rap, rap, rap. Of course nowadays we have the bell. We have one at home,
we have a gong. Somebody comes to the door and pushes the
button and off it goes. You know right away somebody’s at
the door and wants to come it. But here in this passage, it’s
used as knocking.
There
is such a thing, folkses, as the Lord announcing His presence. There’s some
much here, I’m frustrated how far I should go. I’ll give you
a little. There are times when the Lord knocks. Let me bring
it to you from personal experience. It will be the simplest.
Quite
some years ago the Lord had given me such a hunger (I told
you that), and I’d be up by night to sit in His presence by
sheer faith or otherwise. After awhile the Lord began to call
me. I told you that, a touch of a hand, singing, what have
you, but this is what began happening. I was sound asleep
when next to my ear; I heard a knocking-rap, rap, rap,
rap-just as clear as could be. I have gone to the door already
to see who stood there when it was so close to hear.
After
awhile I discovered that there are times when the Lord actually
knocks. Tonight I’ll give you the scriptural basis clearly.
I discovered, rap, rap, rap, rap, many times. I’d hear the
sound of a knocking or the sound of the telephone ringing
when nobody was there. I’ve heard Him walk past my bed, saw
Him disappear at the foot of the bed, but what wakened me
was the sound of the rustling of His garments like the rustling
of the leaves of a tree in the wind. It’s the same as knocking.
“I stand at the door and knock.”
Now that can
be abused and I’m not asking you to ask the Lord, “Oh Lord,
knock for me.” Please don’t do that. Don’t ask the Lord
for any specific experience. Don’t do it. By no means ask
the Lord to duplicate something for you that He has done for
me, although He has done it in some people’s lives, but you
must not ask for it. If you have a desire for these things,
for the Lord to make Himself known, you simply ask the Lord,
“Lord, Oh I’m hungry. Do a new thing for me. Somehow Lord,
I want more of You. I want more from
You. I want to know You more.” Don’t say, “Lord, walk past my bed, do this
or do that.” Leave that to Him. God deals differently
with different people, but the principles will be the same
as in my case, and I know in many other people who have told
me.
Rap, rap, rap.
That thing developed to such a fine point where I could tell
from the manner of His knocking what He came for. He has come
already like this: rap, rap, rap (loud rapid knocking). I
knew what it meant, “Get up quick, hurry up.”
He
knocked one time that I recall so softly, so tenderly, I could
tell from the way He knocked
- softly,
tenderly - I could tell He came as a lover just to spend a
little time in fellowship.
That’s all.
It
often reminded me of a nurse in the hospital when I had surgery
quite some years ago. I was in a semi-doze around midnight,
but I heard somebody tiptoe into my room and whisper,
“Reverend,
are you awake?”
I
heard it and said, “Yes, I’m awake.” It was the nurse.
She
said, “May I come in and talk to you?”
I
said, “Sure you may come in.” But she came in so softly.
Apparently if I was asleep, she didn’t want to wake me, but
if I wasn’t quite asleep, she wanted to talk. And I said,
“Well, come on in. You want to talk? Sit down.”
She
said, “We’re not allowed to sit on the patient’s bed. I’ll
just stand here if it’s okay.”
I
said, “What do you want?”
She
said, “Reverend, what do you have that I need and haven’t
got?” Then we had a conversation, but I never forgot that
soft, barely audible tiptoe.
That
night the Lord came, shall I say tiptoe, rap, rap - softly.
It was so tenderly I can’t describe it. You’d have to experience
it. It’s remarkable. At times from the way He comes, I can
tell what He wants, not always.
You
see, I teach these things in many countries and people have
said to me, “Brother Beuttler, now I know, now I know!”
And
I answer, “Well, what do you know?”
They
say, “I had that and had such a presence after I awakened,
but I figured, ‘What was that knocking? It must be my imagination.’
But now I know it was the Lord.”
I
answered, “It sounds like it. The next time it happens
again, you just get up and say, ‘Lord, I’m here.’”
I
mentioned in one place how the Lord once in all my lifetime
called me by name, Walter. He did that only once. I had wished
that for many years, but He never did it. I never asked for
it, didn’t blame Him. And I related that one place and an
old lady came up afterward. She was all giggled up, “Brother
Beuttler, now I know, now I know.”
“Well,
what do you know?”
“The
Lord called me by my name. I didn’t know it was the Lord.
When you mentioned it, then I realized it was the Lord.”
I
said, “The next time He does it you’ll know who it is.”
She
cried, “Yes, praise the Lord!” See what I mean?
You
know in this type of teaching, one often brings by the help
of God, confirmation for experiences people have already had,
but heard no teaching, have no scripture and wonder,
“Am
I cookoo? Was that thing real? I
told Sister So and So about it and she said, ‘You better be careful. You’re
going off the deep end.’” So they reject it.
Finally
they get some teaching and find the thing in the Book and
say, “Ah! Now I see. There is such a thing.” Now they’re
being stabilized in the Word and instead of throwing their
experiences away and agree with the critics and the wreckers
and what have you, they say, “You can say what you like,
but I know there is such a thing. Here it is, look at that.
I found my experience in the Book.” Sometimes the Lord
helps me put a little foundation, a scriptural foundation
under people’s experience so they can’t be shaken from it
by people who don’t know anything about the Lord and aren’t
interested in having anybody else know very much either.
“Behold
I stand at the door and knock.” In one word this phrase
simply means “attention.” The Lord knocks in other
ways. Please do not take advantage of this now and say, “I
think I heard it.” No, no, no. Don’t strain for anything
like it. Seek Him and if perchance He does it that way, you’ll
recognize it. If not, don’t worry about it. I think the Lord
has reasons why He works with some people one way and with
other people another way. I think our type of personality
is a factor in that, but that’s another area.
I’ll
give you another way. Supposing you wash dishes, or clothes,
or what have you. As you are washing dishes, you feel a sudden
- I’ll leave the sudden out because it might or might not
be sudden. You feel a drawing stealing over you, a drawing
to pray, an inner something you know you ought to stop washing
dishes and give yourself to prayer. That’s His knocking too.
Conviction can be His knocking. A song can be His knocking.
He’s done that with me many times by using a chorus to let
me know to be on the alert for prayer.
I
was going to West Africa one year on a Pan American overnight
flight to Dakar, a non-stop flight.
The flight was only partially filled. I was sitting over by
a window. A lady was sitting on the opposite side by her window.
I was sitting there and a chorus began singing in my spirit.
The Lord uses this often. Very faintly it sang, “When He calls
me, I will answer.” You know the chorus. That sang over and
over. At first I paid no attention. Then I realized, “Oh!
That’s His knocking.” As though the Lord were saying,
“Beuttler, I’ll be around soon so be
ready.” Then it subsided. There was no more, but I had
been notified of an impending visit and I knew it.
So
I was sitting there. We were waiting for supper. This lady
over there motioned over to me. Obviously it was an invitation
to have dinner with her. You know the hours are long and people
like to visit. I’m not a socializer
by nature, but I might have gone over because of the length
of the trip. I got the signal all right, but before I responded
I just evaluated a bit. I thought, “Beuttler, you had this
chorus just a little while ago, When
He Calls Me, I Will Answer, and if you go over and have supper
with the girl, you’re going to be socially engaged. If the
Lord calls on you now that you have been notified, it would
be very difficult to say, ‘Well Lady I’m sorry, I have to
go over there and have my prayers.’” That would be awkward.
When I didn’t react, she got the signal and got somebody else
for supper. They were there all evening. That could have been
me.
I
had started my evening meal when the presence came and I got
a spirit of prayer and intercession. I finished my meal quickly
and just sat there like this in the corner as though I had
a little after-supper doze, but I was busily engaged in communion
with the King. The Lord has often given me that chorus, “When
He Calls Me, I Will Answer,” and for me it’s the notification,
“Don’t get absorbed, don’t get
involved or preoccupied” (occupied yes, but not preoccupied).
So when you’re alerted and that presence very faintly steals
over you, you are ready.
I
spend hours on a plane in prayer. Let’s say from Honolulu
to Sydney, Australia
- quite a distance, or from New York
to Honolulu, a 10 1/2 hour non-stop flight, or New York to Buenos
Aires, a 9 1/2 hour non-stop flight.
I spend hours sometimes in prayer, in intercession and fellowship.
On many an occasion there was notification beforehand, “When
He Calls Me, I Will Answer.”
I
was on a night flight from somewhere to somewhere. You know
you get tired of sitting there, but I had had the chorus,
“When He Calls Me, I Will Answer,” so I knew. The Lord had
put me on notice. Well, you get tired sitting around and I
like to walk up and down the galley there and landed back
at the kitchen with the hostess. I like to talk a bit, “Where
are you going? Where have you been? What hotel does Pan American
put you up, or whatever it is?” You get to talking, but
I had notification.
We
were back there talking, “How
do you like Hong Kong? Have you ever been over to Macau?”
That kind of thing. Very faintly,
very faintly the presence of God crept over me, but I had
been alerted. I was alerted in my seat already, but I didn’t
know when it would come. Very faintly I noticed a presence
in my spirit, very slowly it began
to intensify, so I said to the girl, “Well, I guess I better
go back to my seat.” I went back to my seat, sat there
and here it was. “When He Calls Me, I Will Answer.”
Folkses,
this is the Life of Riley, only Riley doesn’t know anything
about this life. “Behold I stand at the door and knock;
if any man” or any person. In one word this means opportunity.
The opportunity is given to all. The opportunity is given
to you this morning by the very fact that you are here and
hear this Word. God also speaks by His Word. His Word is His
knocking also.
“If
any man hear my voice.” In one
word this is recognition or identification. I’ll break it
up for you. “If any man hear.” Some people do not hear. They hear words, but
do not hear with their heart. Here you have something in I
Kings 3. “God came to Solomon in a dream by night.”
Think of it folkses!
Incidentally
He did that with me once, only He didn’t make me an offer,
He gave me a warning. God came to me one night and sat next
to me just like a tender, but serious Father. He sat to my
right. I recognized Him as my heavenly Father, yet I couldn’t
tell you what His face looked like, but I recognized Him.
I can’t explain. He put His left arm around my shoulder like
that (demonstrated). He looked me in the eyes as I looked
into His. I couldn’t tell you what He looked like, but I looked
into His eyes. He had His hand over here on my shoulder in
a dream by night. All He said is this -- - -, and I went --
-. I knew.
“Well,
what was that?” That’s my secret. I don’t tell everything.
I knew. I can rightfully say that the Lord appeared to me.
What
would you say if the Lord would say to you, “Ask what I
shall give thee?”
“Oh
Lord, just wait a minute. I’ll have to write up a shopping
list. I want a new Rolls Royce...Oh! There’s
so many other things I want, I don’t know where to begin.”
Oh
no! First of all the fact that God said to Solomon, “Ask
what I shall give thee” is eloquent testimony to the fact
that God could trust Solomon to ask for nothing which would
be incompatible with Solomon’s love for God, or which would
displease Him in any way. God would not dare to say to most
Christians, “Ask what I shall give thee.” God couldn’t
afford to do that for the outlandish things they would ask.
I
know one lady who told me that God was going to give her another
husband. They had six lovely boys. Yes, the Lord’s going to
give her another husband. She got rid of him and got another
husband, but not from the Lord.
And
Solomon said, “Give thou thy servant an understanding heart.”
I’m sharing with you a jewel of truth very briefly. In the
Hebrew it reads, “Give thou thy servant an
hearing heart.”
It’s
also translated, “Give thou thy servant a heart that harkeneth.”
Can you beat that?
God’s
saying, “Ask what I shall give thee.” And all Solomon
asked for was a hearing heart. That was a spiritual man. He
had a true sense of true values according to God’s standard
of reference and priorities. As far as I’m concerned, Solomon
could have asked for nothing greater in the Old Testament.
He asked for the bestest
thing. Salvation wasn’t provided. The Holy Ghost wasn’t given.
The next best thing was the ability to hear from God. And
if a person knows what it is to hear from God, what more can
they ask. What greater thing can they ask after they’re saved
and baptized in the Spirit? That’s a prayer for you and me.
I’ve prayed it many times. Many times before I’ve gone to
bed I’ve prayed, “Father, give thou thy servant a hearing
heart.” And what I mean is, “As I go to sleep, help
me to hear You if You call. Help
me not to miss You if You want something.”
One
morning very early I was awakened with the presence of the
Lord, but there was something terrifying about it. Oh! There
was something troubled about this presence. I recognized it
was the presence of the Lord that awakened me. I could not
explain the awesome aspect of it. That’s not a good word,
but I can’t think of a better word right now. I sat bolt upright
in bed wondering what could this awful something mean, this
disturbed presence. I said, “Father, is anything wrong?”
In
front of me stood the word this big, Baghdad,
and I knew. I was going to the Far East.
I was routing through Baghdad.
I wanted to stop in Baghdad,
go down to the ancient city of Babylon,
the city of Ur of the Chaldees. It’s
still there, but in ruins. There’s hardly anything left. I
wanted to visit the Tower of Babel, some of which is still there. I
knew that it would take me only about 2 1/2 hours by train
from Baghdad down to the junction where the train stops at the
ancient ruins of the city of Ur,
Abraham’s city. I wanted to make a visit there and the Lord
negated, “Baghdad is wrong.”
So I cut Baghdad
out.
I
do not know to this day why God was so disturbed about my
making a stop at Baghdad. It could be that
it could have risked my life because they are disturbed areas.
I do not know, but Oh! “Give thou thy servant an
hearing ear.” Help me not to miss you if You
call, or if You softly walk up to my bed and Your presence
brings about my awakening. Help me not to miss You.
“If
any man hear my voice” - identification, recognition.
So often people don’t know it’s the Lord. This is a case of
recognizing the Lord. Now I cannot take time with the recognition
of the voice of the Lord, but there John 10 should help you
where he speaks about the sheep being able to differentiate
between the voice of the true shepherd and the false one.
“If
any man hear my voice and open the
door.” That is response. Here is where we fail. What does
it mean by opening the door? It means responding. You’re washing
the dishes and you get the presence. What do we do? “Oh
yes Lord, You want me to pray. I’ll tell You
something. If I stop right now my suds will go un-suds, and
my water will get cold. I’ll hurry up and finish the dishes
and as soon as I get down, I’ll be there to pray or I’ll go
to the hospital and visit that sister.” By the time you’re
ready, the thing has left and you get nowhere.
The
Lord took me through a real series of experiences here in
training when He would call at the oddest times. Now He doesn’t
do that as often, but He knows I would respond. Here is where
we fail, and open the door. I’ll give you one case and then
I’ll just have to stop.
Years
ago when they were small, I had promised my girls a fishing
trip on a Saturday out on Long Island.
Because I’m always out ministering, so it was very, very seldom
that I would be home on weekends. Well, I had made a weekend
free and said, “All right girls, we’re going to go fishing.”
We were out on the Island.
We were getting ready when suddenly I get a presence just
before we left for fishing. I knew what the Lord meant. I
just knew it. You learn these things. It meant, “You go
upstairs to the attic. I want to talk to you.” I just
knew it. So I said, “Girls, we’ll have to wait a few moments.
Jesus wants to talk to Daddy.” That was all right.
So
I went upstairs and said, “Father, here I am. What do You
want?” There was no answer. I said, “Father, we’re
going fishing and the fish aren’t running all the time.”
You have to tie your fishing in with the tide you know. “Lord,
it’s a little late, what is it?” Not a word!
Little
Norma called up, “Daddy, when are you coming?”
I
said, “Right away, just a moment.” Then I said to the
Lord, “Father, will You please
hurry. What do You want?” There
was no answer. I came down and went up again. I got nothing
yet I knew the Lord had called me upstairs. Well, to make
a long story short, we went anyhow.
I
said to Mrs. Beuttler, “I think maybe I was mistaken.”
I wanted to be mistaken, so we went fishing, or started to
go. I drove slower and slower and she said, “Why do you
drive so slowly?”
I
said, “Because the Lord wants me back in Grandma’s attic.”
She
said, “Well, why don’t you turn around?”
So
I told the girls and I’ll never as long as I live forget the
look of our little girl Norma, the disappointment in that
look. She said no words, but I could never forget that look.
We turned around. I said, “Girls, I’ll go upstairs and
in just a few moments we’ll leave again.”
I
went upstairs and said, “Father, I’ve obeyed You.
I’ve even turned around. What do You want?” There was not a word.
I
came down and told Mrs. Beuttler my predicament and she said,
“Maybe you’re not supposed to go fishing.” Well I knew
that by that time, but didn’t want to admit it. So she said,
“Supposing I take the girls swimming and you stay home.”
I
said, “Okay.” I went up, and she was down getting ready
to leave. While they were still there I said, “Father,
if You will hurry up and speak quick,
I can still go fishing.” He wouldn’t say boo, not a sound.
I
heard her leave with the old car. You know the old gearshift.
I could hear them turn around the corner and go down the road.
I said, “Father, do You hear that?
Now I cannot go fishing even if I want to.”
And
the Lord spoke, “Desire spiritual gifts.” Now I desired
fish. He said, “Desire spiritual gifts.” I knew instinctively
what He wanted. He wanted me to write an article for The Pentecostal
Evangel on “Desiring Spiritual Gifts.”
I
sat down and began to write. The Lord poured that thing in,
it came so fast like an assembly line belt, I could hardly
get the words down fast enough - no punctuation, just put
the words down. Spelling? Oh, never mind. I just wrote it
down and these words just kept coming and coming. I wrote,
they came, I wrote, I wrote, I wrote all the way through and
there it was, the bell stopped and the thing was done. I had
to finish it up, correct the spelling, correct the grammar,
put in punctuation. The Pentecostal Evangel published it.
I
received a letter from the west coast, “Dear Brother Beuttler,
You’ll never know what your article has meant to our church.
We’ve had so much trouble here in this area. When your article
came, we read it to the church and it solved our problems.
Thank God for what you wrote.”
Now
the point is this: I had in mind a fishing trip. I didn’t
want to disappoint my girls, but “Behold I stand at the
door and knock.” I want you upstairs. “If
any man hear my voice, and open the door,” and respond.
Here is where we fail. The Lord knocks, He speaks, He convicts,
He draws, He calls us for a desire, and we have more important
things to do. There is where failing to open the door, we
miss the feast that would follow. The Lord really can call
you at an odd time purposefully, because He wants to know,
“Lovest thou me more than
this.” Are you more interested in My
visit than in this thing? The Lord put me to a real test with
that.
Have
you ever seen on TV the Sinking of the Titanic? There are
two versions, one I like, the other I don’t care for. The
one I like, I like the ending when the Titanic stands at an
angle already going down. Here are about a dozen and a half
or so people in a group on the sinking, slanting deck, and
that ship slowly goes down with those people standing in a
circle singing, “Nearer my God to Thee, nearer to Thee,” and
gurgle, gurgle they’re gone. Amen’t
I wicked? I just like that version where they’re going under
singing “Nearer My God to Thee.” I cry when I see it and it
makes me happy that I’m sad. (Laughter)
I
waited for that picture again on TV for years. My sister-in-law
calls up and says, “Walter, the Titanic is on.”
I
said, “Good.” Here comes the Titanic. “That’s it,
that’s the version.” And here comes a presence, unwelcome
visitor. Have you ever watched a TV show when somebody came
to visit you and you wished they had come some other time?
Oh
did I have a struggle! I wanted to see that picture, so I
thought, “I know what I’ll do - watch and pray.” I’ll
watch with one eye and I’ll pray with the other, and I took
in that picture. I just love that picture, period. I like
sea disasters and things like that. I had such a conflict.
Finally I said, “Beuttler, haven’t you learned yet.”
And I took Beuttler by the neck and shut the thing off and
let him miss, “Nearer My God to Thee,” and traded that in
for really “Nearer My God to Thee.” This is where we fail.
“And open the door, “I will come into him, and sup with
him, and he with me.”
I
have given you only some fragments, and kept you later than
is good for you or for me, but I hope you got a few things,
at least a direction in which we need to move into this area
of the true knowledge of God.