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His Manifest Presence - Part 1
Walter Beuttler

Walter H. Beuttler (1904–1974). Born in Germany in 1904, Walter Beuttler immigrated to the United States in 1925 and graduated from Central Bible Institute in 1931. He served as a faculty member at Eastern Bible Institute from 1939 to 1972, teaching with a deep focus on knowing God personally. In 1951, during a campus revival, he felt called to “go teach all nations,” leading to 22 years of global ministry, sharing principles of the “Manifest Presence of God” and “Divine Guidance.” Beuttler’s teaching emphasized experiential faith, recounting vivid stories of sensing God’s presence, like worshipping by a conveyor belt in Bangkok until lost luggage appeared. His classroom ministry was marked by spiritual intensity, often stirring students to seek God earnestly. He retired in Shavertown, Pennsylvania, with his wife, Elizabeth, continuing his work until his death in 1974. Beuttler’s writings, like The Manifest Presence of God, stress spiritual hunger as God’s call and guarantee of fulfillment, urging believers to build a “house of devotion” for a life of ministry. He once said, “If we build God a house of devotion, He will build us a house of ministry.”
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Sermon Summary
In this sermon transcript, the speaker shares a harrowing experience of witnessing a violent attack on a bus. He emphasizes the importance of relying on God's presence as a shield against harm and attacks from others. The speaker also reflects on the emotional impact of receiving heartfelt notes from loved ones while traveling. He concludes with a story about a preacher who criticized the church but ultimately brought about a powerful outpouring of the Holy Spirit. The sermon encourages listeners to seek God's ways and trust in His ability to erase negativity and bring joy.
Sermon Transcription
And in these evenings I expect to speak to you, beginning tonight, on the presence of God, and particularly now the, what I would call, the manifest presence of God. Thank God God is pouring out his Spirit all over the world. It is amazing how many people, different denominations in the world, experience a fresh move of God. What I see here is, and I see it every year as I go abroad, that God is giving to other denominations what many Pentecostal people, and I'm thinking particularly of the traditional Pentecostal folk, what many of them are turning their back on today. The other groups are receiving it. It's a marvelous move of God, as you will know, throughout the world. So we're going to turn to the book of Exodus, chapter 33, verses 12, oh, I'll go as far as, well, let's say 15. Moses said unto the Lord, See, thou sayest unto me, Bring up these people, and thou hast not let me know whom thou wilt send with me. Yet thou hast said, I know thee by name, and thou hast also found grace in my sight. Now therefore, I pray thee, if I have found grace in thy sight, show me now thy way, that I may know thee, that I may find grace in thy sight, and consider that this nation is thy people. And he said, My presence shall go with thee, and I will give thee rest. And he said unto him, that is Moses to God, If thy presence go not with me, carry us not up hence. I find this Moses to be a most remarkable man. I find the book of Exodus to be a most remarkable book, particularly now with reference to the revelation of the ways and the nature of God. This prayer of Moses I have prayed many times. It is remarkable all the more when you consider the spiritual state of Moses at the time. Now, for instance, we read in the very same chapter, and that is found in, let's see, I'll have to check here, in verse 11. The Lord spake unto Moses face to face, as a man speaketh unto his friend. Think of it. Think of it. God spoke to Moses face to face, as a man speaks unto his friend. Now, that simply means, at least to me, that God spoke to Moses, with Moses in fact, intimately, as a man speaks unto his friend. Now, a friend will tell a friend what he does not tell everyone else. Friends very often have secrets between each other. And God spoke to Moses, as a man speaks unto his friend. Think of it. And yet, notwithstanding that remarkable intimate relationship of Moses to God, he still prayed, show me now thy way, that I may know thee. Why, this man knew God already, yet he wanted to know God still more. One year, I was giving a chapel message in school on seeking God, the need for seeking God, how to seek God, conditions of finding God, so forth. One of the teachers challenged me and said, Brother Buechler, and he was quite critical, why do you tell these students to seek God when they have already found Him? I said, I am not exhorting them to seek the Lord because they never found Him, but because they need to find Him some more. There is no end to God's disclosure of Himself to our hearts. You know there is a passage in 2 Chronicles, if I err or not, it's chapter 26 that says, And as long as he sought the Lord, God made him to prosper. That's my motto incidentally. As long as he sought the Lord, God made him to prosper. When you read through the chapter, you will find it says, God helped him, God helped him greatly, he was strengthened greatly, his name spread abroad, his name spread far abroad, the man, the king, became well known because of his success, and the secret of it was the fact that as long as he sought the Lord, God made him to prosper. Now there is a warning in there, it says, As long as he sought, there came a time when he no longer sought the Lord, his heart became filled with pride, and he died a leper. Now this Moses knew God, and yet he wanted to know God even more. Here is something in Deuteronomy that we want to consider here, just a moment here, Deuteronomy 34, 10, And there arose not a prophet since in Israel lied unto Moses, whom the Lord knew face to face. Think of it. God knew Moses face to face. God had a personal acquaintance with Moses, and Moses had a personal acquaintance with God. And yet this man said, Show me now thy way, that I may know thee. In Numbers 12 and 8, there was a dispute there. Miriam and Aaron had talked against Moses. They were criticizing him for the Ethiopian woman which he married. Now I do not know whether Moses made the mistake or not, but I do know that it was none of the business of Miriam and Aaron. Have you ever noticed there are people in this world, not in Lima, I know that, in this world that mind everybody else's business their own, and forget theirs, not in Lima, so don't get mad at me, but Miriam was one of them. They were two what I would call buddhists. They budded into other people's personal affairs, and the Lord heard it. And the Lord challenged those two, and then said of Moses, And the similitude of the Lord shall he behold. Now that word similitude is variously translated such as, And the form of the Lord shall he behold. And the likeness of the Lord shall he behold. And the shape of the Lord shall he behold. Think of it. Now I do not want to go into that area, we'll get too far afield. But the fact remains that the shape of the Lord, not the material shape, we know that, the shape of the Lord, the form of the Lord shall he behold. And yet this man who had such a relationship with God, that God said, I'm going to let him see my form, not his face, that he couldn't see, the rest he could see, his back, his hands, that he could see, not his face. And yet this man prayed, that I may know thee. You know what? A true personal knowledge of God begets a desire for still a greater knowledge of God. There is no end to this. In Psalm 24, I'm using now a French translation that I discovered in France, and the intimate communion of the Lord, and so forth. The idea being, God will give his intimate communion to those who fear him. This Moses had intimate communion with the Lord, and yet he prayed, show me now thy way. Notice there are two things here. Show me now thy way, that is the way you do things, why you do them, where you go, that I may know thee. He wanted to know God, and in the answer to his prayer, of the presence of God. Speaking of the Lord's way, have you ever, or do you ever watch the way the Lord works? You learn so much about God, if you just watch the way he operates. I'll tell you something, one year, Hattie Hammond, I guess you know her, Hattie Hammond, and I had a convention in Washington, and the church put us up in the Ambassador Hotel. So evenings, after the last service, we'll go down to the coffee shop, and have some poached eggs, English muffin, you know, and talk. Talk past midnight. And one night, comparing notes, and one night she said, Brother Buechler, I must tell you something, and I never forgot it. She said that she was out in Springfield, the A.T. headquarters, as you know. There was a huge ambassador's rally. Well, because she is well known, I guess, they asked her to sit on the platform with the other dignitaries, and satellites, and galaxies, you know. The miniserial galaxy. And she was up there, and sat there, and a young fellow from the Christ Ambassadors was the speaker. She said there was a huge attendance there, a number of thousands. And she said, Brother Buechler, you never heard a spade of a ring and nonsense as that young fellow preached that afternoon to that huge congregation. She said it was awful. All he did was tear the A.G. into shreds. Nothing but criticism told his audience, Oh, that's wrong with the assemblies of God. Rightly or wrongly, that's beside the point. When he got done, she said, the power of God fell on that audience. Hands went up and they were praising the Lord all over the place. And she was dumbfounded. She said, Brother Buechler, I was so dumbfounded I didn't know what to think. So she said, I said to God, God, how can you bless such a harangue as we had to listen to this afternoon? And she said, Brother Buechler, the Lord answered me and said, I am not blessing one word of all he said. I'm pouring the spirit of rejoicing upon my people to help them forget everything he did say. In fact, I was speaking down in chapel in NBI one year and a real anointing. How can that be? Well, I don't know how, but I do know it be. It can be. There was a river with a dead cow floating down. I said something I should have never said. It was true, all right, but there are a lot of things true that shouldn't be said. And while I was saying it, I knew I was making a mistake. The anointing didn't leave, but this thing got in. And you know, your mind can be as quick as a computer. My computer ran to work while I was talking and faster than I could see. And I thought the thing through while I was saying it. I questioned myself, should I stop and correct it or what to do? And quicker I guess than lightning, the thought went through my mind, no, half of the students won't be listening anyway, so they won't get hurt. And for the rest, if I try to explain it, I only draw attention to it, and then they will remember it. So I went right ahead. But that went like this, and I had the answer, if you know what I mean. Well, I got done with my statement. We had a beautiful utterance in tongues and interpretation. It was exquisite. The students were shouting their ears off almost. I know what happened. God used his eraser. That wasn't blessing the statement I had made. That was erasing it. You know, God has wonderful, wonderful ways of working. Show me now thy way. Oh, that we would, I say we, I don't know you people, you know, but I have to put it that way. That many of God's people would be more willing to learn the ways of the Spirit. You see, because in our day, we're in the intellectual trend that is gradually whittling away at the things of the Spirit of God, and don't you kid yourself. We had in school John Wright Follett, and he preached for about three hours, and you could listen to him all morning. The whole school had to stop for him, and it was worth it. When he got done, he had given us a tremendous feast. And at the end of the feast, there was a message in tongues, not lengthy at all, an interpretation, very simple, so simple you could wonder, what for? One of our lady teachers was a good teacher, but tended to be critical in the things of the Spirit. She said within herself, she told us later, why do we have to have a message in tongues after such a big feast, and then just a simple little truth that doesn't compare with what we just did? And the Lord answered her, because I have babies in this audience who did not get one thing out of all he sent. I have to take care of the children, the babies, as well as the mature. So the Lord sent his milk bottle, or some baby food, some pabulum, a few babies there who couldn't get anything else out of anything that man sent. But then the Lord sent them a little portion. O show me now thy way that I may know thee. So we are dealing here with a man who already had a marvelous relationship with God. I envy Moses. Now notice what God answered. That takes us back to chapter 33. And he said, My presence shall go with thee, and I will give thee rest. Now this Moses at this juncture appeared to have been troubled, or disquieted in his spirit, apprehensive. He had to lead these people into the promised land. He knew they were a stubborn people to be sure. There were dangers in the way. There were vipers. There were scorpions. He knew he had a job on his hands. And apparently he wanted some kind of a helpmate, a companion. Because he said, You did not let me know whom you will send with me. And then God answered and said, My presence shall go with thee, and I will give thee rest. Now here we have the presence of God as a companion. I could not tell you, I could find no words to tell you how I appreciate the companionship of the presence of God. The Lord gave this to me once. My presence shall go with thee, and I will give thee rest. I travel all over the world every year to all areas, remotest places I get to, almost always alone. But not alone there is that presence. You know, one year I went to France, and as always I prayed something like, Father, don't you let me go unless you go with me. That's my standard prayer before I go. I do not want to go without this presence. And I was going to Idlewild, JFK now in New York, and stopped in the city, New York City, and I walked down Fifth Avenue to take the bus out to the airport, and on the way down Fifth Avenue I said in my heart, Father, please don't let me go unless you go with me. And right in here, now you may think me funny, but you can think what you like. I got over that long ago. As far as I'm concerned, this is the area where the Spirit of God lives, where our spirit is, Spirit of God. That's where I get things from God. That's where you get His leading. This is where you have the peace. Now, God leads in other ways, but this is one of them. And right in here, there came these words, When you arrive, I will be waiting for you. Mmm! Isn't that delicious? Delicious? Oh, brother, you love that? Well, I know that, but it's in mine. It's a beautiful speech. Delicious. When you arrive, I will be waiting for you. You see, folks, this thing here, folks, this is a beautiful reason, this thing is real. And I, it gets realer all the time. I arrived at Aldi Airport next morning, and it was raining cats and dogs, pitchforks, sauerkraut, lima beans, sun attacks, it was like a lake with heavy drops, it poured. Stepped off the plane, stepped on the concrete, I was covered with water, stepped on the concrete, and folks, there was the enveloping presence, a strong sense of the Lord's presence all about. He had been waiting for me. He didn't wait in the waiting room, he couldn't wait that long, he had to get out. The presence, oh, to me, those things are so delicious, super delicious. You know, speaking of this companionship, for me, to me, it's the life. It turns an airport into a cathedral, if you know what I mean. And I get to many of the world's airports and sit out many an hour, but oh, how often that is a cathedral of worship, fellowship, communion, the garden of spices with my beloved. I was making up an itinerary, and I weighed on the Lord that I have a map there of the world, and not to find out how to get there, I know how to get there, but I look over it and I want to get confirmation in my spirit. So I was there and I was sure, Green Lane, Philly, of course, Los Angeles, Tokyo, Hong Kong, Manila, Singapore. After Singapore, I didn't know which way to go. Actually, I couldn't make up my mind. And I was sitting there on the floor with the map on my bed, and I put my hand there on Singapore, and I said, Father, I know I could go down to Australia, Perth, and over Melbourne, Sydney, come up through the South Pacific, or what have you, no problem. Or I could go on westward, but I wanted to move in the Lord, you see. So I was sitting there for quite a while. Do you know what I mean when I speak of sitting before the Lord, waiting for the Lord, like David. David sat before the Lord. That's where I get things. That's where you get things. Not by running, but by... I spent hours on a plane, trans-Pacific flight, hours sitting there, waiting on the Lord. Airports, hotel lobbies, whatever you love it. You heard what I said, Father. I just don't know which way to go. And lo and behold, I will meet you at the pyramids. That was it. I knew what he meant, because in coming from the Far East to Europe, I used to like to come when I could, by way of Cairo, go out to the pyramids. There's a hotel there, the Mina House, $3 a night, air-conditioned, nothing sophisticated, very, very, very, very simple, nothing fancy, and I knew what he meant. I'll meet you at the pyramids. In other words, you know, you learn to understand what the Lord means. That comes with it. I knew what he meant. Go westward. That meant in the end, what have you. All right, the day came when I was in Cairo, and I had arranged to make about a three-day rest up there, sit in front of the Sphinx, where there is a rest house. You can have coffee, Coca-Cola. You know, Coca-Cola is omnipresent, don't you? Coca-Cola. The Arabian Desert, Coca-Cola. I have got a secret challenge to Christians. Have a cup of coffee or a Coca-Cola. The Sphinx, the pyramids, wait on the Lord, and while I sit, I was watching the lights of Cairo coming up, when suddenly there was the Lord's presence. I will meet you at the pyramids. And he came out to meet me, and shall I put it this way, we wrote in together. The nice enveloping presence of God. Hadn't expected that. Suddenly, there was the awareness of his presence. My presence shall go with thee, and I will give thee rest. What a marvelous thing we have in this wondrous presence of God. I was ministering on an island, I do not want to mention it. And we had a wonderful seminary in the Far East. Wonderful way. If the Spirit of God, even himself, the missionary had said, well, one of the missionaries said, now let's stand, we'll dismiss this wonderful seminar. There was a message in tongues, interpretation, the Spirit of God himself pronounced the dismissal. It was one of the most exquisite things. And yet, there was a missionary there who had no love of ministry, you know, not everybody likes everybody. I'm not liked by everybody. Some preachers would rather give me rat poison than an offering to send me on my way. But that's all, that's all in the game. We all get that. And the one missionary, he didn't care. He was in and out, and in and out. And I couldn't figure out what was wrong. Later on, I learned that his wife ran away with another woman. She was a lesbian. No wonder I didn't go over. Well, they took me to the airport, and my heart was down. Oh, I was down in spirit. Because of these people's attitude, I stayed with them. But I had a companion. And I was walking out to the Indian Airlines plane to go up to Calcutta. I know my heart was down, and I know my head was low. I was so depressed in my spirit. Usually, I look around and wave goodbye. But, folks, as I walked out to that plane, my cabin bag over my shoulder, as always, all of a sudden, there was a word in here. The word, and the prophet Jeremiah went his way. I was thrilled. That doesn't mean God equated me with Jeremiah. God forbid. But what he meant was, son or butler, I don't know how he thinks of me. I can't say. He never called me by name. What he got across was, never mind. Jeremiah went through the same opposition of his fellow prophets. And finally, he had no more to say. He went his way, and the prophet Jeremiah went his way. That thing so strengthened me. To me, to this day, it has become a source of food. When I meet with hostility, not often, but you meet with it, with hostility, you go your way in the Lord. You have a companion. My presence shall go with thee. I don't know what I... Quite a few years back, I went to South America to Rio de Janeiro and then down to Santiago and over to... And my girl, my younger girl, and I'm very... My younger girl was small. To the airport, and she had Norma on her arm. I was sitting on a TWA consternation. They didn't have jets then. I was sitting by the window and looked out, and I saw that little girl weep. Her whole body shook with weeping. She was on mother's arm. Her head was on mother's shoulder. And that girl just wept. That little body just shook. Well, the plane started to move. I watched. I could tell wife was saying to Norma. She put her chin up. Look up, daddy's leaving. And that little girl's body kept shaking. Her little hand waved goodbye like this. Her head went like this. She didn't want to look. It was over. That thing went on my inside like a hot knife. I literally took hold of my chin, looking over. I took hold of my chin and put my head over and said, Don't look. And I held my head there, kept it from looking until the plane had turned and I couldn't see anymore. But you know, that thing stayed within me like a burning sword. Down in Rio, I was up very early. Flight left at 5 o'clock. And the night before, I changed, you know, clothes, shirt, what have you, and I had handkerchiefs and different pieces of clothing. There was a note. Dear Daddy, I love you very much. Come back soon. Put on a fresh pair of socks, a little note. Dear Daddy, Why do you leave your little girl? I'll be waiting for you. There must have been, I would judge, somewhere between a dozen or a dozen and a half notes like that. Wherever I went, I did something. Here is this little note. And it got me. And believe it or not, between Rio and Sao Paulo, I wept like a baby. I wept. I was so homesick, I didn't know what to do with myself. Oh, I looked out of the window, watched the mountains so the hostess wouldn't come around and say, Well, dear sir, what seems to be the trouble? Can I help you? Will an aspirin do? Discover me. In Sao Paulo, there was a Pan-American DC-7. I knew that flight left for New York. I almost panicked. I could have yelled, Get me my luggage. Oh boy, you just pulled yourself together. Well, we left. Got to, and I'm leading up to something. Got to Santiago. Tired. It was a long flight. It was a bad night. They put me on a choo-choo train to Valparaiso, and I thought they'd take me home, put me to bed, and let me go tomorrow. This was an all-night ride. There we went. So tired. Later on, I found out the missionaries didn't want to be bothered with the guests, so they just sent them on to the others. You get that too. There I was. Every day I ministered to a pretty large audience, and, you know, down there they have good-sized audiences. And inside there was a gnawing pain. If anybody knows what homesickness is, you know what I mean. And I tried to snap out of it and couldn't find the snap. There was no snap. I literally looked in. I said, Beautiful. I've done that more than once. You are not going home, fella. You're going to Argentina, to Uruguay, to Paraguay, to Brazil, to Peru. I think I left something out. And then in the fall, you'll go home. So snap out of it. Pull yourself together. Wouldn't work. Couldn't do it. I went to pieces with homesickness for my daily specialty. That night, I got out of bed and said, Father, this thing will never do. Either you do something for me, or let me go home. And the Lord spoke, My presence shall be and I will give thee rest. And with those words, the homesickness stopped and has never returned except this past summer just a little bit in Nigeria for the first time and the other must be almost twenty years ago by now. It lasted all this time. My presence shall go with thee and I will give thee rest. The companionship of the presence of God. Now I suppose you understand what I mean by this presence. I'm aware of God's omnipresence, but I'm not speaking of His omnipresence. I'm speaking of what I would call His personalized or localized, His personal presence and awareness of the sense of the presence of God. It's a marvelous thing to go with us wherever we are to be able to enjoy that marvelous touch of God's presence. I'm not saying that I always have it, but it is in general a mode of life and I depend on it very, very much, especially in travel. So the presence of God here is a companion. God's response to Moses' prayer, Show me now thy way that I may know thee. Now I'll take you to Psalm 31. This is also something that has a presence to my own heart for many years. 31st Psalm, verse 19. O how great is thy goodness which thou hast laid up for them that fear thee, which thou hast wrought for them that trust in thee before or above the sons of men, or more so than trusting in the sons of men. Now notice. Thou shalt hide them in the secret of thy presence from the pride of men. Thou shalt keep them secretly in a pavilion from the strife of tongues. Now surely in Limeh there never is any strife of tongues, but you get to some places where there is strife. I'm glad you agree with me. Thou shalt hide them, thou shalt keep them secretly in a pavilion, in a shelter from the strife of tongues. Folks, this presence of God, of that presence there, that becomes a shelter from we are healed, are saved, are protected from the impact of the sharp words spoken by sharp tongues of hostile people. And any preacher knows how it feels to have the sharp tongue hit them like arrows and they can get into your spirit and do an awful lot of damage. The presence of God becomes a shield. Then I said, well Lord, if that's your purpose, that's your privilege, after all, you're God, I'll preach what you gave me, come what may. And started out a nice salty and Sunday morning. Lady interpreted. Her husband was dead against me, against all Americans. There was a strong anti-American feeling in France at the time. And while I spoke about ten minutes, I felt in here, in my spirit, I could feel in here that somebody in the audience had a throbbing of the spirit to give an utterance in tongues or prophecy, I didn't know which. I got it in here. I could feel in here the spirit of God throwing to you somebody in the audience. Nothing happened, so I said to the lady, will you tell this audience that someone has an utterance from the spirit, should give it? Oh brother Buechler, we are not doing that in France. We are never interrupting a speaker. The Holy Ghost, you know, doesn't interrupt himself. I said, sister, this is not an interruption, this is partnership in the Holy Ghost. Will you tell them? Oh brother Buechler, we never do that in France. I said, will you tell them we're going to do it now, how about it? Alright. The brother... And up stands a lady, gave a beautiful, powerful utterance in tongues. A man stood up, gave the interpretation, and in the interpretation God bore witness to the fact that he had sent me to France. He bore witness to the word of God that was spoken, and asked the folk to accept the word that he is sending in, his spirit. And so it went on and on. Hands went up, shouting all over the place, and I heard some cracks in the refrigerators. Glory, glory to you. Glory. And I heard somebody down there. Glory to you. I thought I heard the voice, know the voice. It was the pastor. Hands up, tears literally rolling down his face, shouting out loud, glory to you. And that man came over through his arms around me, said, brother Buechler, God has sent you to France, and we want you to stay as long as you can. That man wept on my shoulder like a baby. And the other refrigerators and iceboxes behind, they all melted, and they were as warm as could be. And without exaggeration, as a result of that meeting, God opened up all of France to ministry, and France, North Africa, been there numerous times. And France has become one of my major fields, and this man, who was so against me, one year said, brother Buechler, wouldn't your family like to come with you sometime? I went back to be their national convention speaker, so I don't know how many years. And they had the family over there. They sent us in North Africa. They paid all of our fares. And this man, who was so hostile, became the strongest Buechler factor in France. That's how God turned that man around, but in the crisis, had sustained me by the enveloping presence of God as a shield. And today, while I was in France, last summer we'll be there. Next summer, they ask for 1974. I can go anytime I want to. Field is wide open, and they treat me like a king and the family. That's how God turned that man around. So much so, one year I was there, and they said, brother Buechler, how about the convention next year? I said, no. I'm going to Tokyo. Well, couldn't you stop in France first? We'll adjust the date of the national convention to suit you. I said, no, I'm in school, and I have to go right to Tokyo. Well, he said, we'll pray about it. I thought, I have nothing to pray about. You can pray if you want to. They had me in a hotel, and that night the Lord awakened me again with His presence and His scripture. Just a phrase, and they waited not for the counsel of the Lord. You have that in the Old Testament in two verbs. And they waited not for the counsel of the Lord. I knew at once what the Lord meant. See what I mean by the presence? It guides, it is with you, it speaks. That's how we move in God. I knew what He meant. And He meant, you said no to those brethren before you ever asked me whether I wanted you to go back to France. So I said, well, Lord, it isn't practical. It isn't practical. You'll go to Tokyo by way of Paris. It's too far around. It takes too long. And I wouldn't say now that the Lord spoke to me here, but I think He at least caused me to remember something. I knew that there were there were flights from Paris to Tokyo over the North Pole to cut off that long route around India, you know. It's a much shorter cut, although expensive. And that came to me, and I said, Lord, I suppose I could do it by going over the North Pole, but that isn't practical cost-wise. And I let it go at that. But I felt the Lord wanted me to go. So next day, this same man who was so hostile said, Brother Buechler, did you pray? I said, no, I didn't pray, but I got the answer anyway. Well, he said, what's the answer? I said, the Lord wants me to come, but I said, I can't understand it. It isn't practical. Why isn't it practical? There won't be time to go to Tokyo around India, and to go over the North Pole is too expensive. My ticket already was $2,100, and that's quite a bit. So he said, how much is it going to cost? Oh, I said, I don't know. Well, could you find out? Yeah, when I get back to Paris, I can find out. So we met in Marseille. Brother Buechler, did you find out about the fare? Yes, I found out, all right. What did you find out? I found out it isn't practical. Oh, these practical heads. Well, why isn't it practical? It would cost exactly $500 on top of my present ticket of $2,100. He said, Brother Buechler, if you're willing to speak at our convention, we're willing to give you $500 to take you over the North Pole to Tokyo. That's what they did. And this was the man who was so hostile and said, I wish I had never let that man into my church. He is one of our best friends to this day. The Spirit of God just turned him around completely. And if I don't stop, after an hour, then you're going to walk out on me. Now, coming back to Moses, just to kind of wind this thing up, and we'll continue, the Lord willing, on Wednesday night, is that correct? Show me now thy way that I may know thee. And God giving to this man this wonderful reply, my present shall go with thee and I will give thee rest. Friends, this manifest awareness of the presence of God is a wonderful companion. As I told you, going with us wherever we go. Oh, I owe this companion so much. You know, I was walking on the street in Tunis with my interpreter and had that nice little presence. I'm closing within five minutes. Had that nice little presence, the glow. Do you know what I mean by the glow? The glow of that presence that, hmm, is so real. It wasn't strong, but it was noticeable. And we walked along and all of a sudden this glow, and this is difficult to explain, turned into a very strong alarm. It's the only way I can put it. It's inadequate. Such an alarm that it so alarmed me that I jumped to my right. I simply took a leap to my right without knowing why. I'm not as leapy today as I was then. But as I did, a young Arab brushed my left shoulder with his right one and he had a dagger, an open switchblade in fact, in his hand. From all appearance, he was just ready to knife me from the back for whatever purpose when my companion saw him and gave me the alarm of imminent danger and I jumped away from his knife. Now those were the days when the Arabs cut the throats of the Frenchmen left and right. While I was in Algiers at that time there was a busload of Frenchmen driven by an Arab driver over a bridge. The man turned the bus on the bridge, stopped crosswise. Two cars with Arabs followed in the back. They got out and cut the throats of every Frenchman in the bus. Those were the days when any Westerner was in great jeopardy and this fellow from all appearance tried to use his knife on me and my companion warned me. He tried it a second time but by that time we were alert and saw him again approaching. When he saw that, he went on. My presence shall go with thee as a companion and as a shelter to shield us from the venomous attacks from all sorts of people that are stirred up against us for no reason or whatever reason. We have the presence of God as a shelter, as a shield to keep the arrows from penetrating into our soul and thereby destroy us. How shall we close this tonight because I'm not finished. We'll just stop. Well, perhaps with Moses' prayer. Show me now thy way that I may know thee. That's a good prayer till Wednesday night. How about it? All right, Pastor.
His Manifest Presence - Part 1
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Walter H. Beuttler (1904–1974). Born in Germany in 1904, Walter Beuttler immigrated to the United States in 1925 and graduated from Central Bible Institute in 1931. He served as a faculty member at Eastern Bible Institute from 1939 to 1972, teaching with a deep focus on knowing God personally. In 1951, during a campus revival, he felt called to “go teach all nations,” leading to 22 years of global ministry, sharing principles of the “Manifest Presence of God” and “Divine Guidance.” Beuttler’s teaching emphasized experiential faith, recounting vivid stories of sensing God’s presence, like worshipping by a conveyor belt in Bangkok until lost luggage appeared. His classroom ministry was marked by spiritual intensity, often stirring students to seek God earnestly. He retired in Shavertown, Pennsylvania, with his wife, Elizabeth, continuing his work until his death in 1974. Beuttler’s writings, like The Manifest Presence of God, stress spiritual hunger as God’s call and guarantee of fulfillment, urging believers to build a “house of devotion” for a life of ministry. He once said, “If we build God a house of devotion, He will build us a house of ministry.”