Manifestations Of The Spirit
Walter Beuttler

Now this evening we’re going to get into the area of the activities of the Spirit of God.  I had mentioned to you right in the beginning that our studies on “Knowing the Spirit” are, of necessity, fragmentary.  So tonight we’re going to choose a different fragment.  I say choose.  This is what the Lord has laid upon my heart, to consider His activities.  The Holy Ghost is a worker, and He needs you and me to help Him for we are His instrumentality, His means by which He accomplishes His work.  First I am taking you to I Thessalonians.

“And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.”  I Thessalonians 5:23

What Paul is doing here, among other things, is to point out to us three major areas.  In fact, I would say, the three major areas of our personality, including the body, the bungalow, the house, in which God has to do a work.  And so the Spirit is employing instrumentalities to carry out the work of the Father in these three areas of our triune human being.  Now He does that by means of various ministries of the Spirit of God and works with these ministries through the Body.

Now when I say the body, I speak here collectively of the church of God.  We are the body of Christ; we are the church.  Now when I say we, I do not mean the Pentecostal people.  There are no Pentecostal people in heaven, nor will there be.  There won’t be any Presbyterians either, nor Episcopalians nor Anglicans. I see how puzzled and distressed some of you are.  Well, the reason is this: The body of Christ consists of all true believers that are born again through faith in Jesus Christ whether they are in the Pentecostal sheepfold, or the Presbyterian, or the Episcopalian or whatever there is.  The idea being if we are truly born again through faith in Jesus Christ, we are all one family, one great body of believers regardless of what denominational tag we wear.  Do you feel better?  If you understand me, you will.

Of course in heaven, there are people who come from the Presbyterian Church, from the Pentecostal, from the Baptist, from the Catholic, from what have you. But when we get to heaven, we are no longer Pentecostal, or Presbyterian, or anything of the kind.  There will be no denominational demarcation, thank God.  We’ll all be one great family and our former denominational relationship has no bearing on our relation in heaven whatsoever.  That’s the way it ought to be now.

Remember what Paul said, “Henceforth know we no man after the flesh.”  Now I do not only visit Pentecostals or Assemblies of God.  You cannot put me in a denominational box.  I go to the Independent Pentecostals too, and to the Presbyterians.  Oh yes!  I go to the Baptist and to any kind of ist that want me, I’ll go.  So does the Lord.

You know as well as I do that God is mightily working today in all denominations.  I’m not teaching this, but I’ll tell you what I think.  Personally, I think that the Lord is calling out a new people composed of all denominational colors, from the whole spectrum of all the denominations.  People who want to go through with Him and be filled with the Holy Ghost and go on with God and leave the rest behind in their denominational carcass with the tombstone on the top as a souvenir, as a memory of former glories.  God’s on the move, and I’m moving with Him.  So don’t argue.  You understand now what I meant.

So the Holy Ghost works through the body, that is the body of Christ, composed of all believers in Jesus Christ regardless of their denominational tags.  Folkses, when we arrive at the Pearly Gates, we’re not going to be asked by St. Peter or anybody else, “Excuse me, show me your denominational dog tag.”  They’re not going to ask for our dog tag.  They’re not going to ask for our membership in any denomination.  What counts is our personal relationship to Jesus Christ, and nothing else counts with God, but that.  We are the body composed of all true believers, saved, born again believers in Jesus Christ of any denomination, any nationality, any race during any time down through the centuries-one great body.

Now we are yet alive.  We are His body together with all the rest who have passed on, and those who are yet to join us.  But those of us who are now present, all of God’s people everywhere, through those; the Holy Ghost is active as a person.  I told you already, He’s a person.  As such, He has characteristics of personality and engages in intelligent activities.  We’ve talked about the Spirit’s intelligence.  Here is what the Spirit of God is seeking to do in I Corinthians 12:7-11:

“But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man (that means to every person, the idea being everyone that is a true member of the body of Christ) to profit withal (or for the common good).  For to one is given by the Spirit the word of wisdom; to another the word of knowledge by the same Spirit; To another faith by the same Spirit; to another the gifts of healing by the same Spirit; To another the working of miracles; to another prophecy; to another discerning of spirits; to another divers kinds of tongues; to another the interpretation of tongues: But all these worketh that one and the selfsame Spirit, dividing to every man severally as he will.”  I Corinthians 12:7-11

Here we have what are generally called the nine gifts, or nine manifestations of the Spirit, by means of which He seeks to work through the various members of His body for the edification of the church, for the accomplishment of the work of God in our triune nature: spirit, soul and body.  The Spirit is using these gifts to make us perfect in these three areas.  Now God uses other means, but we’re now dealing particularly with the activities of the Spirit.

There is something very interesting about this list.  It is this: These nine gifts are divisible into three threes.  What you have here is: Three gifts that minister to us particularly in the realm of our spirit, three that minister particularly to the needs in the realm of our soul (which includes the intellect), and three which minister particularly in the realm of the material including our physical body.

I would not say this breakdown is inspired.  I don’t think it is, but it is a logical division of these gifts that help us to understand the operation of the Spirit somewhat better than they would otherwise.

Now as I said, and as Paul said, “We are the members of His body.”  What Paul implied is that as we have physical members: hands, feet, ears, eyes, what have you, that minister to the entire body, so God has individual members in His mystical body, the church, members which we are, through whom the Holy Ghost wants to work.

For to one is given by the Spirit the word of wisdom; to another the word of knowledge, to another this, to another that, to another something else, so that according to the plan of God, all these gifts should be operating as the need would demand it.  We need to bear in mind here that the gifts of the Spirit are tools and not toys.  When I was a pastor, a lady - and she was quite, what shall I say, way off in some areas.

She said, “Brother Beuttler, do you know that you’re not Pentecostal.”

I said, “Well, I thought I was.  But why do you think I’m not?”

She said, “I’ve never seen you cast out any devil.”

I answered, “Out of whom do you think we should cast one?”

She said, “I don’t know.”

That’s cookoo!  The truth is, if I had tried to start on anyone, she would have been my first object.  And I have reasons for saying that.

Gifts are tools, not toys.  You know that Paul said, “Covet earnestly the best gifts.”  You see, we should be interested in these things.  These things trouble me.  They trouble me because of the trend in the US among God’s people, which is away from the gifts of the Spirit, a swing from the things of the Spirit to the things of the intellect, which has the effect of more and more, not only despising, but gradually displacing the gifts of the Spirit with the natural gifts of man, particularly gifts of the intellect.  That is, of course, a great tragedy.  Paul said as you know, “Covet earnestly the best gifts.”

We should be interested, and not only interested, but we should jealously seek the Lord, that we might be used by the Spirit of God in the gifts of the Spirit, as the need demands it.  If there is no need, then there is, of course, no demand.  The Lord is not encouraging that we make an empty display of this.  They are there to meet a particular need.  If there is no need, then there is no need for their exercise.  That would be folly.

That raises a question: What are the best gifts?  Since Paul said, “Covet earnestly the best gifts,” what are the best gifts?  I have noticed that theologians, or would be theologians, as the case may be, have argued over this for centuries.  Some say prophecy is the best gift; others say the word of wisdom is the best gift.  Well now, look here, Paul did not say, “Covet earnestly the best gift.”  He said, “Covet earnestly the best gifts.”  It’s plural.

Now what are the best gifts?  I’ll give you tonight my position for your consideration.  On the other hand, is it my fault if I’m right? (Laughter).  Give what I have to say some thought.

Some years ago I was in Algiers, Algeria.  It was called to my attention what was written in the newspaper.  It was in French.  My interpreter called my attention to it and told me what it said.

I studied French, but I’m very rusty with it.  I know practically nothing anymore.  That’s long, long ago.  I hated French classes.  I would rather go swimming.  Mother and I had more than one argument, “Did you do your French compositions?”

“No Mom, I want to go swimming,” I answered.

“First comes the compositions,” she said.

“I can compose better after I’ve had a swim.”  But she knew I wouldn’t get home.

This is what happened.  You know, at least some of you know, that it’s possible to cross the Sahara Desert at certain times of the year by car, but it’s always a risk under the best of circumstances.  At that time, the French were still in control of Algeria and they had very rigid rules concerning anyone driving across the Sahara.  Their car had to meet certain specifications.  They had to have a certain amount of gallons of oil, water, emergency equipment and other provisions and what have you or they wouldn’t be allowed to go.

These Britishers (can’t remember how many, but more than one) did not receive permission from the authorities because it was too late in the season.  It was the time of the sandstorms that would erase the tracks through the desert.  They were not allowed to go, but they wanted to go anyway, and they went.

It was known when they went, but somehow they did not show up down south at the Niger River.  Then the case was reported to the authorities.  They sent out a rescue party, and found that these Englishmen had lost the way.  Both were lying dead next to their car.

They looked the situation over and found that the men had died from thirst.  They discovered there was no water in the radiator of the car, so it was thought the men drank the water from the radiator.  That was a logical assumption.  When they examined the men later, they found that they had oil in their stomachs.  They also found that there was no oil in the crankcase.  The confusion was that these men took the oil from their crankcase being crazed with thirst and drunk it.  What the thirst didn’t do, the oil did.  There they were dead with oil in their stomachs.

Now then, what do you suppose would have been the best gift for those men?  Supposing you had come with a brick of gold and said, “Fellows, look at this gold. Here is a gift for you.”  Or, if you prefer: “Here we have a barrel of water.”  What would have been the greatest gift, the best gift for these men, the gold or the water?  As you can see yourself, you could have offered them a ton of gold.  They would have despised that gold.  They would have taken the barrel of water.  It was not a matter of intrinsic relative value.  It was a matter of whatever met their need at a given time.  As far as I’m concerned, so it is with the gifts.

“Covet earnestly the best gifts.”  What gifts?  Those gifts for which there is the greatest need at a given time, so that the best gifts today is not necessarily the best gifts six months from now.  It depends altogether on the need.  Again I say, “Is it my fault if my logic is correct?” (Laughter)  That’s my position.

Now then, I would like to break this thing down for you.  We’ll see how far we can get tonight, but I’m not keeping you too late.  You know there are limits to our endurance, and to our ability to absorb.

We have these gifts divided into three areas.  We have needs in the area of our spirit.  We have needs in the area of our soul, to which belongs the intellect.  We have needs in the area of the physical.  My position is that the greatest gifts, or the best gifts, are those which meet our particular need in any of these areas where the need is the greatest at a given time.

For the need of our spirit, we have what are called gifts of inspiration because they inspire us.  For the needs in the soul, including the intellect, we have what is known as gifts of revelation.  For the area of the physical, we have what is known as gifts of power.

I notice that some of you are making notes so I’m breaking that down further for you because we may not cover all, and I cannot be sure we’ll get back to this.  So I’ll give you, at least, the breakdown.

Under gifts of inspiration we have prophecy, tongues and the interpretation of tongues.  We’ll get into that.  Under gifts of inspiration that meet our need more particularly in the realm of the spirit where they inspire us you have prophecy, divers kinds of tongues, you have the interpretation of tongues.

In the realm of the soul to which belongs the intellect, the gifts of revelation, you have the word of wisdom, the word of knowledge and discerning of spirits.  I hope to get this far tonight.  I do not know whether I can.  We started a bit later than I had figured on.

In the realm of the material, gifts of power, you have faith, the working of miracles and gifts of healing.  Now we’ll come back to the first.  Here I’m going to use a scripture in I Corinthians.

“If therefore the whole church be come together into one place, and all speak with tongues, and there come in those that are unlearned, or unbelievers, will they not say that ye are mad (or crazy or cookoo)?  But if all prophesy, and there come in one that believeth not, or one unlearned, he is convinced of all, he is judged of all: And thus are the secrets of his heart made manifest; and so falling down on his face he will worship God, and report that God is in you of a truth.”  I Corinthians 14:23-25

Now prophecy, simply put, is supernatural utterance in a known tongue, a supernatural utterance given by the Spirit in the language of the speaker, and normally in the language of the hearers.  It is just as inspired as tongues and interpretation, but it avoids this duel process and brings the message of God directly to our hearts.

Notice that Paul is saying, “Thus are the secrets of his heart made manifest.”  There are many hearts with many secrets, and the Lord comes along with His word through an utterance in prophecy which directly applies to us personally, directly meets the specific condition in our hearts at a given time - something that no person may know about.

I went to Bible school in 1927.  I told you that.  I was new in this thing.  I knew God wanted me there, and then I met with what I thought was a great misfortune.  The school had a matron, and the matron put me on the duty of washing dishes.  Of all things: washing dishes!  I didn’t like to wash dishes.  I didn’t believe in it.  Oh, I like to eat on clean dishes, but I didn’t believe that I should be the one to make them clean.

I told the matron, “Miss Sunder, I’m not washing dishes.”

She said, “What!”

I repeated, “I’m not washing dishes.”

She said, “How is that?”

I answered, “I’m a German.”

“What’s that got to do with it?”

“German men don’t wash dishes.  That’s a woman’s job.  They don’t wash dishes anymore than they would shine their shoes.  That’s the wife’s job, or the daughters of the house, not the man.  I’m not washing dishes.  That’s an insult to my manhood, to my dignity.”

Ooh! You should have seen her eyes.  She said, “Walter, you’re going to wash dishes until you like it.”

Well, I could read her face.  What I saw made me say within myself, “I think I would be well advised not to say anymore.”  So I didn’t, but I could think what I liked.  That’s what I did.  What did I think?  “Like fun, I will wash dishes!”  I was angry.  I stamped back to my room and said to myself, “If I’m in a Bible school that believes men should wash dishes, I’m in the wrong school.  And if I’m in a religion that believes men should wash dishes, I’m in the wrong religion, and I’m going to quit both the school and Pentecost.”  I was angry like a real German blowing his top.

Incidentally, I have changed.  Ask Wife back there.  Bible school does a lot of things for you that you didn’t figure on.

I packed my cases and walked out of the school in a huff.  I was through with Pentecost, once and for all.  I meant it.  But I knew in a certain city nearby there was going on what they called an All-Day Meeting, the last Friday of the month.  This was the last Friday.  I’m a little sentimentalist in many ways, and I thought, “I’ll go once more to a Pentecostal meeting, my last one, just by way of sort of saying, goodbye.”  So I went.

My suitcases stood out in the hall.  The church was in a house, a small group.  I sat in front of the preacher in the third row, rebellious in my heart.  “But after this meeting, I’ll pack my cases and I’ll go.”  Where to I didn’t know, but I wanted to go.

That man came out with an utterance of the Spirit that cut me to the heart.  You’ve never heard anything like it.  I didn’t in all these years.  Nobody knew a thing about the condition I was in.  This pastor was a very nice, smooth, very kind Englishman, fine man.  I never heard him rough anybody up.  He always was so congenial, not this time.

I heard him thunder in the Spirit, “Rebellious man!”  And he shouted on top of his voice, “Rebellious man!”  And the Lord cut me.  In fact, I slumped down between the seats.  It was as though a knife had pierced me, and that man came out with my rebelliousness against the will of the Lord.  And then he added, “Submit thyself unto the mighty hand of God,” and I realized for the first time that the matron’s hand was the hand of God on me - and a woman’s hand at that!  A woman’s hand was God’s hand!  Whew!  That was hard for a German to swallow.

The tone changed and he said, “And then the Lord will do thus and so.”  There was a wonderful promise what God would do if I would submit myself and return to the will of the Lord.  I knew what it meant, “Go back to Bible school.”

“Thus shall the secret of his heart be made manifest.”  God manifested to me the reality of my rebellious spirit, my great need of submission.

I stayed for the evening service.  After the service, I went back to school, but I got there after 10:00.  At 10:00 o’clock they lock the doors.  The matron’s apartment was right next to the door.  She would be the first to open the door.  Of all people, she was the last one I wanted to see, so I stood there wondering what to do.

I wondered what I should say.  I could hear her already, “Well young man, and where do you come from?  Come right in my room.  I have some questions to ask you.”  I could hear her already, and I was a little scared, really.

I thought, “I’m going to try the door.”  Hallelujah, Glory!  The door wasn’t locked.  Somebody forgot to lock it, or didn’t lock it.  I went in stealthily up to my room No. 11, put my things back in the dresser, went to bed, got up, showed up in the kitchen the next morning - washing dishes.

A strange thing happened here.  I do not understand it.  Nobody asked me where I was.  I was gone all day. Nobody asked.  The teachers didn’t say, “Why weren’t you in class?”  I do not understand it.  The matron didn’t say, “Why didn’t you wash dishes yesterday?”  Nobody said a word about my absence.  I’m puzzled, but I was smart enough not to ask any questions.  So I thought, “Well, I didn’t say goodbye, why say hello, and give myself away.”

I washed dishes for four more weeks.  The matron came and said, “Walter, I’m now changing your duty.  You have washed dishes long enough.”

I said, “Miss Sunder, don’t change my duty.  I like to wash dishes.”  She was right.

She had said, “You’ll wash dishes until you like them.”  But it took a prophetic utterance in the Holy Ghost to expose my awesome rebelliousness to myself and bring me back into the center of the will of God.  “Thus are the secrets of his heart made manifest; and so falling down on his face he will worship God, and report that God is in you of a truth.”

No wonder Paul said, “Ye may all prophesy one by one.”  From all appearance, prophecy is the one gift that should be more in exercise than any other.  Why would he say, “Ye may all prophesy one by one?”  Now there is another side to this coin, “Let the prophets speak two or three, let the other judge,” but we’re not going into that area tonight.  The purpose tonight is to give us an insight into the nature of these manifestations of the Spirit, so when the Lord wants to use us, we know what it’s all about, and we can cooperate with Him.  We’re not going into divers kinds of difficulties that go along with these things simply because humans are humans.

You know as a young fellow in the Lord, quite newly saved, I had a hobby.  My hobby was turtles, little green turtles.  I suppose you have them in New Zealand.  I thought they were the cutest things that God ever made.  I had never seen them in Germany.  In New York or thereabouts, you could get them for a dime a piece.  I had them in an aquarium.  You know those things so captivated me; they so captivated me that they interfered with my devotions.  Can you beat that?  Turtles interfered with my devotions.  (Now this is foolish, but we’re capable of it.)

I had read that you have to let them exercise or their legs would swell.  So while I had my prayers, I took them out of the aquarium and let them walk on the floor.  I could hear them while they were walking.  I didn’t hear them walk, and decided I must look for them somewhere.  I’d find them stuck under the bed, or someplace where they crawled and couldn’t get out.  So I had to crawl over, under and get them out, and let them walk the other way, and go back to my prayers.  Isn’t that silly?  And the Lord wouldn’t put up with that kind of stuff, and you can’t blame Him.  I don’t.

Finally the Lord dealt with me, severely in the Spirit, to get rid of these things.  So I got rid of the turtles, but the aquarium (which cost a few dollars) I did not get rid of.  I put it up on the shelf in my closet just in case I wanted to change my mind.  Then I’d already have the aquarium, and the turtles you get at Woolworth’s for a dime.  So I had this all nicely fixed, and the Lord took notice.

That evening I went to church, and this same pastor, Swift, a great man of God was speaking that night giving a Bible study.  I owe him a lot in my own ministry.  In his study, his teaching, he came to a place and he said, “Now then, when God asks you to get rid of something, get rid of it, don’t put it up on a shelf.”  I was dumbfounded.  I knew right away.  “Thus are the secrets of his heart made manifest.” 

God got to my heart, and I said to Brother Swift after the service, “Brother Swift, what made you say that?”

He said, “I don’t know.  It just came along and I said it.”

Well, I didn’t tell him what was up, but I knew what was up: I had to get rid of that aquarium.

Friends, there are so many needs, as I’ve told you, in so many lives that demand the manifestation of the Spirit through the word of prophecy to touch the innermost need and rectify the condition there.  There’s a tremendous need for that kind of a manifestation.

We have in the same list of the gifts of inspiration, divers kinds of tongues.  Here I also want to read I Corinthians 14:21-22:

“In the law it is written, With men of other tongues and other lips will I speak unto this people; and yet for all this will they not hear me, saith the Lord.  Wherefore tongues are for a sign, not to them that believe, but to them that believe not; but prophesying serveth not for them that believe not, but for them which believe.”  I Corinthians 14:21-22

Will you believe when I tell you that there is such a thing as unbelieving believers?  There is such a thing as unbelieving believers!  Well, all believers believe in Christ or they wouldn’t be believers, but not all believers believe what is spoken from the pulpit.  Now there may be times when it’s better we don’t believe, but that’s something else again.  There are many times when God is sending to us His pure word, His message to our hearts, and yet some in the audience will not believe.

I have mentioned incidents, experiences, just as faithfully correct as I know how, yet there were people in the congregation who simply would not believe.  On many of an occasion, God sent along an utterance in other tongues with the interpretation in confirmation of what has been said to cause the unbelieving believer to accept the spoken word, which God brings to them in His Spirit.

So this tongues, among other things, is a sign to those believers who don’t believe.  God is verifying the truth when it’s accompanied with interpretation.  Many a times, the interpretation has convinced the person that the things spoken are true.

I gave you a case last night with that kenosis when the Spirit came along through tongues and interpretation.  The interpretation being, “Behold, the things which thou hast heard are true, and I, the Lord, bear witness to the truth.”

Through this duel gift, God is often getting across the acceptance by His people of the truth He sends.  Tongues and interpretation together are equal to prophecy.  Now we do have tongues and interpretation that serve a purpose which prophecy does not, and it is this: The believers who have spiritual discernment readily accept a prophetic utterance, but there are others who would not accept that utterance if it did not come through the sign gift of tongues accompanied by interpretation.  They will accept it through the duel witness of tongues and interpretation, while they would not accept it by the single witness of prophecy.  So tongues are for a sign to those unbelieving believers who will only believe when the Spirit of God comes along through the twin gift of tongues and interpretation.

Now there is something in I Corinthians 14:14-16, which I would like to mention yet.  There is something here, which to me through the years has been a choice truth.

“For if I pray in an unknown tongue, my spirit prayeth, but my understanding is unfruitful.

What is it then?  I will pray with the spirit, and I will pray with the understanding also: I will sing with the spirit, and I will sing with the understanding also.  Else when thou shalt bless with the spirit, how shall he that occupieth the room of the unlearned say amen at thy giving of thanks, seeing he understandeth not what thou sayest?”  I Corinthians 14:14-16

Now here Paul, when he speaks about speaking with tongues and understanding, is talking about the interpretation of tongues.  Now he says, “If I pray in an unknown tongue my spirit prayeth, but my understanding doesn’t know what it’s all about.  What is it then?  I will pray with the spirit, I will pray with the understanding also.  Else when thou shalt bless with the spirit, how shall he that occupieth the room of the unlearned say amen?”  The unlearned are the untaught.

Now this is what we have. There is such a thing as the Holy Spirit giving to someone a prayer in other tongues.  All prayers in other tongues, I would say most of them, are not intended for interpretation.  They’re simply praying to God.  But there are, on occasion, prayers given by the Spirit in other tongues for the purpose of their being interpreted so that the whole congregation can say amen to the substance and the intent of that prayer.

I was in class one year in the school and in the last row there was a girl sitting, and I happened to look at the class and saw her throw up both hands giving an obviously beautiful prayer in other tongues.  Oh, it was an electrifying prayer.  I didn’t understand it, nobody could, but you could sense the earnestness and the richness of that prayer.  I still see her face, and this must be now 25 years ago.  I still see her with the glow of the Spirit on her face.  And she prayed, hands up.

A boy next to her interpreted, and the interpretation started out like this: (I do not remember the prayer, only the beginning.) “As the hart pants after the water brooks, so pants my soul after thee, Oh God.”  Then it went on.  It was a prayer of hungering and thirsting after the living God.  It was a tremendous prayer.

Do you know what?  The Spirit, by means of the interpretation, deposited that prayer in our hearts.  When he was finished with the interpretation, hands were up all over that class crying out earnestly for God to meet them.  What a seeking of the Lord!  “As the hart pants after the water brooks, so pants my soul after thee, Oh God.”  The Spirit put that prayer in the hearts of the whole class.  It became the prayer of the class in the rich time of seeking the face of the Lord.  It was a case of praying in tongues and praying with the understanding also.

Then you have here, I’m going to close after this, I can sense that you’ve had enough.  Then in the same verse it says, “I will sing with the spirit, and I will sing with the understanding also.”  I have seen this too often not to believe what I’m telling you here, namely that there is such a thing as singing in the Spirit in other tongues, and to have that song interpreted, at times also by singing the interpretation.  We’ve had that time and time, and time again in our school in the earlier years when the Spirit of God still had the preeminence, a marvelous thing.

I have been in, that is to say, I was there when the Spirit gave on several occasions, an operetta in the Holy Ghost.  Oh!  What the Spirit of God can do!  I mean operettas where perhaps 12 and 15 people were involved in singing in other tongues and singing the interpretations.  It was tremendous, and it went on for a long time.  What was it?  “I will sing with the spirit, and I will sing with the understanding also.”

We had a girl in school.  How shall I describe her?  She was short, tubby (or what would you say?) heavy (that’s kinder isn’t it?).  She was the type of girl who was just bla.  Do you know what I mean by bla?  She had no girlfriends.  She had no boyfriends.  She had a dull, dead personality.  She didn’t have anything.  She was to be pitied.  She was a good girl, but she just didn’t have anything.

One day she came to my office crying.  You know those kids come and cry on your shoulder with their problems, figuratively speaking.  And she cried, “Brother Beuttler, I need your help.”

I asked, “Well, what’s the problem?”

“I have no friends.  I never get asked on a date with a fellow.  The other girls go out on a date and I have to stay in.  Brother Beuttler, what’s wrong with me?”

Well I knew what was wrong with her, but I couldn’t tell her.  She just didn’t have it. (Laughter)  I couldn’t do anything for her.  She had a dull, dead personality.  She had no personality.  She was a person, but there was nothing winsome about her.  She simply was a plain dud.  What can you do with a dud?

Finally not knowing what to say, I said it, “Well, I’ll tell you.”

Oh, I forgot.  She said, “You know, Brother Beuttler, nobody ever even takes notice of me.”

I said, “Oh, the Lord will take notice of you.”  Which is true, but I didn’t know what else to say.  With that she left.  All right.

A few days later we were in chapel.  I was sitting in the back, and there was a presence in that chapel.  You could tell something was up.  There was a heavy presence of the Spirit.  So I prayed with one eye shut, but I watched with the other eye open, (laughter) watching and praying.  I wanted to see what was going to go on.  You could sense that something was up, so I was there praying halfway, and watching with the other half.

Over there on the girl’s side, who gets up but this very same girl - tubby, short, thick, clumsy.  She walked up quietly without saying a word and went to the front of the platform, and believe it or not, that girl danced in the Spirit.

Now when I lived in New York City before I was saved, I used to go to the theaters, and I watched these ballet dancers up there dancing on their toes.  I can only tell you that this heavy, soggy looking girl (and I say this kindly) danced in the Spirit on her toes.  That girl danced as though she had no weight and I was astonished.  Did she dance in the Spirit!

Her hands went like this, that reminds me of Tahiti, and she went around worshipping the Lord, singing in other tongues, turning around, worshipping the Lord, spinning on her toes.  I wondered if the girl touched the ground.  She seemed weightless.  I was dumbfounded.

Another girl walked up and joined her.  She danced too and sang in tongues.  Another girl went up. Fellows went up, and to make a three-hour and a quarter story short, the Holy Spirit gave us an operetta, a pageant, if you please - not an operetta, but a pageant with operatic singing in tongues and interpretation.

These 12 or 15 students, whatever they were, acted out in the Spirit, the death and resurrection of Christ, and the thing gave you an insight into the crucifixion such as I have never known.  The crucifixion was described in minute detail.  Oh!  It was terrific!

For instance: I had always seen pictures where a ladder went up to the cross and they nailed Jesus up there on the cross.  That isn’t the way this came.  They related in the Spirit how the Romans laid the cross flat on the ground.  I never knew that.  How they placed Him with His back on the cross, and He lay there on the cross on the ground, how they drove in the nails, and then there was this that I’ll never forget.  They portrayed how they lifted up His cross, with Jesus hanging on it, and then dropped the cross with a thud into a hole in the ground that had been dug.  Now you could picture the awful agony of Christ as they dropped the cross with a thud into the ground (banged on wood), how the hands would pull at the nails.  His awful agony was described.  It was tremendous, tongues and interpretation.  And at the end, the glory of God fell as they pictured the resurrection.

What God is able to do by His Spirit most of us have never seen, leave alone heard; or heard, leave alone seen.  We’ve had movings of the Spirit of God in our school, manifestation and works of the Holy Ghost that would almost strain your credulity, but I was there.

Here we have the Holy Ghost equipment to meet our inner most needs in the realm of our spirit, “For to one is given prophecy, to another tongues, to another interpretation of tongues...all these worketh that one and the selfsame Spirit dividing to every man severally as he will.”

May the Lord divide, allocate His wondrous gifts of the Holy Ghost for the edifying of the body of Jesus Christ in New Zealand.  How about it?  That’s at least a beginning.  I do not know whether I’ll continue with this or not.  We’ll see on Sunday.

All right, my brother, that’s it for tonight.