God’s Will
The following is from the book Steps to Personal Revival by Helmut Haubell .
We have a worldwide democratic structure in the church. But it was never thought of as popular democracy. The real goal of our votes is that everyone personally listens to God’s voice and casts his vote accordingly. By listening to God’s voice it makes God’s will known through the vote. We certainly pray before taking part in any board meetings. Often the opportunity is given before a vote is cast for personal prayer so that it becomes clear to each person how God wants them to vote. Nehemiah said: “Then my God put it into my heart …” (Neh. 7:5) and E.G. White said about Nehemiah chapter 1: “And as he prayed, a holy purpose had been forming in his mind…”
Here is an experience that happened on October 23, 2014: The mission centre “Country Life Institute Austria” in Carinthia, Austria was faced with a decision: Should we build an addition or not? There were a lot of things for it and against it. The crucial question was: What is God’s will in the matter? We didn’t discuss the pros and cons anymore, but rather prayed for ten days that the Lord would prepare us to hear His voice and that He would give us His answer at a prayer meeting on October 23 if we should build the addition or not.
The prayer meeting took place with more than 20 participants. After fellow-shipping in prayer each person asked God in silence to tell him if they should build or not. The personal answers from God were shared with the group as follows: on a piece of paper they should write “+” when they should build, they should write “–“ when they shouldn’t build, they should write “0” when they had no answer and they should write a “?” together with the other symbol when they were unsure of the answer. The result was a sign of God’s wonderful leading: There were 14 “+” (4 of these with “+?”), 6 “0” and 4 blank pieces of paper. (There were also 2 answers, which were unclear and not counted. Thus God’s leading was very clear that we should build. I am convinced that we will directly seek God’s counsel more and more in the last days.
Joel 2:28-29 indicates this. E.G. White comments: “We must individually hear Him speaking to the heart. When every other voice is hushed, and in quietness we wait before Him, the silence of the soul makes more distinct the voice of God. He ids us, ‘Be still, and know that I am God’.” Psalm 46:10