(“Waiting On God” meetings were three-day sessions conducted by Rev. Loran W. Helm. He allowed the Holy Spirit to lead these meetings based on what he had learned during 19 years of relative seclusion which molded him into one of God’s choicest vessels for the Great Awakening.)

In June of 1973 at the age of 18, I touched the beauty of holiness. It was in a Holiday Inn hotel in Indianapolis, Indiana. We were waiting on God. I discovered that I could walk with God like people in the Bible if I wanted to. I was never the same after that. I went back home to Lincoln, Nebraska with a new awareness of the uncontrollable goodness of God. Working at a little truck stop as a busboy that summer, I remember thinking: “At any moment, God could break right in here and do something wonderful!” God became so delightful, so wonderful, so exciting. I still expect Him to do something wonderful, something surprising and something loving at any time He chooses. That is the kind of God He is. That is the way He operates.

What was it about those meetings that made such a difference in my life? I know part of it was encountering the servant of the Lord, Rev. Helm, and how God used him with such love and such joy. And I know it was meeting with some of the most wonderful people in the world. Oh, there was such rejoicing and worshipping of God! But most of all, it was God Himself. The Lord God of the Bible was there! I read about Him all my life in the Bible and now that same God was in the room with me!

I remember one time when the Holy Spirit led for congregational singing. Rev. Helm prayed: “Lord, is it in the red hymnal or the black? Oh! It’s in the black hymnal! Is it in the first hundred, second hundred…it’s in the second hundred!” Then he prayed over which ten the song was in and so forth until he reached the specific number of the hymn. I had never been in anything like this in my life. My mind was thinking: “If what looks like just happened really happened, then the great big God of the whole universe just told that man something. That means He must be here. The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the God of the Bible is in this room.” I know God is everywhere, but He was present in some special way. I looked from side to side in case I could see Him.

Later in those meetings, the Lord had Rev. Helm pray for healing of someone in the knee. It wasn’t long and up popped 10-year-old Esther Schultze grinning from ear to ear saying: “That was me!” She had suffered some pretty sharp pain in her knee and the Lord took it out of her. Brother Helm had her come up to the platform. I can still remember her walking back and forth just so happy that the Lord had touched her. Now God had touched someone I knew, not just someone I had never seen before.

Then, sometime later, the Lord showed Rev. Helm about a need in the calf of the leg. And he probably prayed something like this: “And in the name of Jesus of Nazareth, be healed; be whole; be well. Jesus of Nazareth healeth thee.” It wasn’t long until Rev. Schultze stood up. They handed him a microphone and he announced: “When you prayed for someone who had trouble in the calf of the leg, that was me.” And he went on to explain how his veins had been damaged standing in that boxcar for so long while escaping the Russians during World War II. When Rev. Helm prayed, he felt warmth flow through the afflicted area of his leg and healing coming into him.

I looked at him. I thought: “No bells, no flashing lights, I didn’t see anything happen.” But there he was sitting right next to me and God touched him. Now that is getting close. I mean, right next to me, God touched and healed my pastor, another person I knew. The sermons and messages were strong: obedience, self denial, taking up your cross, trusting the Lord, waiting on God. And I remember we sang: “Humble Thyself to Walk With God,” and “Keep Thyself Pure Christ’s Soldier Hear!” The Waiting on God ended, but God wasn’t finished. I traveled with the Schultze’s to a farm near Grabill, Indiana. Then Rev. Helm called. The Lord was leading him to visit us.

I had just graduated from high school and was scheduled to enter the University of Nebraska with a physics major and astronomy option. But I hadn’t felt right about it for some time. So, while mowing the lawn that morning, I prayed something like this: “Lord I don’t know for sure what I am to do with my life, and I don’t know how to hear You very well. But I met a man who does. So if You will tell him and have him tell me, then I will trust You that what he tells me is from You.” And then I promptly forgot that I prayed that prayer.

Rev. Helm and Jon Cullum came. Brother Helm was shouting and having fellowship with Rev. Schultze. I was enjoying it and was mostly quiet. When they were about to leave, Rev. Helm hugged me. I had an inner vision. I saw Rev. Helm’s heart, spiritually speaking. In fact, I was traveling through it. It was about a half mile wide. It was as if there was nothing there. What I mean by that is no carnality. I was astonished at the level of purity. I knew that it had not always been like that for he had indicated that the Holy Spirit had to cleanse him of sinful traits. But this cleansing work of Jesus was so thorough that it was as if there was nothing to hinder.

Then I saw my heart. It was full of twists, and thorns, and darkness. Then Rev. Helm began to pray: “Oh Lord, break the bonds; break the chains that are holding his personality.” God had come full circle to me. At the Waiting, God had spoken to Rev. Helm, a stranger. And then He healed Esther and Pastor Schultze sitting right next to me. Now God was talking about me! Me! I was still crying on Rev. Helm’s shoulder, but at the same time I was saying to myself: “This is really great!” Then, all of a sudden, Rev. Helm said: “He is going to be an evangelist, the third calling of the church of Jesus Christ” (Eph. 4:11). As soon as he said that, it clicked inside of me. In fact, I said softly: “I knew it. I knew it.” I didn’t know it before, but I knew it then and I still do. I left there a changed 18-year-old.

What made this happen? What can make things like this happen today? Is God still revealed in wonder and delight? Was it just because Rev. Helm was around? Can it ever be like that again for us and for later generations? What happened to me was not just because of Rev. Helm, it was because of God. The answer to these questions is in the very name of the meeting I attended at the Holiday Inn: WAITING ON GOD. God was allowed to work because Rev. Helm and other people were WAITING ON GOD. Since ancient times no one has heard, no ear has perceived, no eye has seen any God besides you, who acts on behalf of those who wait for him (Is. 64:4 NIV). Waiting on God is the big gun of the kingdom of God. This verse says that God acts ON BEHALF of those who wait for him.

Let us do a little Bible study. The word “wait” is from the Hebrew word “qavah,” which means “to bind together by twisting.” (Think about sticking two wires into a wire nut and turning the nut. The two wires are twisted together so that essentially they are one wire.) This speaks of being joined to God in such a way that His desires are your desires; you become attentive to His vision and interests, and you start acting only when He acts and moving only when He moves. His life becomes your life. It is being so intertwined with God that when He rests, you rest and when He works, you work.

Waiting on God is coming before God without any personal agenda. You are waiting on God. We know that there are times when God wants you to come to Him and ask Him to do things for you. But there are also times when you are to come before Him and just be quiet. Sometimes you have prayed all that you know to pray, you have tried to do all that you know to do, you have read all the verses of Scripture that you need to read and the change you are seeking still does not happen. If you talk to God about it or try to do something, it is just a repeat that did not work. So you get quiet and just wait. There are no demands, you just wait. No talking, just waiting. If your mind wanders, you do not beat yourself over it. You just praise the Lord and bring your mind back to quietness. If it wanders over and over, you bring it back each time. If your time is up and nothing seems to have happened, it is alright. You tell God, “I will be back.” Then you return at another time to wait some more.

Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth (Ps. 46:10 NIV). Look at what it says. If you will be quiet, you will know God and He will be exalted in the earth. Now this quietness is not just to stop talking, but to be quiet in your heart. We can be quiet with our mouths, but our minds are racing. If we are worried or fearful, our hearts are noisy. If somebody is really bothering us, our hearts are noisy. If we are consumed with what we want and what we think ought to happen, our hearts are noisy. Waiting on God is to come before Him and begin to quiet your heart. You are not asking Him anything; you are not even requiring that anything should happen. You are just waiting. You are listening.

Here is some advice from Rev. Helm’s book, A Voice in the Wilderness: “We then begin to let God work through us by waiting upon Him. Set aside a time each day, preferably before you begin your day’s activities, to be alone with God. It may be fifteen minutes in duration; it could be one hour or more. Simply talk to God from your heart. Tell Him how you love Him. Read some scripture and meditate on it. Especially be attentive to the promptings of the Holy Spirit while you are waiting and listening” (Pg. 171). But those who hope in the Lord [who wait upon him] will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint (Is. 40:31 NIV Emphasis added). If you get quiet before the Lord, He will strengthen you. The Lord is good to those whose hope is in him [the one who waits upon him], to the one who seeks him (Lam. 3:25 NIV).

God reveals His goodness to the waiting heart. Waiting on God strengthens us, brings the goodness of God to us, allows God to purify us, and opens the door for the Holy Spirit to help us in our weakness by interceding for us and working all things together for good. I have experienced these Scriptures as well as others while waiting on God, not only with Rev. Helm and the saints at various meetings, but also personally since those days.

I am a life that was changed.