Holy spirit in action? Board Meeting.

The regular meeting of the leadership group, the Board of Ministries (BoM), held an eventful session recently in order to balance the 2013 budget in the face of rising utilities and health insurance costs, despite fixed income sources and expanded programming initiatives. As well there had been financial mismanagement that had been discovered earlier and was now to be given final settlement.

So the session began with a prayer, including a reading of James 3 in which 'wisdom' is defined and the dangers of a spiteful tongue or careless remark are spotlighted.

Here were a dozen or so well educated and active, responsible members of the business and professional community coming together in a voluntary association to conduct the church's business. Things proceeded amicably, but with deliberateness and little levity. QUESTION: with or without any empirical presence of the Comforter, the Holy Ghost, the session unfolded. So is the mere supposition of this guiding spirit enough to produce the same outcome, regardless of the actual presence of same?

Expanding on this suppositional view, is the assumption of Good and Righteousness functionally the same as actually having those active forces in our hearts/minds? Can a community of believers by dint of their strong will to bring Thy Kingdom Come into the world enough to actually cause it to become so? And do the daily ranks of Tibetan Monks praying for world peace, therefore, perforce, tip things in that direction through sheer force of will/intention?