My GE Profile Prodigy will pause during a wash cycle and will resume only when I push the START button. This may happen several times within one wash cycle. It will continue with the wash for a while and then stop again until I push the START button.
Check your lid switch, but transmission failures and timer failures are the leading cause behind GE washers getting hauled out to the trash, even fairly new just out of warranty ones. This sounds like probably a timer problem.
First thing you might want to do is turn the washer on, and ask for a cold water wash. If the cold water does not come out, then in the rince cycle, which is cold water, the control will pause. The door switch is a good suggestion, and it also is possible that you have a resister going in the control board. They are not to expensive for a control board. Tom ApplianceEducator.com
GE Prodigy Pause problem 
