Corrupt Leaders offer False Peace and Superficial Healing

Years ago I dreamed this, and I had no idea what it meant when I woke, and was not even sure if I should journal it, it seemed so “crazy.” Yet, it turned out to be one of my most unforgettable dreams from God and a theme for our time, which is failed leadership; or rather more clearly to the point, the world suffers greatly from the lack of servant leaders, devoted selflessly to help the people they lead:

My brother was driving with me across a high mountain pass and road, and it was darkest night. We drove in our station wagon, about 1960’s looking, until getting to a dangerous place, we stopped. The road was perilously thin having also no railing or margin. The dropoff was deadly and immediate. It reminded me of the most dangerous roads I have ever heard about, like the road in Peru that kills people almost daily, or the road along the top of Glacier National Park in the U.S.A. Most of us have one road in mind and imagine that. 

We attempted to round a very sharp, almost 90 degree turn, but our lights shone across the atmosphere a thousand feet above the mountain floor into nothingness and we could not see around the bend that must be negoitated to get to our destination. 

The lights brushed a little the valley we wanted. It had grass six to eight feet high and occasional signs of ancient ruins under the grass, but was basically virgin and uninhabited for modern times. It was massive.

Thus, stuck in a dangerous bend we backed up and realized we did not have the right vehicle for the road at that time. We eventually turned around on this dirt road and went until we found a camp site-this was very surprising as this was all wilderness. In the camp were 0thers and they “befriended” us. I noticed my brother was a “target” of these three particular people who took an interest in us: 1) a woman dressed in what vaguely seemed gypsy dress, a man dressed as a 1960’s hippie holding up a peace sign with his fingers, and a woman who just spoke of evil when my brother was not around. They thought I was asleep, but I could hear them, “Let’s see how we can lead this man into to evil,” they conspired together, but all along they seemed NOT to be who they were but just “nice” people.

The gypsy wanted to use fortune telling and divination, the other woman was boiling things in a big pot and was using witchcraft, and the hippie was telling us with his fingers “peace” but speaking of evil with the women-deceit was the scene. They appeared to have our best interests at heart but had only their own agenda, and it was evil. 

I hated hearing this and could not sleep, so I toured the campsite. First I found  a cave that really represented an ancient quarry. Through some cuts of rock removed in ancient times I could see the valley below, a window as it were. It was gorgeous-proverbial “green pasture” and verdant valley of a person’s dreams hundreds of feet below. Again, signs of ancients inhabiting the valley and the mountain were in this cave-like structure and seen from it. The main cut of rock I recognized was the shape of a Keystone. This caught my attention as it was upside down from the shape of a normal arch support stone at the top of any Roman style arch-the old early gothic rounded arches.

I tried now to go to sleep again, but the only place available was at the back feet of five horses. I felt unsafe. Any of them could kick and were big enough to kill me with a kick. So, I moved to each different animal until I was walking past the last one, and was really afraid even to walk so close behind. I stared at the last one, the largest, and felt something strange about it. Then I saw it had a bullseye on it and suddenly I started laughing as I heard a voice say, “This is not a horse, it is a jackass!” The dream ended here. 

I asked God at 5:00 AM what this dream meant if anything. Not much came, so I got my Bible out and just flipped it open to get ready for some meditation. It opened up to Jeremiah, so I started reading it feeling some leading from the Spirit. In Chapter 6, my heart stopped.

“For from the least to the greatest of them, everyone is greedy for unjust gain;and from prophet to priest,everyone deals falsely. They have healed the wound of my people lightly (superficially, not deep enough), saying, ‘Peace, peace,’ when there is no peace.” Jer. 6:12b-14

I felt the heart of God suddenly about leadership. God gives leaders authority and power to do what Isaiah 61 says, “Preach the gospel to the poor and bind back together the broken hearts.”

But the dream showed me why at times and in certain places I am uncomfortable and should be. The leaders are involved in ungodly and even thoroughly unholy things and are leading people astray. God hates this. Yet it is shrouded and covered up offered as godly advice and everything needed. It is not God’s way.  People go to some leaders for help and are told they are fine. Just memorize this verse, or change what you are doing in this area and you will be fine. Behavior modification is offered and it is not even accepted widely in psychology anymore, but it often gets superficial observable “results.” Yet people still hurt deeply, carrying anger, hurt, fear, shame, heavy sorrow in their hearts chronically with no help on how to remove these things. Yet the ancient path is permanent peace in the heart, the heritage of God’s adopted children (Romans 7 and 8.)

The three kinds of error mentioned by Jeremiah were the three people in my dream and this confirmed it as a major message of God to my heart about his heart-he wants the “priests, ” called shepherds, too, to do their calling, to take away the heaviness and pain, not pronounce the people healed and say, ‘Peace, Peace’ when there is no peace. The hippie was funny (holding up the peace sign to also signify the Scripture in Jer. 6), as was the jackass, but the dream was dead serious as well.  I knew later that the five horses and donkey were references to II Kings Chapter 7. People in Samaria were starving under seige and were saved by lepers at the wall who discovered a miracle God had done against the enemy army through angels. God fed his people but the leaders were not listening. 

The other passage that confirmed this dream so remarkably was in the same chapter of Jeremiah:

“Thus says the Lord: “Stand by the roads, and look, and ask for the ancient paths, where the good way is; and walk in it, and find rest for your souls.” (It comments about the leaders next saying, ‘but they did not.’) Jeremiah 6:16 ESV

 I was standing by the ancient path (in the dream) looking for the signs of the ancient path,  to spend the night and saw what was “off the path.” What I asked God is ‘what is the ancient path?’ He has continued to answer that question for many years afterward, as this dream comes to mind often. I think the summary is that God wants to walk with man as in the garden and fellowship. He spoke to Abraham. Job, the oldest book, says God speaks to man through many ways all the time “to save him from the pit.” 

In the words of Jesus, when asked about his family who came to take him home, “For whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother.” Mt. 12:50 ESV. That is the ancient path.

God spoke with Joseph, Daniel and all the prophets, and David. He fellowshipped with Jesus, the first apostles and everyone that will follow the ancient path. However, many of us are not in the proper vehicle to follow the ancient path. We might need a new one, or we might need some R&R to tune in. It is God’s way, not man’s way. We do not think alike at all. 

I was in an old vehicle. I needed one in good repair, even a motorcycle would have been a better vehicle, often in my dreams vehicles are modes of life and ministry. God was telling me I needed a new “ride,” perhaps and I needed to travel when the time was right, in the “sunlight”  not in darkness with artificial light of man (headlights.) He was also telling me I could see the error but my “brother” was yet unaware of it. He wants me to help people get on and stay on God’s path, sometimes just a narrow dirt track in the mountains. Scott Peck’s bestselling book calls it the Road Less Travelled. 

The other passage that came to mind is not literal, but it was a strong impression. Jesus is called the “cornerstone” and of course is not a stone literally. This stone was a “keystone” so that does not fit exactly, but what I felt was that I was seeing foundational and structural truth to my life in this dream. The structures of the Body of Christ cannot hold without the keystone of unselfish leaders-people who just do what God wants for his sheep. “Feed my sheep” Jesus said. And He is the Cornerstone, not any man.

Tags: Leadership