I “saw” in my mind’s eye suddenly a typical church. It was a church building I had not seen inside before but felt I knew it. It was in a typical neighborhood and in the center of my town by population distribution.
As it panned into my view, I saw people on their knees like sheep, dressed in white (reminding me of sheep.) This was interesting because they not only were on their knees but also were in the ancient position for giving birth, also called the position of “travailing” or intense prayer, so famous for James the brother of Jesus.
Most of the people were women, children and young people. They all had their heads toward the church, more or less. However, they all were OUTSIDE the church on the lawn all around.
The People, Looking Like Sheep, Were Outside on the Lawn
None were inside. No people were in there at all except Jesus.
Jesus stood tall and transparently through the top of the building in the middle, about a hundred feet above the roof it seemed by normal scale (and of course this sort of thing is not about normal scale usually.)
So, all the people in white, on their knees like sheep but in travailing prayer, were facing and worshipping Jesus. This seemed so wonderful and the heart of passages like, “Jesus the head of the church.” This group was not giving lip service, they were worshipping Jesus but not inside the walls of a building for that purpose: they were outside. This was fulfillment of many prophesies, but one in particular was pictured: “And you are my sheep, human sheep of my pasture, and I am your God, declares the Lord God.” Ezekiel 34:31.
After much prayer and even some days reflecting and praying on this, I knew some things. God spoke to me about it through Ezekiel Chapter 33 and 34. In the last of Ez. 33, God told the prophet to tell the people His message, and (to take some paraphrase for effect) “and by the way, they are not going to listen effectively.”
God said the people would call the prophet a nice man, say his words were beautiful but would ignore his message of holiness and readiness, altertness.
Then in Chapter 34 of Ezekiel, God says what He will do about it, and this links to the former dream about unfaithful leaders. I will paste Ez. 34 here, but to summarize, God said He would lose patience with leaders who were unfaithful by consuming the sheep, consuming the resources of the sheep, and all this partying while the sheep were at risk and without shepherds, exposed in the wilderness to predators who also consumed them. God said he would not tolerate this any longer and would replace the shepherds who do this.
He said He would separate the sheep from the goats (again I am paraphrasing) and the fat sheep who had taken away resources from other sheep and mistreated them, making them thin and weak, would be taken out. This is what I saw in the vision-they were “weak” sheep, children, women and young representing all of us who have been shoved aside to fatten up others and kept hungry.
God told me He was not only going to do this with leaders in the Body of Christ, but beginning soon, God said, He was going to take out and replace leaders in all areas of life who were doing this; government leaders, business leaders, media leaders etc. About a month later, the scandal at Enron erupted onto the headlines, and just a little later in time, the scandal in Jackson MS concerning Worldcom developed and took down the leaders. Within a few years, over 750 public corporations had similar events and leadership changes, along with the United Nations, the Catholic Church scandal (consuming the sheep through sexual scandal) and other leaders in Protestant groups and even in sports.
So, we are in a stage where God is still removing and replacing leaders who are not taking the best interests of the people at heart. Jesus told his good friends, the Sons of Thunder James and John, who asked him which was the greatest who would sit at his right and left hand,
“ And Jesus called them to him and said to them, ‘You know that those who are considered rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them. But it shall not be so among you. But whoever would be great among you must be your servant, and whoever would be first among you must be slave of all. For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many’.” Matthew 10: 42-45 ESV
So, many voices have warned the leaders, as Ezekiel, and they often were told what Ezekiel was told in the latest part of Chapter 33-we like you and we love your message. Most did not listen, change or repent. So, here is what God did in that time and is doing now, and is the heart of the vision as well extracted from the esvstudybible.org (which can be sampled for free): (following is Ezekiel 34 ESV)
Prophecy Against the Shepherds of Israel
The word of the Lord came to me: “Son of man, prophesy against the shepherds of Israel; prophesy, and say to them, even to the shepherds, Thus says the Lord God: Ah, shepherds of Israel who have been feeding yourselves! Should not shepherds feed the sheep? You eat the fat, you clothe yourselves with the wool,you slaughter the fat ones, but you do not feed the sheep.4 The weak you have not strengthened, the sick you have not healed, the injured you have not bound up, the strayed you have not brought back, the lost you have not sought, and with force and harshness you have ruled them. So they were scattered, because there was no shepherd, and they became food for all the wild beasts. My sheep were scattered; they wandered over all the mountains and on every high hill. My sheep were scattered over all the face of the earth, with none to search or seek for them.
7 “Therefore, you shepherds, hear the word of the Lord: As I live, declares the Lord God, surely because my sheep have become a prey, and my sheep have become food for all the wild beasts, since there was no shepherd, and because my shepherds have not searched for my sheep, but the shepherds have fed themselves, and have not fed my sheep, therefore, you shepherds, hear the word of the Lord: Thus says the Lord God, Behold, I am against the shepherds, and I will require my sheep at their hand and put a stop to their feeding the sheep. No longer shall the shepherds feed themselves. I will rescue my sheep from their mouths, that they may not be food for them.
The Lord God Will Seek Them Out
11 “For thus says the Lord God: Behold, I, I myself will search for my sheep and will seek them out. As a shepherd seeks out his flock when he is among his sheep that have been scattered, so will I seek out my sheep, and I will rescue them from all places where they have been scattered on a day of clouds and thick darkness. And I will bring them out from the peoples and gather them from the countries, and will bring them into their own land. And I will feed them on the mountains of Israel, by the ravines, and in all the inhabited places of the country. I will feed them with good pasture, and on the mountain heights of Israel shall be their grazing land. There they shall lie down in good grazing land, and on rich pasture they shall feed on the mountains of Israel. I myself will be the shepherd of my sheep, and I myself will make them lie down, declares the Lord God. I will seek the lost, and I will bring back the strayed, and I will bind up the injured, and I will strengthen the weak, and the fat and the strong I will destroy. I will feed them in justice.
17 “As for you, my flock, thus says the Lord God: Behold, I judge between sheep and sheep, between rams and male goats. 18 Is it not enough for you to feed on the good pasture, that you must tread down with your feet the rest of your pasture; and to drink of clear water, that you must muddy the rest of the water with your feet? And must my sheep eat what you have trodden with your feet, and drink what you have muddied with your feet?
20 “Therefore, thus says the Lord God to them: Behold, I, I myself will judge between the fat sheep and the lean sheep.21 Because you push with side and shoulder, and thrust at all the weak with your horns, till you have scattered them abroad, I will rescue my flock; they shall no longer be a prey. And I will judge between sheep and sheep. And I will set up over them one shepherd, my servant David, and he shall feed them: he shall feed them and be their shepherd. And I, the Lord, will be their God, and my servant David shall be prince among them. I am theLord; I have spoken.
The Lord‘s Covenant of Peace
25 “I will make with them a covenant of peace and banish wild beasts from the land, so that they may dwell securely in the wilderness and sleep in the woods. And I will make them and the places all around my hill a blessing, and I will send down the showers in their season; they shall be showers of blessing. And the trees of the field shall yield their fruit, and the earth shall yield its increase, and they shall be secure in their land. And they shall know that I am the Lord, when I break the bars of their yoke, and deliver them from the hand of those who enslaved them. They shall no more be a prey to the nations, nor shall the beasts of the land devour them. They shall dwell securely, and none shall make them afraid. And I will provide for them renowned plantations so that they shall no more be consumed with hunger in the land, and no longer suffer the reproach of the nations. And they shall know that I am the Lord their God with them, and that they, the house of Israel, are my people, declares the Lord God. And you are my sheep, human sheep of my pasture, and I am your God, declares the Lord God.”
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