One of the
less-visible wounds from betrayal or abuse by leaders we've trusted is an
unbalanced sense of trust. Some will not easily trust again, and yes, that needs
healing, but a less-visible (and therefore more dangerous) wound works in the
opposite direction: too much trust.
A victim of
untrustworthy leadership (and the "untrustworthy" can be merely in the mind of the
wounded) very often has lost a measure of confidence in their own ability to
"correctly" hear from the Holy Spirit. Unfortunately, this makes it easy to
walk away from an untrustworthy leader, only to concede too much trust to
trustworthy leaders, even to the point where we (perhaps unknowingly) trust the
leader's words more than the things that Holy Spirit speaks to us directly.
I see at least three
temptations in this:
1) Leaders can be flattered and tempted to take the place of the Holy Spirit in a wounded person's life. ("They need me!") This is not an insignificant temptation; it feels good to be needed.
1) Leaders can be flattered and tempted to take the place of the Holy Spirit in a wounded person's life. ("They need me!") This is not an insignificant temptation; it feels good to be needed.
2) The wounded
person can be tempted to look to a man (or woman, but usually a man) instead of
to the Holy Spirit. ("I trust him to hear God correctly!") This often
masquerades as a "safe" alternative.
3) They both are
likely being set up for a serious disappointment. We're talking "crash and burn" level disappointment here.
The reality is that
no human being can really take the place of the Holy Spirit in my life, and any
attempt (intentional or not) to do so will end in disaster.
I have watched
helplessly as this scenario has exploded in marital affairs, divorce, broken congregations and the violent end of the successful ministries
of people on both ends of the equation. Occasionally it has resulted (presumably
with other complications) in murder. I suppose these are predictiable, given
that the source of this calamity is famous for "stealing, killing &
destroying."
My "takeaway" from
this is to emphasize - in my life, and to the folks around me - that God is an
effective Father, well able to lead his children Himself: my goal is always to
lead others to Christ, and to be led myself to Him. Any time (and I think this
is an absolute) one human being lingers between God and another human being, there
will be trouble.