The entanglement between leaders and followers in religious structures often mirrors deeper human flaws. Leaders cling to authority through rigid interpretations of scripture, elaborate rituals, and strict codes of behavior—not out of profound insight, but because these tools maintain control and mask their own lack of genuine connection to what God truly desires: heartfelt justice, mercy, humility, and direct alignment with divine reason. Followers, drawn to the security of clear rules and charismatic figures, surrender personal discernment for the comfort of belonging, perpetuating a cycle where outward piety substitutes for inner change.
This pattern echoes the challenges posed by the prophets and Jesus. They confronted entrenched powers not with new rules, but with a radical call to repentance - a turning of the heart toward God beyond human mediation. Jesus exposed hypocrisy in those who burdened others with traditions while neglecting the core of love and righteousness, declaring that true worship flows from a transformed spirit, not mechanical observance. Yet these voices threatened the established order, inverting hierarchies by affirming that the humble and repentant stand closer to God than the proudly pious.
The backlash was fierce. Leaders, sensing danger to their status, mobilized followers to defend the system - labeling prophets mad, blasphemous, or divisive. Crowds swayed by authority turned against the challengers, protecting the familiar structures that gave them identity and stability. Even teachings like "no one is sinless" or "all have fallen short" get weaponized here: not as humble acknowledgment spurring deeper seeking, but as a shield for complacency. They excuse ongoing entanglement in instinctive drives - pride, fear, desire for approval - allowing leaders to admit imperfection while avoiding the radical surrender that would dismantle their incompetence and lack of authentic transformation.
Today, the spiritual landscape lacks figures with the qualities of John the Baptist - uncompromising wilderness voices calling for genuine repentance - or the apostles, who lived in raw, communal alignment with divine guidance. Modern expressions often seal doors with ignorance: leaders bound to outdated frameworks, followers trapped in dead rituals that manage flaws rather than uproot them.
At its root, this dynamic reflects animal behavior, particularly observed in chimpanzees. Troops form coalitions around dominant figures, even aging or weakening alphas. The inner circle aggressively defends the leader's position, attacking challengers not out of reasoned loyalty, but instinctive tribal preservation. Status quo is sacred; disruption threatens the group's cohesion and individual security derived from proximity to power. Humans, inheriting similar wiring, replicate this in religious tribes - defending flawed leaders, rationalizing hypocrisy, and expelling threats to maintain the pack's illusion of stability.
Several obstacles make awakening rare. Followers remain instinct-driven, sharing the same unexamined impulses as leaders - they're in the same boat, deriving significance from the group rather than direct truth-seeking. Protection of the status quo feels natural; change disrupts comfort, tradition, and perceived normality. True awakening demands confronting uncomfortable realities, so most won't even attempt it, content with surface-level faith. Outsiders bearing confident, God-sourced insight face rejection or ridicule, dismissed as arrogant or dangerous precisely because they expose the system's fragility.
The path forward lies not in building new hierarchies or seeking followers, but in gathering awakened individuals around someone deeply obedient to God - marked not by charismatic power or dominance, but by profound understanding and humility. Such a person demonstrates the lack of need for control, inviting others into shared exploration rather than submission.
Together, the community undergoes real transformation: shifting self-identification from the ego - a false center of automatic instincts, emotions, desires, and illusory judgments - to Reason, the holy, silent wisdom that reveals objective meaning and alignment with divine design. This involves uninstalling the old "software" inherited from animal nature - rejecting the chase of feelings, pleasures, and validations - and opening to divine guidance directly. Actions flow from awareness of what is truly right, not reactive impulses. The process demands full surrender: dying to the false self, crucifying instinctive reactions (both negative and positive), and allowing Reason to replace them as the core identity. In silence and honesty, without words or preconceptions, one connects heart-to-heart with God, receiving clarity and freedom. Over time, this Reason becomes the self - no longer sensing a separate "presence," but living as the righteous, sinless human by original intent: calm, wise, meaningfully loving, free from illusion. Practiced collectively, this mutual transformation fosters authentic community.