Before You Comment…

A lot of you are here because of certain words you typed in a google search or some other kind of search engine. You type things having to do with prophets, prophetic conference speakers and a school of ministry in NorCal, the most awesome and beautiful part of America (what I call home…a dearly missed home).

You’ll find things written that are my take on particular aspects of ministry or certain teachings that I highly object to and provide scriptural and logical arguments to back them up. Not that I’m bullet proof, but I do my best to be clear. I want you to know that I have no ill will toward any of these people personally and happen to know that they (at least the ones I know about) really love Jesus and live very Godly lives. I only mean to dispute certain matters and not besmirch individuals. I haven’t always made that distinction very clear….and haven’t cared enough to be careful to do so.

What you will also notice is a high level of sarcasm in a more-nasty-than-righteous tone. I had experiences and have seen and heard things that were bottled up in me for a while and when I got to typing them out, BLAA-OHHH!!, they just came out with years of pent up irritation. I let things out in a spirit that is not conducive to intelligent and caring dialogue out of concern for the church as a whole, but rather to berate, belittle and humiliate those who align themselves with movements, teachers, “apostles” and “prophets” that I believe do and say things that are quite misleading in many respects. I had a chip on my shoulder because of damage done to my personal life by people in these movements and the blinders that came over them as a result of their sheep-like following of bad teaching and what I still believe to be false spiritual activity that is not rightly attributed to the Holy Spirit. Without giving the details of my personal life, suffice it to say that I have experienced first hand the general lack of spiritual discernment that seems to accompany a good deal of the devotee’s to some of these so-called prophetic and apostolic movements. Painful and agonizing things happened in my life, or rather to my life that showed me some things and began a peeling away process. By “peeling away” I mean that I began to come away from these movements and a good measure of what they espouse. I went into a wilderness and met God in a way that I never could have had I stayed aligned with these movements….I’m convinced of that much.

Through many divers means and individuals (one man who definitely knows who he is) God has dealt with my attitude and heart regarding my whole demeanor toward this charismatic branch of the body of Christ. It’s been ugly and hostile and God grieving. It’s usually those who comment here that I have bitten and torn as opposed to the ones I’m talking about in my posts.

I say all this so that when you get ready to tell me off for my ill spirit, just know that you’re too late and don’t need to worry about it now. I will still write things as I feel led to do so and will most likely continue to write about similar matters from the same movements and preachers, but I’ve learned (not mastered, but am learning) to try and handle things a little more like Paul the apostle. Before he tore into the Corinthians, he complimented them on what they did well and then ended his letter with blessing upon them, though the 1st letter to them did have much harshness and rebuke. He did it out of love….he started it in love, ended it in love.

I have not had that spirit about me.

Now, just so you know…I still maintain the essence of my disputations with certain spiritual philosophies and with things taught by very prominent “prophetic” and “apostolic” men (and maybe a few women too, for good measure). I am not wanting this to be taken as a retraction of my opinions, but only of the ill way in which they have been introduced. I know I have said something like this once already in the “Offended?” tab, but it doesn’t seem to get peoples attention before they read me the riot act. Something that says, “Before You Comment” might give them reason to pause.

The wierd thing is that when I have face to face discussions with people about this stuff, I come off so much nicer and Christlike and people actually listen to me and nobody is hurt. I don’t get agree’d with all the time, but at least I’m not leaving behind damaged feelings. I don’t know what it is about typing…maybe it’s too easy to not be careful and be hasty.

I am different inside, somehow. The same, but different. The things I sharply disagree with, I still disagree with. But by the grace of God I have come to see how much garbage Jesus puts up with in my life, yet He loves me, speaks to my heart, burns His word into my soul, answers my prayers, shows Himself mighty on my behalf….and I’m a mixed bag of junk that I don’t even know is in there yet. So I’m learning to extend the same grace and mercy to my charismatic compatriots who I see as quite mixed and dubious at times. It is very likely that God loves you (duh!), speaks to your heart, opens His word to you and so on and I’ve not been willing to consider that He can or would want to do that with you folks. You get on my nerves (I say that with a chuckle and a smile!), but I get on His and He is infinitely good and loving to me and I will be the same to you and not look down my nose at you anymore. Yes, we’ll not agree on many things, but I won’t give reason any longer for those disputes to leave you with a bad taste in your mouth anymore.

It’s more damaging to injure people with truth than error. Once you’re innoculated to truth through some jack@$$ running his angry mouth, good luck ever acquiring a soft heart toward what bruised you…..and I don’t want this for anyone. The blog is nick-named “Hand Me A Scalpel”, but it’s been a lot like a blunt force trauma at times rather than a carefully executed surgical procedure designed to help, cure and heal. For this I apologize and I hope that if you have read an offensive comment or statment of mine that you will click this link first and see my heart as it stands in the present.

One last thing.
Stay on topic. I’ve noticed many of the blogs have gone off onto tangents about other stuff and it starts getting dumb after a while. This isn’t a message board or a chat room; contribute to the discussion, argue, challenge, debate, but stay on course. I’ve stopped up a few of my posts from further comments because they just got rediculously off topic. Some digression is cool, but let’s not get carried away.

God’s blessings on you,
mark jr.