One, there's this fluctuating standard that's subjective, it's what does God say today, it's not transcendent, universal, you know, word of God, it is written. Secondly, it is very much, spiritual warfare is a legitimate biblical category, but the charismatic, it's everything, everything, and so I remember one time, a guy who I won't name, but a guy who went to that church that I went to, Jack Deer's Church, it wasn't Jack himself, but a young man who I looked up to and thought highly of, and thought, has a prophetic gift, he said, I've got a word for you, and I'll never forget this, he said, I have a prophetic word for you, and he said, I saw you, and I saw like a pile of frogs on you, and around you, and I was like, wow, that doesn't sound good, you know, and then he began to interpret his word, and he was like, well, that's like a word of knowledge, and here's the word of wisdom, you know, and he said, well, frogs are a symbol, a sign of a perverted spirit, like lust and perversion, and I think that you have, are going to be battling, and you know, a unique, perverted kind of spirit, you know, is gonna be plaguing you for the foreseeable future, and you need to be aware of that, and you need to, you know, battle that, and so here's the deal, my point is, you know, going from that, and this is, you know, I'm at this point, it's after Christ for the Nations, at 21, 22 years old, and then, you know, I moved to California with my college roommates, and you know, we wanted to plant a church, and we weren't qualified, I wasn't qualified, it was a glorified small group of 10 to 30 young, 20 -something singles meeting on Sunday night, and you know, we were, you know, I was a church planting, you know, candidate guy who was supposed to plant a vineyard church, but we couldn't get it off the ground because of our own sin, and lack of doctrine, and lack of character, and eventually, by God's grace, 2013, 14, I subjected myself to a year -long process with Acts 29, which has its own problems, but their assessment was really good, they helped me get my, both my character and my doctrine together, and then by 2014, we officially covenanted and planted the Acts 29 church that I pastored there, you know, for six and a half, seven years in California, but before that, the early days, the, you know, church planting larper days, where I'm in way over my head, I'm not qualified, I don't know what I'm doing, I don't have strong accountability, my friends are good friends, but they're just as immature, if not more, than I am, and we, none of us, it's like we're all the blind leading the blind, and I'm operating, and I remember, in those days, remembering back to this prophetic word that I received of the pile of frogs that I'm in the middle of, and they're on me, and that this perverse spirit has kind of drawn a target on my chest, and it's coming after me, and I remember this sense of feeling like I'm a victim, instead of I'm more than a conquering, like, I'm a victim, there's this, like, my fate is written in this, and I remember, like, during that season, struggling with sin, and struggling with lust, and in many ways, and I was wrong, and I'm responsible for this, and I was wrong, bad theology, I'm not excused for it, ignorance is not an excuse, but I remember, my point is to answer your question, John, yes, if anyone says there's not a correlation between bad doctrine and a bad life, they're crazy, that's why Paul says to Timothy, guard your life and doctrine closely, the two go hand in hand, a dude is a greedy scumbag, and turns out, he also preaches the prosperity gospel and his doctrine, and he preaches the prosperity gospel and his doctrine, and turns out, he buys a jet plane, and cheats on his wife, and is a dirty, it's always two peas in a pod, it always comes as a pair, and so yeah, if you think that God's word is just this general, abstract handbook that you can take or leave, but his spoken word, on a daily basis, to you personally, that that's the real standard, and you've been told that you are a victim to some perverse spirit, then you're in trouble, you're in trouble, and you're responsible, and you need to repent of that sin, and grow in grace, and grow in the gospel, and all those things, but yeah, that is not a helpful scenario for any Christian to have that kind of doctrine, while seeking to live a holy life, it's a recipe for disaster.
