Hope Alive: Applying God's Word to Your Daily Life
Hope Alive: Applying God's Word to Your Daily Life
The Revelation 9:16-19 | Episode # 1065
November 7, 2025
Hope Alive: Applying God’s Word to Your Daily Life
The Revelation 9:16-19
I am Chad Harrison, and I am the teaching pastor of Lake Community Church and had been serving as a pastor for 25 years. I'm also a practicing attorney. This podcast is designed to help you study God's word and find God's will for your life. The purpose of studying scripture is that you might know the character of Jesus Christ, and that you might see the world from the Father's perspective. That you gain wisdom that changes your life. I pray in the name of Jesus right now that God would open His word to you and allow you to see Him and to know Him. To know His will, that you might glorify Him and that you might walk in faith and power each day, especially today. In Jesus name.
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This is Chad Harrison, and you're listening to Hope Applying God's word to your daily life.
Hi, this is Chad Harrison, and I am the teaching pastor of Lake Community Church and have been serving as a pastor for 25 years.
I'm also a practicing attorney. This podcast is designed to help you study God's word and find God's will for your life.
I pray in the name of Jesus right now that God would open up.
His word to you and allow you.
To see him and to know him and to know his will, that you might glorify him and that you might walk in faith and power each and every day, especially today,
in Jesus name.
But what is the answer?
I don't know.
But I can tell you this Scripture gives us some indication.
So let's read and see if it'll give us some indication of who they are and what they are.
It says now, the number of the army of The Horsemen was 200 million.
I heard the number of them.
Now, notice he's telling you I'm not giving you my vision and saying that had to be 200 million.
Okay? He's not estimating.
Why is he telling us that? Because you need to hear this as you're studying scripture.
If Jesus says the kingdom of heaven is like this,
he's giving you a parable.
And a parable is a physical story that has a spiritual meaning,
and it can have a lot of depth to it, which means it might have a superficial layer of meaning, it might have a deep layer of meaning. It might have a really, really, really exact meaning that takes place sometime in the future that you don't even know what's talking about.
Because it's what.
It's a parable.
Now,
if Jesus says something like, in the story of the rich man and Lazarus, there was a man named Lazarus. I want you to hear me.
He means there was a man named Lazarus. So the story that he tells about Lazarus, is it a parable?
No,
it's a story.
So I can take it to have physically actually happened.
Makes sense, doesn't it?
All right,
the same is true, and I'm trying to give you this understanding. The same is true about prophecy and visions.
And you go, well, why is it important for us to know that? Well, because the Bible clearly indicates in the New Testament that he gives dreams or visions and he gives words of prophecy.
Are you listening?
Don't mix them up.
Somebody says to you,
I had a dream, and this is what the dream was. You know what I say? Well,
it might have some spiritual significance.
We Ought to think about it.
Is there anything in the dream that we could tie off to scripture that would give us some kind of understanding of it? Sure, there might be.
And then God may be giving you some insight into something.
Okay, that would be a what?
A vision.
Now,
if I'm reading scripture and I'm listening to, I'm in a worship service and God says as a part of the sermon,
this is happening in your life. This is what I want you to do.
Well, that would be what a prophetic word for me. It'd be a word that God wanted me to act, do these things.
I could say, God told me this.
That would be a prophetic word.
Are you following me now? Here's the problem.
Don't start acting like you know what it is until you kind of work out God and spend some time working on it.
Because if you say, thus saith the Lord and you're wrong,
I mean, we're going to have to kill you now. We're not. But I mean, but I mean, that's what they did to those who had prophecies that were wrong. Right?
They had rock parties for them.
They stoned them.
Okay, That's. That's. That's what it was. I.
So am I telling you to stay away from it totally? No. What I'm telling you is to. Is when God begins to speak to your heart,
you need to learn to hear the voice of God and you need to learn to take the information that God gives us.
The neat things that God gives us. You need to take that information. You need to take that knowledge.
Are you following me?
And work it out in your own life.
So if you have a dream,
well, it might be important that you figure what the dream meant.
Maybe the dream meant that you had indigestion.
A lot of times in the middle of the night, I have a dream that I'm.
I'm. I'm using the bathroom in my pants,
and then I wake up and realize I really got to go to the bathroom real bad.
That's not from God.
Okay? You can't say that's a prophetic word that I need to go to the bathroom. That it's not okay. And you're going. Why would you tell that? Because that's most of the time, the main dream that most people have in the middle of the night when they get 40 and older.
Okay. They have a dream that they're really anxious about something. And it usually means get up and go to the bathroom.
Okay. All right. That's a good thing. It's not a bad thing.
It's a quality thing that God has given us in our life so that we don't do it in the bed. Okay? But it's not a prophetic word.
And I wanna make that stark difference in your head so that you'll get it.
Is it a prophetic word or not?
And do I know God and have a walk with God enough to really know the difference.
Okay.
All right.
And so we know that John knew that he was seeing a vision,
but he says here that I heard the number, which means I'm not telling you that this is a vision about the number. What is he saying?
The number was? 200 million.
Now, interestingly enough,
do y' all know how many other times in the Bible 200 millions mentioned?
None. All right, so it's not something I can tie it to.
I don't know what it means. There's nowhere to tie it to. There's not. 200 million is a big number.
200 million is the number that most people didn't understand back then. There weren't a whole lot of 200 millions of anything.
Okay? And so they don't know. We don't know what it means. But we do know that God said This number is 200 million,
which means it's going to be important. When?
Sometime at some point in time, this number is going to be real important.
And John said, I made sure I heard 200 million.
Pastor, you're not giving us a lot of information.
Remember, when we're studying this book, we're not trying to conjure up information, okay?
We're not trying to come up with it. We. We're trying to read it, hear it, and give God the opportunity to sink it into our hearts. Right?
All right. So he said it's 200 million.
And thus I saw the horses in the vision. Now he says,
I'm back in the. What?
I'm back in the vision.
I know the number was 200 million. I'm telling you what I saw.
I'm not telling you what God told me to say. I'm telling you what God told me to say. I saw those who sat on them had breastplates of fiery red,
hyacintha blue and sulfur yellow.
Now,
there is something important about this.
I don't know what it means,
but there is something important about red, blue and yellow. What is it?
They're the primary colors.
I don't know what it is,
but they're the primary colors. All other colors come from those colors.
I don't know what that Means don't have any idea.
But God for sure said,
I'm telling you,
these riders,
they had breastplates that had red, blue and sulfur yellow on them.
What is red, blue and yellow?
Well, they're aspects of the light spectrum.
I can't time off to a whole lot other than that. That's all I know.
He says, and the heads of the horses were like the heads of lions.
Now I do know what lions are.
What are lions?
Lions are spiritual authorities.
Okay?
They have spiritual authority,
which would mean that they're not.
If I was trying to decide between angels and demons.
They're not. What?
They're not demons.
Do demons have any spiritual authority?
No.
Are you following me?
And by the way, can I say this to y', all,
and I know people just love horror films. There are some. You have the. Those that love horror films. Are you following me?
Stay away from that message.
Stay. I mean, and when I say stay away from it.
Look, if you're into it cause it makes you afraid and you like that feeling,
then you're stoking a spiritual issue in your life.
And I'm doing this not saying you're gonna,
you know, the damage is gonna come get you. I'm not saying that. Okay?
That's not what I'm saying. What I'm saying is,
is that you are stoking a.
A anti spiritual gift,
okay? Fear is the opposite of faith.
Are you following me?
All right, let's say that you met somebody that had a demon and they could spin their head around five times and, you know, vomit the green stuff on you like they did in that movie.
Okay?
Let's say you had one like that.
Does that demon have any power over you?
Does it have any authority over you?
Do you have authority over it?
Absolutely. You do.
Are you more spiritually powerful than it?
Yes.
Should I spend my time learning to be afraid of demons?
No. Should I train my heart,
which is my passions and my intellectual,
to have this fear of these things?
No. Why?
Because it's antithetical to faith.
Am I right?
It's teaching me when I come across spiritual matters to operate in fear and not to operate in faith. I am training my soul to be fearful and not faithful.
Makes sense, doesn't it,
as you're studying it makes perfect sense.
I don't want to do that now.
Do I have spiritual authority over fallen angels?
Well, maybe.
Do I have spiritual authority over the angel, the Prince of Persia?
Well, no,
I got nothing to do with Persia.
Might I have authority over the fallen angel over Blue Creek?
Perhaps.
Right.
Why?
Because I live here.
The things that God has blessed me and I have authority are over here. Can I contend with him over this area?
Sure. Persia? Probably not.
Does Biden have authority maybe over the prince of Persia?
Perhaps he's been placed as the head of a nation. When Trump goes into office, might he have authority over the prince of Brazil?
Sure. Yeah, sure.
Everybody says all of them. Okay,
maybe.
Why am I telling you this? Because understanding authority matters.
Are you following me? What? Do you definitely have authority over yourself?
What else? Do you have authority over your family?
What else? Do you have authority over your blessings, the things that God has given you as a result of your faithfulness?
If I take territory right in my life and God has given it to me as a blessing, do I have authority over it?
Does the enemy have any power over it?
Only if you give it to him.
Only if you give it to him. That's why he told Joshua. He didn't tell Joshua, I just give you the promised land. What did he tell Joshua?
I give you everywhere you set your foot right, which means I got to walk by faith and I got to walk it out.
Did God say, why didn't God just give them all of it and just drive them out and just leave them there?
Scripture tells us they were too numerous,
and if he'd driven all of them out,
they wouldn't have been able to fill all the cities and all the villages and it would have grown up and the wild animals would take it over. And by the way, the wild animals are pictures of what?
Demons.
Anytime you see wild animals and one domesticated animal mentioned in scripture, it is usually an illusion toward the demonic. That domesticated animal is dogs.
Dogs.
It makes sense, don't it?
Demons want to be around people. Dogs are man's best friend. Right.
They don't do dogs want to be around people? All dogs want to be around some people.
Am I right?
They do.
And so that's a picture of it. So if I take authority over something, if I take territory, if I want, do I have authority over this building?
Yeah. Do you have authority over this building?
Yeah.
You do?
If God gives you a friendship, do you have authority over that friendship?
Sure you do. You got to think through it. Do I have authority in this matter?
Somebody says, I need you to go with me to Macon, Georgia and drive out a demon from a house.
Could I do that?
Maybe I have authority over demons.
Do I have authority over that demon? I don't know. Probably not.
If you said, my daughter lives in Macon, Georgia, I need you pastor to go with me, and we're gonna pray over my daughter. Would I have authority over that?
Yeah.
Makes sense, doesn't it?
As you begin to think through authorities.
Now, what authority? Does Jesus have all authority over heaven and earth? When he gives us a commission to go and make disciples, does he give us authority?
Does he give us all of it?
No, I don't have authority over heaven and earth.
I have authority over everywhere I step,
everywhere I walk by faith.
Y' all get that principle,
all right?
It says, and thus I saw the horses, and they had these. And they had heads that were like lines, which means they're probably fallen angels.
And out of their mouths came fire, smoke, and brimstone.
Now, this is really, really interesting because fire and brimstone are two aspects of purification,
okay? One of them is a.
One of them is a solid form of purification. And the other would be not a liquid, but it would be a form of purification that. That burns up things, okay?
Brimstone purifies. You can use brimstone to purify, and you can use.
You can use fire to purify. The other thing is smoke,
okay?
So they kill using fire, brimstone and smoke.
Fire would be always is. Whenever I read fire, I always think holy Spirit.
Okay? Brimstone. I would think physical.
Are you following me?
And smoke.
The only way smoke purifies is to what?
And by the way, most people in a fire die of what?
Smoke inhalation. Right?
They die from inhaling the smoke,
which is a picture of the ruha, the breath.
All right?
So as I read this, I realize that these. These angels are bringing about the purification of the earth, even though they're fallen angels.
Now, you got to hear this.
Everything glorifies God.
Everything.
Some things glorify his grace and his mercy and his goodness and his love.
And some things glorify his wrath and his judgment and his holiness.
These fallen angels who are against God are being used by God to purify the earth.
That's an important principle to get because oftentimes you like to think that you are causing something by your sin and that God is punishing you.
He is not.
Now, he may be purifying you in the midst of something,
but he is sure not punishing you.
Why?
Because the punishment for your sin has already been placed on Christ.
His work is always a work of purification,
okay? His work is always a work of bringing me to his best.
So when I think something's terrible, most of the time it's God bringing about his best. In my Life.
You've got to hear that, and you got to understand it and believe it.
Are you following me?
You got to hear that,
you got to understand it and believe it, that God's bringing about his purification in the world.
He's bringing about his purification in the world,
even through that which you would think would not be from God.
And he does that with you too.
Okay.
He purifies us too.
He says, by these three plagues, a third of mankind was killed by the fire and the smoke and the brimstone which came out of the mouths of these creatures.
It says, for their power is in their mouth and in their tails.
Now, this is important because it ties back to the passage before where they had stingers just like this.
These have tails or stingers.
Okay.
Which means. It seems to indicate if I think these are fallen angels,
The. The creatures that were released that had the helicopter thing going on,
they were probably fallen angels too.
Now,
what time is it?
Well,
I'm going right there because the last three verses, I don't want to run over them too fast. They're really, really good.
Okay. All right.
And they're. They're an explanation of the work of God. And I don't want you to miss out on it because we can really kind of dig deep in those things.
All right. What I want you to get from this is several things.
Main thing I want you to get is that as we read scripture,
there are times when you can be very, very literal and hardcore about something.
Are you following me?
If you've heard God speak in your heart,
you've heard him speak to you about things, and you know his voice,
and God tells you to do something, you. In your life,
and it. And it needs to derive from His Word and it needs to be in line with His Word. When you hear God speak to your heart and it be.
And it's in line with His Word and it. And it. And it's.
You've heard him speak,
then you ought to learn to walk by faith and walk in what he says make sense.
Now,
the cool thing about God is that he's not.
He's not judging you about how well you learn how to do this.
And he's given a scripture to kind of give us an idea of. It's not very easy.
As you read through this, even this prophecy,
were there aspects of this prophecy that I. I did not have an answer for?
Absolutely. Are there going to be things that go on in your life and things that go on while you're seeking God out that you really can't explain today?
Absolutely.
Is God giving you that understanding so that one day he will be able to bring that understanding to light?
Perhaps.
It's not for you to have to know everything and you don't have to see everything clearly and plainly.
What you do need to do is take the things that you know you hear from God and learn to do,
because that teaches you to hear his voice.
Makes sense.
Those things that you're not quite sure about, you're not quite sure you understand,
those things that you're not quite sure God's doing,
you got to just keep walking in,
keep walking in it.
He'll enlighten you down the road.
He'll use it to encourage you in the future.
Okay.
He'll use it to, to,
to teach you down the road how, how you did hear his voice and encourage you that you have been hearing his voice.
And prophecy, especially this prophecy,
does it really have anything to do with us?
Well,
no.
And yes,
it's the word of God.
But do I think we're going to be fighting off these horses with lion heads?
No,
probably not.
Should I be worried about, you know, the,
the Indians took over for China and they're going to be getting, bringing these horses out and, and attacking? Probably not.
But are there things that I can definitely draw from it?
Yeah,
a lot of things I can draw from it.
And that's what the word of God is for.
For you to know it as much as you can,
for you to read it, to study it, to allow God to show it to you and to teach you.
You with me.
And then ultimately at the end,
ultimately at the end,
to learn to hear his voice more and more.
That's what scripture's about and that's why we come and study it all the time.
As you go today, I pray that.
The Lord will bless you and keep you, that he'll make his face to shine upon you, and that he will give you hope and peace today in Jesus name.