The Revelation 12:7-8 | Episode # 1081

December 1, 2025

Hope Alive: Applying God’s Word to Your Daily Life

The Revelation 12:7-8

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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Transcript

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.

And so,

and so the, the, the woman being Israel and the child being Jesus.

And what happened when, when the.

Well, the dragon went to,

went to kill the child.

And then you see, and,

and, and we're going to read,

we're going to read this, and we're going to read this in,

in the understanding that it's not for sure what time frame this is talking about.

And I think that's of, of great importance as you're, as you're studying. Remember I said that whenever a story is told,

whenever John tells a revelation that he has or an aspect of his vision,

that those timelines of when they take place are at different times in history, and some of them overlap and some of them may refer to things that have already happened a long time ago, and some of them may refer to things that are farther along in the timeframe of the book of the Revelation.

So we,

when I read this,

I'm gonna tell you that I'm not sure exactly when this is taking place, okay? I'm gonna say to you that we know that Satan was cast out of heaven,

okay,

At Satan's fall and prior to the timeframe in which man was created in the garden, okay?

So at some point in time in history past Satan was cast out of heaven, him and a third of his angels were cast out of heaven,

okay?

And when they were cast out of heaven,

that was prior to the, the, the creation of man on the earth.

All right?

Now this could be describing that. This very well could be describing that,

or this could be describing something that's happening during the tribulation,

okay?

I tend to think it is describing what happened prior,

but there's good reason to believe biblically. There'd be good reason to argue.

If you're going to argue about this,

which we're not. Right.

Remember,

the reason we're not going to argue about it is because we don't know.

You don't know for sure.

And also,

the reason we're not going to argue about it is because the way the book is written would lead us to the place where we might think that it was at a different time anyway.

And so we always open ourselves up and allow ourselves to. As we're reading the Book of the Revelation,

we don't allow somebody to put us in a box about when and how things are going to happen,

because what you perceive to be one thing 50 years later can be something totally different.

Okay? Because your perception of how things are today and how that would relate to how you think the Revelation is going to be carried out can be heavily, heavily changed.

And so the way I was raised to believe the Revelation, especially when I was a teenager,

okay, the way I was raised to believe the Revelation,

many of the things that I was taught to believe about the Book of the Revelation are not as clear as they used to be.

Okay?

They're not as. It's not as clear.

I was taught that the Great War would be Russia and how great Russia was, and I still think it will be, but I don't think Russia is all that great right now.

Okay. And so I'm not sure that the timeframe that I was taught was likely. The timeframe is the timeframe of today.

And I think what really makes it powerful to study the Book of the Revelation is to have some context of the Book of the Revelation and how it's been taught over the centuries and over the decades, over the last few decades.

Because if you don't understand how it's been taught over the last few decades,

you realize that there's a lot going on that we don't have a clear answer to.

Now, we do know that this happened or this is going to happen.

And the war broke out in Heaven.

Michael and his angels fought with the dragon and the dragon and his angels.

Okay?

Now, does that mean that Michael created his angels and the dragon created his angels?

No, it means that they in some ways had authority over them or had some reason to believe that they were in charge of them.

Right.

They are their angels. Well, what do you mean by their angels? Well, if you understand that the angels are organized as an army and they are the heavenly host.

We. We, because of our Christ Christmas traditions,

we, because of those, tend to think that the angels are a choir.

Am I right?

And they. The reason they wear white garments is because they're believe that I. And you go, well, why are you making fun of that? Well, because choir robes weren't used very much in the 20s and the 30s.

You know why?

Because they have any money to have choir robes, okay? And churches weren't built with choir lofts,

okay?

Anything that was built first part of last century, they didn't have a choir loft.

They had somebody who led singing, but they didn't have a choir loft in most of those churches. And then anything prior to that might have been outside.

And so our perception of things oftentimes is very tainted by the traditions of the age that we live in.

Okay? And so are traditions bad? No, not necessarily.

Traditions aren't bad if they are traditions in that you're glorifying something that God has done.

The reason traditions become a problem is that,

is that you keep on doing the tradition and you forgot what God did,

okay? And so the tradition becomes God. And, and, and, and what God did is long forgotten,

okay? And so understanding our traditions is important. Where do they come from? Why did God do them? Why are we doing them today?

Right? Why are we. Why are we. Why are we living by this tradition today if it, if it does not,

if it either neither glorifies God and what he's done,

nor does it in any way advance the gospel of Jesus Christ in the context that we live in,

the age that we live in? All right,

so he says that a war broke out in heaven.

Michael, who is an archangel,

fought Gabriel.

I mean, fought the dragon, who is an archangel. All right? Gabriel's not involved in the fight,

by the way.

Michael doesn't need Gabriel. Okay? Why?

Because Gabriel is the warrior archangel, okay? He is the. He is the warrior archangel. Gabriel is the.

Is the revelation archangel. He's the one who, who brings. Brings the messages,

okay? And then, and then,

and then Lucifer was the worship archangel. Okay? Now it's important to understand this because oftentimes,

even, Even, even unknowingly, we become very human centric,

okay? In our theology,

all right? And remember, the worst thing we can do is, is. Is have humanistic theology.

Does that make sense to you?

All right? And what I mean by that is this. Remember, we worship three things. One of three things everybody worships. They either worship the one true God.

They worship something he made,

which is a lot of categories,

or they worship something that he made that's very personal to them and that's themselves.

All right? Humanism is the worship of humanity and usually results in the worship of oneself, okay? And usually results in you being very, very focused on yourself.

All right? Well,

when we're dealing with this book and scripture, what we oftentimes think is that man is,

in the eons of history,

that man is the most important being made.

And I would say to you that the most important being is God.

And God in his creation is revealing himself, and man is a part of that revelation.

And you go, well,

how does that inform our theology? Well, it informs our theology because when I'm studying. When I'm studying this, I need to realize that man has a purpose of glorifying God in the time of creation.

Well, what do you mean, Pastor? Well, what I mean is this man was created to. To reveal an aspect of God that whatever existed prior to that did not reveal.

Okay,

and,

well, what. What would that be? Well, that would be that God has. Has a care. Has a. Has the character trait of mercy and grace.

Are you following me?

That God. That God is a merciful God and a God that is capable of redeeming and paying for that which is not God.

Well, you go, well, why couldn't he do that with the angels? Well,

there's some aspect of the angels that makes them such that even if he did provide a redemption for them, they would not accept it,

that they would be not capable of receiving it.

Okay? That they would not continue in it.

And you see that in God's interaction with Lucifer throughout scripture,

He. He, He. When, when, when, when. When we're. When we're talking about Lucifer in scripture, which one of the great passages is.

Well, the book is based off of a conversation with God and Lucifer, and that's the book of Job.

Okay? The book of Job is a result of a conversation between God and Satan.

Okay?

And God says,

have you considered my man Job?

He is faithful in all my house.

All right? Now, there's a reason why he brings Job up to Satan.

And the reason he brings Job up to Satan is that Satan is capable of existing based off of faith.

The reason he brings Job up to Satan is that Satan is a creature that. That's capable of continuing in existence based off of faith,

Based off of faith.

Okay?

All right.

So, so does that mean that.

That the angels.

Does that mean that the angels are incapable of faith?

All right. And the answer, in my opinion, is yes.

Okay?

Revelation says these three remain faith, hope, and love.

But the greatest of these is love.

And in fact, in the end, all there is going to be is love. And I'll tell you why.

Because there'll be no need for faith.

If I know God completely,

I don't have to trust him.

I know him,

okay? I don't have to. I don't have to hope in him, which is an anxious expectation.

I know.

Okay, and what do I know? I know the primary characteristic of God, which is love.

All right,

so when there's a battle in heaven,

this is a battle over who.

Who is supreme or what is supreme,

the character nature of God or that which is not God.

So the battle in heaven is between God and the one who represents a decision for not God,

which is Lucifer,

he says here. But they did not prevail, nor was a place found for them in heaven any longer.

Now, this is the reason why I think this is describing a war that takes place in heaven in the future.

This part of the passage.

Now, like I said,

I could very easily argue that this is the war that took place prior to God creating man.

But it says that. That he had no place, no place was found for them in heaven any longer, which means that Satan from. At this time has no ability to be in heaven.

Well, I mean, Job,

the whole story of Job is Satan appearing before God in heaven.

Okay,

so you go. Well, Pastor, which one is it?

I don't know.

I don't know. I know there was a. I know that there was some conflict in heaven and Satan was cast out of heaven and yet had access there, too.

I know this says that there's a conflict in heaven between Satan and his angels and Michael and his angels. And after that, this conflict,

there is no access to God in heaven.

Remember, God's given us glimpses here.

He's given us small little details about it. Now, I want you to hear me. There's probably a really, really good reason about this.

Y' all know why?

Well, because if God talks too much about Satan, you know what Christians will start doing?

They'll start worrying about Satan all the time.

We already,

you know, we already got. The Devil made us do it, right?

I mean, we're doing that already, right?

I mean, we've been working that deal since the garden that the Devil made me do it.

And let me say this. Let me say this,

that other than the study of scripture and where God is revealing to us some aspect of Satan and some aspect of his work,

I would strongly suggest to you that you focus most of your faith and most of the words that you speak as far as God and God's plan for the earth, that you would focus on God and God's work in your life and God's work around you and place.

Place less emphasis on what Satan's doing because he doesn't have authority over you. All right? He doesn't have power over you. And I would. I just always want to warn people against.

Against making Satan.

Making Satan Satan an important part of.

Of what you do and how you practice and how you live.

Okay?

Not to say that he's not a major part of God's plan.

Not saying that at all.

I would just rather God be being glorified in my thoughts and the way I think about things, rather than Satan being glorified.

Okay.

That's really, really important.

Okay. Because he really doesn't have any authority over you and he doesn't have any power over you.

Okay. Accept that which you give him. And if you talk about him a lot, you might give him a little right 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.