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Is our suffering part of God’s Plan? Revelation 6:1-8

The four horsemen have influence in the following 4 area’s;

  1. War – 200 million people have died from war related causes in the last 100 years… 2 million people p/year on average…
  2. Famine – 21,000 people die every day from famine related causes… that’s almost 8 million people every year…
  3. Diseases – millions of people die each year from diseases…
  4. Death – If you don’t die from the first 3 then you’ll have another way (accident, wild animals, murder, etc) no escape..

55 million people die each year from these 4 threats…

These four horsemen have always been in the world; Zechariah 1:8-17, Zechariah 6:1-8

Horses were weapons of war & power, but God doesn’t need a horse to reveal His power and authority; Zechariah 9:9-10

The four horsemen 4 riders are spiritual influences in the world, not literal people. They are spirits…

How is the term “spirit” translated in scripture?

  1. Breath –
  2. Strength or Vitality –
  3. Creativity –
  4. Feelings – rejoicing
  5. Relationship – spiritual connection
  6. Worship -spiritual worship
  7. Wind – the most common usage of spirit in the Bible is for wind. It is used almost a full 1/3 of the time as wind… In Acts chapter 2 the Spirit of God came upon the disciples like the sound of a mighty rushing wind.

Jesus compares being born of the spirit to the wind; John 3:7-8

Jesus explains what it is to have a spiritual view of the world; Matthew 16:1-28

The four threats to our focus on the Kingdom of Christ;

  1. White horse and rider with a bow and a crown;
  2. Red horse and rider with a long sword;
  3. Black horse and rider with a scale;
  4. Pale or spotted horse and with death & hell;

There is a Christ view of the world and there is a Secular view of the world, and these are opposed to each other… Galatians 5:17

We are at war with spiritual forces influencing us to focus on the physical world and ignore the spiritual world;

“If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles. If you know yourself but not the enemy, for every victory gained you will also suffer a defeat. If you know neither the enemy nor yourself, you will succumb in every battle.” Sun Tzu – The Art of War

I promise you that if you stay focused on Christ you have nothing to fear from the prophecies in Revelation… 1 Corinthians 15:57