Summary
A person cannot create himself or herself, but a person can cast a shadow if they stand in the way of the Light.
The dragon will tell you that you are your shadow. In other words, the dragon will tell you that you are the choices you have made and the deeds you have done.
Your Father, who is the Light, wants you to turn and see that you are the Choice that He has made and the Deed that He has done. You are not your shadow.
Your shadow self is a false self, a false “psyche.”
In the beginning, God breathed the breath of life into dust and “ha Adam” became a living soul, a “nephesh” in Hebrew, a “psyche” in Greek. The Life is “indestructible.” The psyche is made of dust and can return to dust.
At the fall, on the sixth day of creation, humanity took over construction of the psyche at the advice of the dragon, and no longer built “the man,” but the false man. This self is no longer a container for Life but death, no longer a vessel of Truth but lies, no longer a temple of Light, but shadow.
The dragon tells us that we are our shadow, then he tempts us to hide the shadow in deeper shadow or, even, battle the shadow with more shadow. He attempts to psyche us out . . . and, at the same time, put our flesh on the dragon—himself: the shadow, and the father of lies.
The dragon battles with a river of lies, that are all one lie—“You are your own creator.” In Revelation 12, the earth opens her mouth and swallows the river—creation swallows the lie that we are our own creators. In Revelation 13, the dragon calls up the beasts to help him lie.
A beast sees the Good and takes the Good; a beast sees the Life and eats it.
The beast from the sea is political power.
The beast from the land looks like a lamb and talks like the dragon.
The beast from the land is religious power.
You cannot battle the beast with politics and religion for the beast is politics and religion—human religion.
They are “the principalities and powers, the world rulers of this present darkness.”
They are each antichrists—imitation christs.
Each will appeal to your ego, tempt you to damn the Life and trap yourself in death . . . or, as death.
The dead think that they are the decisions they have made and the deeds they have done. They think they are their shadow. They think death is life.
The living know that they are the Decision God has made and the Deed that He has done. They surrender their shadow to the Light. They learn that the death of death is Eternal Life.
“Whoever seeks to save his psyche will lose it, but he who loses his psyche for my sake will find it,” says the Lamb, who is “the Life.”
The Life flows from the throne and forms a river, which flows through all creation.
Your life is His Life flowing through you.
When you think your life is your own life, your psyche damns the river and everything dies.
We conquer the dragon, by the blood of the Lamb and the Word of our testimony, loving not our lives—our psyches—even unto death.
*Discussion questions for this sermon are available here: Discussion Questions “How To Conquer the Dragon”