In our quest to fulfill our purposes as divine warriors, we must slay the inner dragons which stand in the way of our destinies. After embracing true identity as an esteemed member of Christ’s special forces, the next steps are to identify and overcome monstrous barriers.
Our previous training revealed the sinister wyrm of misplaced authority. This dragon slinks among the shadows of our thoughts and priorities. If we find ourselves offering influence over our thoughts, feelings, and identity to resentment, other human beings, roles/accomplishments, or anything other than our personal centeredness in Christ, we’re captives of this dragon. Check out the previous training to discover steps to overcome the barrier of misplaced authority.
In today’s video, we’ll train ourselves to recognize the second of the three main inner wyrms–distorted identity. Most of us face this two-headed dragon at various times, often failing to recognize we’ve surrendered our power to allow its oppression. The introduction to our training series named shame as one of the two heads of this beast. Distorted identity’s other head, arrogance, hides its relationship to its twin. But make no mistake. The necks of these two distortions extend from the same oppressive beast. As we train ourselves to overcome this double-sided issue, we’ll learn to recognize both its heads and slay the dragon of distorted identity.
The fiery breath of each dragon mouth, distorts our self-perception. Swift-moving heads, stinging flames, and a barbed tail tripping us will distract us from recognizing how these twin issues volley us back and forth. When attempting to stand up to shame, we can end up facing arrogance. After the consequences of arrogant lies knock us back down, we face the rancid breath of shame.
The twin dragon heads breathe fire to warp the lenses of our self-image in opposite ways, but both distortions center our focus on self. The dragon of distorted identity blinds us to our potential to serve others. Shame breathes a concave warp onto the lenses through which we see ourselves so we appear smaller and impossibly far from our true potential. Arrogance heats a convex bulge into our self-image to magnify the importance of ourselves in our own eyes that nothing and no one else shows up with significance by comparison.
Shame paralyzes us from moving forward. We believe the wyrm’s lies about who we are and who we aren’t rather than centering our identity upon WHOSE we are. In the concave view, Christ’s power to transform us and our purpose as servants to others lie in the peripheral blind spots. We lie crippled under the oppression of our false sense of worthlessness and inadequacy.
The same peripheral blind spots of serving others and Christ’s purpose exist in the convex distortion breathed onto us by arrogance. This wyrm-head strikes us with insidious forms of pride like self-importance. In addition to superiority’s overt means of arrogance, more subtle versions of selfishness strike us. We might feel entitled, seek justice for slights, and find ourselves easily offended. Instead of listening, we’ll inwardly demand to be heard. Arrogance creates the illusion that our purpose in life centers upon us, even if we don’t recognize our perspective as self-centered. We’ll perceive our needs as deserving greater urgency than anything or anyone around us.
Like all inner dragons, this beast remains vulnerable to those of us who know the secrets to taking it down. To slay this dragon, we must arm ourselves with the following tactics and tools:
- Recognize the signs and identify the dragon. The two-headed dragon of distorted identity breathes its most destructive attacks when we fail to recognize its presence.
- Grab your sword. Find all the scriptural truths to skewer the lies of shame and arrogance.
- Secure your stance. Rather than backing down, stand firm on your true identity and purpose in Christ.
- Slash and stab the dragon’s dual heads until the beast weakens and retreats.
- Adjust your helmet strap to secure your identity and mindset regularly as a servant of Christ’s purpose to bless others.
- Move forward in your purpose and serve.
How might you take a step to slay the dragon of distorted identity this week? Sharing your tactics and tools can serve as a step forward in equipping fellow warriors and will help us fulfill our purposes together. Comment below or in the “castle” (Beautiful Warrior Tribe Facebook group).
In the next training session, we’ll take on the third dragon–fear. I can hardly wait to charge ahead with our divine warrior skills. We’re in this together, fellow soldiers of Christ! Thanks for your service in the spiritual war against dragons and darkness. We all have “special forces” gifts to help us work effectively to accomplish Christ’s mission. And we must work together as a unit. So, I’m excited to have you along on this amazing, victorious march.
Be Encouraged,
Tina