Defeat The Dragon- Defeat Depression
This article will be a journey through scripture, and by the end, we hope to understand two things:
1. The enemy’s attack on the minds of believers in 2024.
2. How we can and will overcome the attacks against our minds.
As I walked through Manchester’s busy streets, I saw a poster celebrating the Chinese New Year. According to the Chinese calendar, this is the year of the dragon. The Pentecostal Christian in me immediately came to life as I inwardly shouted, “God forbid! This is not the year of the dragon for me!” However, the Holy Spirit soon brought me back to a dream I had last year, 2023.
In the dream, I saw a giant dragon, its tail sweeping across the city, destroying everything in its path. I was able to dodge the tail and run into my house. I remember carrying my Bible and going out through the back of the house, and many people followed me. We all escaped the dragon. Then, we went to a shelter where we were given food and supplies.
Over the past few weeks, the Lord walked me through the meaning of this dream and its significance in 2024. I will take you on this journey.
Firstly, from scripture, we know the dragon is the devil, Satan, the fallen archangel Lucifer.“He laid hold of the dragon, that serpent of old, who is the Devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years; ” (Revelation 20:2, NKJV)
The dragon is after the souls of all men, believers and unbelievers alike. He does not want any soul to reconnect to the Father but wants all souls to perish.
“… Woe to the inhabitants of the earth and of the sea! For the devil has come down unto you, having great wrath, because he knoweth that he hath but a short time.” (Revelation 12:12, NKJV)
However, the dragon has declared war specifically on every person who keeps God’s commandments and has the testimony of Jesus Christ. In other words, the dragon has declared war on you and me—the church.
“And the dragon was enraged with the woman, and he went to make war with the rest of her offspring, who keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus Christ. “ (Revelation 12:17, NKJV)
He hates us because we – the church- are the only system God put in place through His Son, Jesus, to make sure Satan doesn’t prevail over the souls of men. Now, there are many attacks of the dragon against the church, and one of them, illustrated in Revelations 12, sticks out to me.
“Then the dragon tried to drown the woman with a flood of water that flowed from his mouth”. (Revelation 12:15, NLT)
In Psalm 69, David says “Save me, O God, for the floodwaters are up to my neck. Deeper and deeper, I sink into the mire; I can’t find a foothold. I am in deep water, and the floods overwhelm me. I am exhausted from crying for help; my throat is parched. My eyes are swollen with weeping, waiting for my God to help me.” Psalms 69:1-3, NLT (emphasis added)
David wasn’t describing physical waters but waves of overwhelming emotions and thoughts that were drowning, suffocating, and exhausting him. These “waters” are the thoughts that leave individuals confused, unexplainably sad, lonely, and empty. These are the people who probably smile all day but cry until their eyes are puffy at night.
The Bible says that life and death are in the tongue (Proverbs 18:21). So the dragon, understanding this, is releasing words of death from his mouth that manifest as thoughts of depression, anxiety and unworthiness in one’s mind. So, this year, the devil (the dragon) is set to release a wave of hostile, intrusive and powerful thoughts to Christians specifically.
So far, we have established three things. One, the devil is the dragon. Two, the dragon declared war against the Christians. Third, one of his weapons is the wave of negative thoughts that cause depression, anxiety and a feeling of unworthiness.
Sometimes, we can rush to look for quick solutions instead of stopping to get to the root cause and ask: Why is the enemy fighting the mind of the believer?
This reason is found in the book of Isaiah 61. Isaiah 61 is God’s declaration of salvation and freedom to all those who are broken-hearted, imprisoned in their minds (Isaiah 61:1), mourning, and in despair (Isaiah 61:2).
So, God was still talking to these depressed and broken people in verse 4 when He says,
“They will rebuild the ancient ruins, repairing cities destroyed long ago. Though they have been deserted for many generations, they will revive them.” (Isaiah 61:4, NLT)
So, these broken people have been designed by God to be repairers, visionaries, and revivalists. If the revivalist loses heart, the revival is over. What made revolutionists like Martin Luther King and Nelson Mandela so great in their pursuit? Their exceedingly strong wills and determined minds.
The people of God had been exiled in Babylon for 70 years, and the walls of Jerusalem were completely destroyed. When Nehemiah heard this, he decided to do whatever it took to rebuild Jerusalem’s walls. And he began to make progress. So, what did the enemy do? He sent taunting voices in the persons of Sanballat and Tobiah. See Nehemiah 4:1-14.
When Sanballat heard that we were building the wall of Jerusalem, he was very angry and upset. He started making fun of the Jews. Sanballat talked with his friends and the army at Samaria and said, “What are these weak Jews doing? Do they think we will leave them alone? Do they think they will offer sacrifices? Maybe they think they can finish building in only one day. They cannot bring stones back to life from these piles of trash and dirt. These are just piles of ashes and dirt!” Tobiah the Ammonite was with Sanballat. Tobiah said, “What do these Jews think they are building? If even a small fox climbed up on it, he would break down their wall of stones!” (Nehemiah 4:1-3, ERV)
So, we see the devil send waves of discouragement to the people destined to be rebuilders. This should make you angry in your spirit, angry that the enemy is lying to you, your friend, or your family member about who they really are.
Now, what do we do? The solution lies in Revelation 12:11. We must understand this scripture to defeat the dragon.
“They overcome him by the blood of the Lamb and by the words of our testimony.”
The words “they” refer to us, the church, and “him” refers to the dragon. The blood of Christ washed our sins away, giving us the right standing with God. With sin dealt with, God now entrusted the dragon’s defeat in our hands, specifically, our mouths and the words that come out of it. The Bible calls it the word of our testimony. The word testimony comes from the Greek word martyria, meaning two things:
1. Testifying – the office committed to the prophets of testifying concerning future events
2. What one testifies, testimony, i.e. before a judge
Joel 2:28 says, ‘And afterwards, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy.’
In other words, we, the body of Christ, having received the outpouring of the Spirit, will begin to release rivers of living water that will flow from within us (John 7:38). When we, as Spirit-filled Christians, release rivers of life from our mouths, we bring dead things back to life. When we intercede for our brethren and speak words of life over them in prayer and by declaring the word of God, we release rivers of life that counter the rivers of death flowing from the kingdom of darkness.
This is a call for you to pray for your friends and family in the body of Christ who are struggling with any type of evil voice in their minds. They are counting on us. They may not have the strength to pray, but you do.
When Isaiah 61 verse 1 said, “the Spirit of the Lord is upon me, and He has anointed me to bring good news to the poor…”, he was not just talking about Christ. He spoke of you and me, who have Christ living within us. The serpent of Moses swallowed the serpent of the Egyptian magicians. Likewise, the way we stop the rivers of depression and death from overwhelming God’s people is by releasing the word of God, rivers of living water, from our mouths and swallowing the rivers of death. Isaiah 61 is the word to declare and pray with.
When we engage in prayer and intercession, we are assured that God “is able, through his mighty power at work within us, to accomplish infinitely more than we might ask or think.”
