Understanding how this power works, and how to implement it, will radically change the lives of every believer that masters the how-to of this awesome gift from God.

 

Since the source of this power is spiritual, we need to have a working understanding of how spiritual energy is released.

 

John 6:63 “It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing. The words that I speak to you are spirit, and they are life (giving energy).”

 

The source of all life giving energy is in the Word of God.

 

Hebrews 4:12 “For the word of God is living and powerful (energy)…”

 

The first rule of binding and loosing is that words must be spoken which are in agreement with the Word of God.

 

A different rendering of our opening text is this: Whatever you bind on earth having been bound in heaven. This is the translation that many scholars of the original Greek believe is more accurate for this text.

 

And it makes more sense, since we are called to enforce the Word of God here on this earth, and we know from Scripture that the Word of God is forever settled in heaven. So that whatever has already been settled in heaven is the very thing that we are to declare here on this earth.

 

Which brings us to the nuts and bolts of this foundational principle.

 

The disciples noticed that Jesus spent a lot of time in prayer and that His prayers were always answered. Which prompted them to ask Jesus to teach them how to pray.

 

Luke 11:2 “So He said to them, ‘When you pray, say: Our Father in heaven, Hallowed be Your name. Your kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.”

 

The key to binding and loosing is in knowing what God’s will is in whatever situation we are praying for.

 

For example, we know that God is not willing that any should perish but that all come to repentance. If I am praying for someone’s salvation—be it a family member, a friend, or a foe—I can bind the spirit of unbelief that is hindering them from receiving the revelation knowledge that will bring them to God’s salvation.

 

No body gets saved unless a believer is praying for them, but not everybody that is being prayed for gets saved, because of their unbelief. That is where binding the spirit of unbelief can make all the difference.

 

When we pray for someone’s salvation, we are loosing the conviction of God’s Spirit over them so that they will realize that they have a need to be saved. But some people have been bound by an unbelieving spirit that does not allowed them to see their need. After we bind the spirit of unbelief that has them bound, they will be free to believe.

 

If you have a love one, or even an enemy, for whose salvation you’ve prayed and nothing has happened yet, add to your prayer for their salvation this prayer for binding the spirit of unbelief over them:

 

Pray this out loud: I bind, in the name of Jesus, the spirit of unbelief that is preventing (name the person that your are praying for) from receiving the conviction of the Holy Spirit that will allowed him/her to be saved.

 

If God was willing to violate the free will that He has given to all mankind, we would not have to bind or loose anything. The devil is the deceiver—who comes in unawares—and steals man’s ability to receive God’s salvation by binding them with unclean spirits.

 

But to those who have accepted the Word of Truth, power has been given to demolish all these demonic strongholds that keep people bound.

 

Matthew 18:19-20 “Again I say to you that if two of you agree on earth concerning anything that they ask, it will be done for them by My Father in heaven. For where two or three are gathered together in My name, I am there in the midst of them.”

 

The second rule of binding and loosing, is in the power of agreement, not just with the Word that is forever settled in heaven, but with one another who are like-minded in our beliefs as well.

 

When we speak in agreement with the Word of God in heaven, we are enabled to bind and to loose things here on earth. But when we add the power of agreement with one another, Jesus is in our midst.

 

John 10:10 “The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.”

 

It is obvious that the devil’s influence affects the masses as well as the individuals. So that as individuals we can pray binding and loosing over those who are within our sphere of influence, but as members of the church we can corporally pray for entire communities and even nations.

 

How does it all works?

 

Everything that God made, He made through the power of His spoken Word. Everything that exists today, it is maintained and sustained by the power of His spoken Word.

 

Unlike animals, we humans were created with the ability to reason and to believe on that which is literal and which can be propagated through the spoken word.

 

2 Corinthians 4:13 “And since we have the same spirit of faith, according to what is written, ‘I believed and therefore I spoke,’ we also believe and therefore speak.”

 

When we speak by faith in accordance with the written Word of God, we release the energy that is both able to restrain and to let go that which has already been settled in heaven according to the Word of God.

 

First we need to know the written Word that applies to our circumstance, then we need to speak that Word that is in agreement with the heavenly testimony—by faith believing that as we do so—the energy needed to transform our circumstance has been properly allocated and will accomplish the task for which we sent it out.

 

Isaiah 55:11 “So shall My word be that goes forth from My mouth: It shall not return to Me void, but is shall accomplish what I please, and it shall prosper in the thing for which I sent it.”

 

Notice how God is referring to the Word that goes forth from His mouth, that which He spoke; and also that sometimes it requires a process to take place before that which He spoke comes to pass, since prosperity is a process that sometimes takes time.

 

When we by faith bind or loose anything in accordance with the Word of God, we need to rest in the fact that the energy has already been released and the process started, that will eventually bring about the desire results.

 

Remember that we are dealing with spiritual entities when we are binding and loosing.

 

Angels as well as demons are spiritual creatures whose none-physical bodies are made of energy and respond to the energy that governs them, which is the Word of God, and to those who by faith speak it.

 

Jude 9 “Yet Michael the archangel, in contending with the devil, when he disputed about the body of Moses, dared not bring against him a reviling accusation, but said, ‘The Lord rebuke you!’”

 

Remember that it was through the Word, that God created everything that exists, be it physical or spiritual. So that everything must submit to the power of the Word of God, which resides in our Lord Jesus Christ.”

 

John 16:24 “Until now you have asked nothing in My name. Ask, and you will receive, that your joy maybe full.”

 

So that when we bind and we loose in the name of Jesus—by faith in His written Word—we are enforcing His Word over our physical realm, by exercising the dominion that Adam lost, but which Jesus has restored to us in His name, in this present age.

 

The third rule of binding and losing has to do with us walking in the freedom that the forgiveness of our Lord has brought into our lives.

 

Matthew 18:27 “Then the master of that servant was moved with compassion, released him, and forgave him the debt.”

 

Notice that at the point of salvation—delivered from a debt that we could not possibly pay—we were released, and enabled to release others that were in debt to us as well.

 

Failure to release those who are indebted to us, puts us back into a place of bondage, powerless to free ourselves or others.

 

Matthew 18:33-35 “Should you not also have had compassion on your fellow servant, just as I had pity on you? And his master was angry, and delivered him to the torturers until he should pay all that was due to him.
So My heavenly Father also will do to you if each of you, from his heart, does not forgive his brother his trespasses.”

 

Notice how our Lord brings it down to the very personal level of if each of you fail to do this. Let’s examine this closer, why does the penalty seem so harsh for one single violation of this principle?

 

Remember that we are dealing with spiritual power that is given to us in order to restrain spiritual entities, it can in no way be used against or to control human people, but the demons that drive them.

 

At the point of our salvation, the Lord forgave us all our trespasses and released us from all our sins. Then He gave us His name and the authority to bind and to loose spiritual entities on behalf of those who are still bound by the enemy.

 

If we are not willing to forgive those who sinned against us, then we are still in the flesh, and not in the spirit. We have authority over nothing.

 

Acts 26:18 “To open their eyes (through binding and loosing), in order to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and an inheritance among those who are sanctified by faith in Me.”

 

Let us come in full agreement with the Word of God, let us speak by faith the word that binds the spirits and that looses the hindering darkness, and by all means make sure that we hold nothing against our humankind.