Loosing

Greetings,

                Imagine this. It’s a cool dark night. The clouds are scattered across the sky in dark and eerie formations. Their appearance is but a mirror of your hearts intent. You stand outside of a giant estate, one that you’ve observed for some time, ever since it was assigned to you. Your job: break in and steal as much stuff as possible.

                Your agility is commendable. The fence guarding the property proves to be more of an inconvenience than a boundary. After you scale it, you creep through the trees and head for the side entrance. Everything is going so perfectly. These unfortunate people are going to be robbed blind, and you are going to be promoted by your boss. You are gloating so loudly inside of your head that you fail to notice one last obstacle.

                You make a break for the door, but as you round the corner of the mansion you find that there is a large man. He is standing at the door with four gigantic snarling dogs. They look like wolves with their grandiose fangs and they all begin to bark in your direction. As you prepare for the worst you realize that they are all on leashes. The man is holding them and he is not letting go. How strange!?

                You regain your composure and begin to creep towards the door again. As you close your proximity you realize that the man has no intention of letting go of the dogs. He is just looking at you and crying. You walk right around the dogs in plain sight, pick the lock, and walk in the house according to plan. You rummage through the various rooms and steal the most valuable things you can find. Once your sack is full, you exit by the same door you came in.  You walk past the dogs that are now practically foaming at the mouth. The man just won’t let them go.  You can’t help but hear His cry over your laughter.  “God, why do you destroy my life and take away everything that is valuable to me!” It dawns on you that he may not have even realized he had dogs on a leash to let go of…

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                The purpose of this short story is to illustrate reality for many Christians. The thief is intended to represent the devil’s cohorts that are sent on assignment to destroy our lives. The house represents our life. The things in the house represent the various elements of our lives. The house is surrounded by a fence because although there is protection from God, it does not prevent us from coming under attack. The man represents the Christian and his dogs represent God’s defensive provision. The dogs are on a leash to illustrate the principle of this letter—loosing. Until the man let’s go of those dogs (hence loosing them) there is nothing that they can do to destroy the works of the enemy.

                Last week we discussed binding. Binding is akin to tying up spirits so that they cannot conduct their wicked activity. We also discussed that binding is only one side of a two-sided coin. The other side of that coin is loosing. They go hand-in-hand. Notice how Jesus speaks of both of them in the same breath.

                “And I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.” (Matthew 16:19)

                This scripture, which deals with binding and loosing, also includes a third element: the keys of the kingdom of heaven. What are these keys? We have to keep in mind that whenever we attempt to deal with something involving “the kingdom,” we are dealing with truths that relate to the dimension where God is King. In other words, we are speaking about realities that find their source from outside of the earth realm. In essence, the keys of the kingdom are the promises of God that can be spoken over things in this world to conform them to heavenly realities. Put simply, they are scriptures. As we begin to engage life by speaking scripture over ourselves and the situations around us, we are also given the ability to bind and loose. We bind from heaven to earth, and we loose from heaven to earth. These operations allow us to enforce the will of God in this world.
                While binding stops certain spiritual activity from taking place, loosing causes certain spiritual activity to start taking place. How is this useful? We don’t just want to stop negative activity; we want to promote positive activity. In other words, good has to replace evil. We bind the wickedness and loose the good so that no gaps are left unfilled.

                When we are engaged in spiritual warfare we are to bind and loose. In a Bible study for example, not only do I want to bind distraction and arguments, I want to loose brotherhood, acceptance, peace, and joy. Basically, whatever things, attitudes or activities that are “of God” in Scripture are things we can pray for to be loosed. We can loose the fruit of the spirit (Galatians 5:22-23). We can loose the spirit of the Lord, the spirit of wisdom, the spirit of understanding, the spirit of council, the spirit of might, the spirit of knowledge, and the spirit of the fear of the Lord (Isaiah 11:2). When this type of activity is at work in our lives it is a great benefit to us!

                Moreover, we can also loose angelic activity. In spite of what some people have said, it is possible to loose angels to war in the spirit realm. Some people say, “Why do we need angels when we have Jesus?” Well, if that were a valid question then let me ask you this: why does God bother having an angelic army (2 Kings 6:17, Isaiah 66:15, Revelation 12:7-9)? Why do you think He is called the Lord of Hosts? Do you think they are just there to stand around and play harps! This is what the Bible says of their ministry.

                “But to which of the angels has He ever said: “Sit at My right hand, Till I make Your enemies Your footstool?” Are they not all ministering spirits sent forth to minister for those who will inherit salvation?” (Hebrews 1:13-14)

                They minister to us. Part of their ministry is to fight battles on our behalf in the spirit realm. Think back to our story in the beginning of this letter. Many of you reading this are like that poor man that just stands there and cries at God. The thief goes in your house, takes your stuff, leaves, laughs at you, and gets promoted. You on the other hand are literally standing there with access to an army that can be loosed! What can we expect when we begin to loose the ministry of angels to destroy the works of the wicked one? We can expect that the foolish thief will take his nasty self out of your stuff so quick he won’t ever want to go back. He’ll probably get hurt pretty bad in the process of escaping too!

                So let’s get practical. How do we loose? I’ve typed out some prayers below that can be used as examples. Tailor them to the leading of the Spirit for your particular situation and watch God’s kingdom begin to go to work for you like you’ve never imagined. Just like binding, this is not theory—this is a proven art of war.

                “Father, right now I loose joy in this place (house, workplace, church, etc.). I thank you that your kingdom is righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit, and I declare this place is kingdom territory in Jesus’ name, amen.”

                “Father, right now I loose a spirit of might in my friend (person you are praying for). Just like the spirit of might rested upon Jesus, I thank you that a spirit of might now rests upon my friend. You have not given us a spirit of fear but of power. Thank you for your empowerment in Jesus’ name, amen.”

                “Father, right now I loose warring angels to destroy the works of witchcraft in my neighborhood. I declare that darkness can no longer prevail and the glorious light of Jesus Christ will break through in Jesus’ name, amen.”

                “Father, right now I loose angels of deliverance to break every demonic cord and bondage that the enemy is using to hold my friend captive such as (name specific areas of oppression in the friends life) in Jesus’ name, amen.”

                As you can see, loosing has a wide range of applicability. The trick is not to memorize these prayers, but to see them as a guide. During your prayer times, be sensitive to the Holy Spirit. Allow Him to lead you into binding and loosing and you will find that the power of your prayer life will be ramped up by a whole order of magnitude.

Binding

Greetings,

                Have you ever looked at a contraption, pondered everything you were taking in, and asked yourself, “so how exactly does this work?” I like to think about the cockpit of an airplane. There are a lot of buttons, switches, and gauges. Until trained, you can look at a cockpit; you can understand that it can be used to direct an airplane, but you will not know how it works. The same can be true of spiritual warfare based on the Word of God. You can understand that the Word of God contains everything necessary to engage the powers of darkness, but until trained, it can be like looked at a cockpit. There is so much to take in and so much possibility, where do we begin?

                This letter and those that will follow are going to explain the language of spiritual warfare. When engaging the powers of darkness in prayer, there are certain phrases that seasoned prayer veterans will use on a regular basis. When we are provided with the language of spiritual warfare, it removes the veil of confusion. It will allow even beginners to know exactly what they are doing. It is in this way that the saints are equipped, something that God is getting very serious about in this hour.

“And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ” (Ephesians 4:11-12 NKJV)

                When I was growing up in the church, I learned a lot about Jesus, but almost nothing about warfare. That’s why when God first started taking me into the arena of spiritual warfare I simply didn’t know how to effectively address the powers of darkness in prayer. I would pray that God would help me with things, and I would pray that He would provide me with the things I needed. I would also thank Him for my blessings. This was prayer, but this was not warfare. Unfortunately, I have observed that this is the extent of prayer for many Christians.

                Warfare involves confronting the enemy. Just like real war, if soldiers simply ask their guns to help them and thank their guns for their blessings they won’t get very far. In fact, when their enemies find them they will be mercilessly shot at and ambushed. Some of you reading this have been mercilessly shot at and ambushed by the enemy. It’s time to begin to use your weapons.

                The language of binding is the first aspect that I’m going to explain. It comes from the following verse.

“And I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven” (Matthew 16:19)

Binding and loosing really go hand in hand, but we are going to address them one at a time. Binding involves tying up, inhibiting the activity of, and cutting off. When someone is tied and gagged in the natural, they pose no threat. They cannot stop whatever is happening around them because they are bound. Just like a person (or animal) can be bound in the natural, things can be bound in the heavens.

When we talk about binding in the heavens, we are talking about inhibiting certain types of spiritual activity. This is necessary because getting certain things done in the spirit realm requires that certain spirits are tied up. Let’s consider an example.

Let’s say there is a certain man named Burt. Burt is single, wild, and just so happens to be a raging alcoholic. Burt’s friend is named Will. Will is a Christian and has been trying to get Burt to come to his Bible Study for months. Burt seems open to the invitation and plans to go almost every time. However, when the day comes and Will goes to pick Burt up, Burt is never home. It never fails that there was some party, some conflict at the bar, or some other excuse involving alcohol that thwarted Burt’s genuine intention to attend the Bible Study. The excuse always ends with “maybe next time.”

In cases like this the course of events are often being directed from the spirit realm. It is no coincidence that after months of invitations Burt has yet to make one Bible Study. Chances are that a spirit of alcoholism is working overtime to direct Burt to anything and everything that will keep him from meeting Jesus. Until this spirit is bound, it is possible that he will continue to work “coincidences” into Burt’s life indefinitely.

As a responsible Christian, Will should not just pray that God “would help” Burt to show up. He should use his kingdom citizenship and authority to BIND the spirit of alcoholism that is at work in Burt’s life. When this spirit is bound, Burt’s excuses will dry up.

Think about it like this. If a guard is standing in front of a building to keep you out, what is the easiest way to get into that building? The answer: the easiest way is to immobilize the guard so that he cannot prevent you from going in. If this is possible, why would one waste time to consider any other alternatives?

This was the exact point that Jesus was making when He spoke the following:

“No man can enter into a strong man's house, and spoil his goods, except he will first bind the strong man; and then he will spoil his house.” (Mark 3:27)

Wicked spirits can serve as strong men in the heavens. This activity will occur on three major levels. First, there can be a strong man in the life of an individual. Second, there can be a strong man over a family or community. Third, there can be a strong man over large geographies like cities, states and nations. In many cases, all of the above are true. Binding the strong men that get in the way of the advancement of the kingdom is a necessary part of our faith.

To illustrate the importance of binding in the heavens consider this. Pastor Yonggi Cho of the largest church in the world (having nearly 1 million members) attributes his success to binding up the strongman over South Korea. What did it take? To bind up a spirit on this level it took one year of 24 hour prayer. Now that it is bound, believers there continue to pray 24 hours per day to keep it bound. Binding is a very real, very powerful, and clearly scriptural weapon of warfare. Although a single believer will not be able to successfully bind a spirit that is operating on a national level, we can bind the strongmen that hold captive our friends and family members.

When it comes to binding, I need to make a point of clarification. We must understand that binding spirits is not the same as casting spirits out. While casting evil spirits out is also an important part of our faith (Mark 16:17), it is a very different operation. When it comes to individuals, it is often necessary to bind the spirits keeping them from Christ in order for them to see Jesus clearly. Once an individual has received Jesus and they want deliverance, casting evil spirits out of them becomes another issue entirely. Binding does not cast spirits out, it simply keeps them from operating.

On corporate levels, binding is particularly important. For instance, I will never host a Bible study without first binding the spirits of distraction and confusion. In a church setting, there is no telling who may be among those gathered. In order for God’s Spirit to flow, any evil spirits that may want to operate through individuals should be bound prior to the service. Witches are often sent to churches by their covens for this very reason. They will fail in their assignments if the spirits they carry in with them are bound.

The language of binding is simple. We simply have to discern what kind of activity we want to see stopped. Once we do, we simply speak to that activity in the following way:

“I BIND the spirit of (alcoholism, distraction, witchcraft, etc.) with chains from heaven. You will not work, operate, manifest, or so much as make a peep in the mighty name of Jesus. According to the Word of God, whatever I bind on earth is bound in heaven and whatever I loose on earth is loosed in heaven. Therefore ___________ you are bound up hand and foot and all ability for you to conduct your wicked activity is cancelled in Jesus’ name”

When we are conducting spiritual warfare, we always do it in the name of Jesus because it is His name that is above every name. He has all power in heaven and on earth (Matthew 28:18) and when we speak His Word in His name, we release His power. As we are releasing His power, we use our authority in Him to directly confront the powers of darkness. Think about the soldier example. We don’t speak to our guns; we point our guns and fire them at the enemy. Speak to the spirits you are binding and call them bound. You will undoubtedly find great power being released. This is not theory; it is a proven art of war.