Matthew 18:18-19 – The Prayer of Binding and Loosing; the Prayer of Agreement
Jesus said in Matthew 12:29, “Or else how can one enter a strong man’s house and plunder his goods unless he first binds the strong man? And then he will plunder his house.” When praying over a situation or a person, first bind the strong man (the devil) behind the situation causing the trouble or driving the person. Bind the devil off the person. We don’t wrestle against flesh and blood (2 Corinthians 4:4; Ephesians 6:12; 2 Timothy 2:25-26). Our true enemy, the real troublemaker, is the devil (John 10:10).
When someone comes across your mind or The Lord prompts you to pray for someone, for example, stop what you are doing and say, “Satan, in the Name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, you devil operating in the life of (or against) ____________, according to Matthew 18:18, I bind you in your operations in his or her life. I demand you stop your maneuvers today. Jesus gave me His authority to tread on serpents and scorpions and over all your power (Mark 16:17; Luke 10:19). You loose ____________, and let him (or her) go!”
If the person has not yet made Jesus Lord of his or her life, pray, “Now Lord, I ask You to send laborers across ____________’s path, according to Your Word in Matthew 9:38. You know who ____________ will listen to. Open ____________’s ears to hear, eyes to see, and heart to understand what the Holy Spirit is saying to him (or her). I believe I receive it done, in the Name of Jesus.” Keep your faith strong in what you prayed, based on The Word of God. Every thought or negative bit of news that seems contrary to what you just prayed, cast down (2 Corinthians 10:5) in the Name of Jesus, and begin to thank and praise God that His Word is true and coming to pass in the life of the person for whom you prayed. Wherever you see the devil stealing, killing, or destroying (John 10:10), you can stop his activities with the prayer of binding and loosing.
You can do the same in the area of your finances. If you are a tither and giver, Malachi 3:11 says the devourer is rebuked, and command him to take his hands off your finances. Loose God’s ministering spirits to go and bring in your harvest (Hebrews 1:14). Praise and thank The Lord continually that He supplies your every need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus (Philippians 4:19).
The bottom line is to base your prayer on The Word of God and the Name of Jesus. God’s Word is His will, and it is in His Name that every knee shall bow (Romans 14:11). Jesus is The Word made flesh. He is the One who went to the Cross and into the regions of the damned, annihilating the devil and all his demons. He made a show of them openly, triumphing over them in it (Colossians 2:14-15). In His Name is the power, and He has given the power of attorney to use His Name to every believer (Mark 16:17). With confidence in His Name, which is above every name, be bold to step out and speak it in faith to deliver all who are oppressed by the devil (Mark 16:17-18).
Whatever you bind on earth is bound in heaven. This is not referring to the heaven where God dwells, but to the atmospheric heaven. Satan has already been cast out of God’s presence (Isaiah 14:12; Luke 10:17-18). This is referring to the prince of the power of the air (Ephesians 2:2), the wicked spirits in heavenly places (Ephesians 6:12). God has delegated His authority to believers to bind the devil and his activities in the earth, just as He did. After Jesus rose from the dead and was about to ascend into heaven to take His place at the right hand of God, He said, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. (You) go therefore and make disciples of all nations” (Matthew 28:18-19). In other words, He told believers to go into all the world, take His power and His Name, and do what He did – and greater (John 14:12). In fact, in Mark 16 He spoke of the signs that would follow believers who dared to use the power of His Name: “These signs will accompany those who believe: In My name they will cast out demons; they will speak with new tongues, they will take up serpents; if they drink any deadly thing, it will not hurt them; they will lay hands on the sick, and they will recover” (verses 17-18).
Then in Matthew 18:19, speaking of agreement prayer, Jesus adds even further power to the prayer of binding and loosing: “Again I say to you, that if two of you agree on earth about anything they ask, it will be done for them by My Father who is in heaven”. The very power of the risen Lord and the authority of His Name, together with the operation of the Holy Spirit guaranteed by the new covenant, is operative when you and I set ourselves in agreement. When we use the power of agreement prayer and bind satan, coming against him in the Name of Jesus and with The Word of the living God, it will be done on earth as it is in heaven. But we must be diligent to keep our agreement faith on it.
The prayer of binding and loosing and the prayer of agreement are two of God’s power tools to keep the devil under our feet as we fulfill God’s plans, purposes, and pursuits on the earth.