In Matthew 16:13-19 and 18:18-20, our Lord gives us God’s battle plan for pulling down strongholds, for binding the strongman, and for seizing spiritual spoils. The prayer strategy Christ provides for despoiling the devil and stripping lost souls from his clutches involves binding and loosing. Contrary to the teachings of Roman Catholicism, the power to “bind on earth” what is “bound in heaven” and to “loose on earth” what is “loosed in heaven” was not given exclusively to Peter. Instead, as these two passages show, Christ gave the power to bind and loose to all of His disciples.

When it comes to the power to bind and loose, it goes without saying that we will never be able to bind anything on earth not bound in heaven or to loose anything on earth not loosed in heaven. We can no more step outside of God’s will or strip sovereignty from His hand in this area of binding and loosing than we can in any other area. To step out from under the authority of heaven by attempting to do anything Christ has not commanded or commissioned us to do is to doom our best efforts to futility. Nowhere is this more true than in our supplication for lost souls.

The all important question in this critical matter is how we can know what is bound and loosed in heaven in order to pray accordingly upon the earth. According to Jesus, this is accomplished through covenant prayer. Covenant prayer occurs when believers “gather together” in the name and presence of Christ. As they pray, Christ will reveal His will to “two” or more believers. Afterward, these believers, having been brought to agreement in regards to the divine will by divine revelation, can covenant together in praying for God’s will to be done. Once they do, Christ promises their prayer will be answered. 

Prayer meetings for lost souls should be held in the name and presence of Christ. In these meetings, we should seek divine revelation as to the Satanic strongholds in the lives of the lost for whom we are burdened to pray. Once Christ reveals to two or more of us the particular stronghold keeping some lost soul from coming to a true knowledge of God, we can covenant together in prayer for the pulling down of that stronghold. Afterward, we can rest assured that the strongman has been bound and the lost loosed to come to Christ for salvation.

This matter of binding and loosing, of pulling down strongholds, and of bringing men to obedience to Christ, should never be undertaken by the fainthearted. All who drop to their knees in this struggle for men’s souls will find themselves fiercely assaulted and assailed by the adversary. Nothing provokes Apollyon more than the audacity of small bands of prayer warriors invading his territory to spoil his goods—the lost souls of men.

Sample Prayer:

I praise you Lord Jesus for destroying the works of the devil. I thank you for giving to your church the power to bind and loose. As one possessing this extraordinary power, I ask you to bind the strongman and spoil his goods by stripping him of his armor and pulling down his strongholds in the lives of the lost for who I am burdened to pray. I also pray that the lost who are loosed by your binding of the strongman will be brought into such obedience to Christ as to prevent the devil from ever regaining any place in their lives. Amen.