I want to sound a note of caution about the widespread practice of binding spirits.
Some people are deeply attached to it—simply for pragmatic reasons, that is, they consider it to be good because it works. Yet they’ve never inquired of the Lord whether He wants them to operate this way. They’re just following the role-modelling of others.
Nowhere in Scripture do we see or hear of any instance of Jesus or His disciples binding a spirit through a spoken declaration. It just isn’t there. They cast out plenty of demonic entities but they don’t speak words of binding. At least that we know of.
On the other hand, one place we do find copious references to binding as a word of power is in the books of spells and sorcery that circulated through society in the first century. Binding was a well-attested occult practice. So this was probably a very good reason for the followers of Christ to steer well clear of it.
I can hear the protests already. ‘But it works!’ people say to me, as if that validates it and means it has a God-assured seal of approval. Well, of course it works. Do you think magic doesn’t?
Magic is simply the use of God’s own power against Him. It’s misuse of the creative authority He invested in the spoken word, for our own ends. It’s abusing the redemptive power He infused into blood, for our own purposes.
Unless we ask God if we can speak words of binding over an entity and have received His permission to do so, we run the risk of operating in our own fleshly strength, or worse, through occult mechanisms. It should be noted that we are unlikely ever to receive such permission for threshold spirits. We are told in the book of Jude to ask the Lord to rebuke them.
Now Jesus, I’m sure many readers are already thinking, talked about binding. Yes, indeed He did. He did so in reference to the ‘strong man’ and also to the authority He gave His church. In Matthew 16:19 BSB, He says:
‘I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven. Whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.’
The word He used for binding here is legal terminology. It refers to taking out a judicial injunction against a person or a spirit.
The very same word is used in Matthew 12:29 NKJV:
‘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.’
This translation makes it sound like binding refers to simply tying someone up so you can rob his house. But it’s actually about getting a judicial writ so that you have the unassailable right to seize someone’s possessions. In this particular instance, it’s about what the satan has stolen from you. Now you don’t just make up the legal papers for this as you go along. To take out a legal injunction, there is a process of application. You have to consult with a representative who will apply to the court for you. This would, of course, be your Advocate-at-law, your Paraclete, the Holy Spirit. Without His go-ahead, any action you take may well be more than out of line, it may be counter-productive.
Why should we be so cautious about this? Because if we are comfortable with binding, we will eventually be comfortable with being bound. We reap what we sow. If we bind, bind, bind, we will in time be ever more securely bound.
Won’t we notice this? Most likely, yes. But we’ll probably never connect it to all the spiritual binding we’ve done where we didn’t consult the Lord at any time before we launched in. Any reviling, abusing or insulting of spirits is not only grounds for retaliation, but it takes us right out into the open, away from God’s covering. Check out the dire consequences of dishonouring fallen spirits in the book of Jude.
Now Jude actually mentions the worst-case scenario—and don’t think for a moment that it never happens. I’ve known a situation that played out exactly as he outlines—with fatal consequences.
But I want to look at what happens when it’s not quite that serious. So many people get to a point in life where they feel bound down, tied up, unable to move.
I’m not talking about being stuck in the sense of feeling staked or nailed to the spot. I’m talking about stuck in the sense of being paralysed, trapped. Yet I’m not talking about constriction—the squeezing and pressure of the spirit of Python. Rather I’m talking about constraint—the uncomfortable, but paradoxically comforting, position of not being able to move forward. I’m talking about putting yourself into the hands of the spirit of wasting, about deliberate complicity with Rachab.
Why on earth would anyone unconsciously, but still intentionally, put themselves into bondage like this? Why would anyone create a false refuge that puts them into long-term spiritual captivity?
Simple. Because even a single step further into the calling of God will bring them to a place of such naked vulnerability that even the thought of it is utterly terrifying and absolutely intolerable.
This is Grace Drops and I’m Anne Hamilton. May both your Paracletes grant you Their wisdom today.
Thank you to Lorna Skinner of www.riversofmusic.co.uk for the background music.
To deal with the spirit of wasting, you first need to be able to overcome the spirit of rejection. To learn how to master it, see Dealing with Azazel: Spirit of Rejection is available as a paperback.In addition, understanding false refuges is the single most important step towards dealing with the obstacles barring you from coming into your calling. Hidden in the Cleft explains false refuges in more detail and is available as a paperback or an ebook.
The binding and loosing teaching seem to come on my scene in the early 90s.Back in the early 1990’s, I got all Liberty Savard’s books on binding and loosening spirits. Actually, I would usually get confused with exactly and specifically binding and loosening meant because I seemed to understand the opposite of how she defined each. I thought I could bind and lose my way to freedom. I just believed that that was how you do it. I think in her last book, she had been ministering for a while for a bulimic young lady, she seemed to make headway with her, but the young lady eventually fell back into her old patterns and passed at a young age. I believe Liberty died about a year ago, perhaps of a stroke? She had a very active ministry.
Thanks, Cece. I appreciate you pointing me in the direction of Liberty Savard.
Oh my goodness, I literally just ordered a book by Liberty Savard about binding! Lord I repent for any unauthorised used of binding spirits and break contracts against me in Jesus name!
Anne would binding the mind, will and soul to the mind of Jesus Christ and the will of God still considered unauthorised and or needing the permission of Holy Spirit?
Okay, I agree with you on the issue of binding but am explaining how the concept gained some traction here in the U.S.
First, Leanne Payne found by not binding demons before casting them out, they harmed the prayer recipient, ministers, or both.
Second, Francis MacNutt had made the same discovery within his ministry. Also, at their (CHM founded by Francis) schools of Healing Prayer, they teach that if you are praying for someone’s healing without their knowledge, it is better to bind the activity of a demon which then allows the person to think clearly which prepares them for deliverance. I can’t say I disagree with this.
I doubt Jesus would have needed to bind demons since they knew His authority. Contrast this to the 7 sons of Sceva, beaten by demons because they had zero authority. So perhaps, although we have authority, it is by varying degrees and the precaution is warranted.
I…say this respectfully, but I hope you remember God looks at the heart. I have heard from ministry to ministry about what the Lord won’t do in given situations when in fact, He done those very things. While some sins are plain, so much of the Word is a mystery. Binding powers and principalities is foolish and doesn’t work. But binding demons in prayer ministry? I cannot agree it is witchcraft. I have seen too many people go free in the last 15 years. And if something was wrong on the scale you indicate, our Lord is too loving and merciful not to say something to someone along the way.
Hi Kelly – thank you so much for explaining all this, especially the history. I have a lot of respect for both Leanne Payne and Francis MacNutt. However, I was unaware they had “pioneered” the practice, if that’s the right word. Actually, I would disagree with binding something when praying for someone’s healing: instead, I pray for free will to be restored and mind control to be lifted. On the other hand, if the Holy Spirit suggested to me to bind something I would do so. The point I’m trying to make is that that binding, when used in a formulaic way, without consulting the Holy Spirit if it is appropriate, is dangerous. Yes, I agree with you that some things that don’t work in some ministries work in others – and that’s part of the whole story that God doesn’t work by formula but by relationship. Therefore, if we always do things one way, especially a dangerous thing, just because “it works” without asking the Holy Spirit for permission, then we’ve defaulted to method, not relationship.
I also agree that the Lord is too loving and merciful not to say something to someone along the way – and while I don’t know of anyone who has suffered as a result of binding spirits, I do know many people who suffered intense retaliation because of dishonouring them. I also know those people were warned by the Holy Spirit and ignored the warning. Often the warning was instant, but never regarded. Years later, those people can pinpoint the moment things started to go wrong for them but have never considered that they might need to repent of the action that brought so much havoc into their lives.
Thanks again! You’ve made some excellent and valid points. It’s a great discussion.
This is Grace Drops and I’m Anne Hamilton. May both your Paracletes grant you Their wisdom today.
Both? Holy Spirit and Yeshua?
Yes, this doesn’t sound right at all. There is only one Holy Spirit. One Paraclete.
Yes. Holy Spirit and Yeshua.
In my personal experience of prayer ministry if the strategy is to bind a spirit over someone that I have been shown to pray for, from afar, the Lord or the HS gives me a picture of a white rope. I then bind the spirit that I have been shown. Otherwise I would not use this type of a prayer.
✅Thank you Sister Anne
This deeper, in more Character & Word context, insight helped me tonight.
🙏🏻
Thank You Abba Father Lord Jesus Holy Spirit.
Please grant me WISDOM