Unleash Heaven’s Power: Your Authority to Bind and Loose with Prayer

In the sixteenth chapter of Matthew, Jesus talking to His disciples at Caesarea Philippi.

He asked them what people were saying about Him; He wanted to know who people said He was. His disciples told Him that some said John the Baptist, some said Elijah, some said Jeremiah, or other prophets.

He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?”

“Simon Peter answered and said, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”

Jesus answered and said to him, “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but My Father who is in heaven. And I also say to you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build My church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it. 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.”

Then He commanded His disciples that they should tell no one that He was Jesus the Christ (Matthew 15-20 NKJV).

If you have an encounter with Jesus, the Father is the One who has revealed Him to you. No one can reveal Jesus to you in a way that you have a close, intimate encounter with Him. Only the Father reveals Him to you.

When you encounter Jesus, it doesn’t matter what you’re going through or what hell is trying to throw at you—nothing can prevail against you. Jesus says that evil cannot prevail against you: “…upon this rock I will build my church, and all the powers of hell will not conquer it” (Matthew 16:18 NLT).

Do not let yourself get into that place of depression, anxiety, or the attitude that things are never going to get better. None of that thinking is real or true; it will pass! Your current challenge will be like a chapter in a book. It may be the most miserable chapter in the whole book. But turn to Jesus and then the next chapter is rainbows and butterflies, and wonders of the Kingdom. You have to trust the Lord that hell cannot prevail against you, cannot conquer you. That’s what the Word says.

Jesus says that He 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.

Pray and Obey

He then tells His disciples not to tell other people He is Jesus, the Christ. That seems odd, but it is really insightful. There will be intimate moments between you and Jesus when He will give you keys that are just between you and Him. You have to be intimate with Jesus to hear Him speak and to hear the Father speak.

Maybe you have had a “What Would Jesus Do” bracelet? The answer: Jesus would pray. Often Jesus said He had to get away and hear the Father speak (see Luke 5:16; Matthew 26:36,42; Mark 1:35 and others). He would get away to hear what the Father said, then He would do what the Father told Him. He would say what the Father said. He didn’t do whatever He felt like doing. He didn’t do whatever emotion was telling Him or what someone else said He needed to do. He prayed and obeyed.

Jesus got in trouble when He didn’t join the family to travel home from Jerusalem. His mother said, “Son, why have You done this to us? Look, Your father and I have sought You anxiously” (Luke 2:48 NKJV). His heavenly Father told Him that He was to obey His mama. Luke 2:51-52 records for us that, “Then He went down with them and came to Nazareth, and was subject to them, but His mother kept all these things in her heart. And Jesus increased in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and men.” So Jesus understood that His mother had authority over Him. He was a quick learner.

So years later, I believe that when Jesus’s mother told Him to do something at a wedding, there is an important teaching for us to understand (John 2:1-11). When His mother learned there was no more wine to serve the guests, she told Jesus He had to do something. Jesus replied that it wasn’t His time yet. The Bible doesn’t give us the whole picture, but I think He went and talked to His heavenly Father about what His mother said to Him.

I think He went to the Father and said His mom told Him to do something. Then maybe Jesus said something such as, “I’m supposed to do what You say I’m supposed to do, Father, and You have not told me anything about this situation. This will be a miracle, and You haven’t told Me to start doing miracles yet.”

I think His Father told Him to mind His mama and everything would work out. So Jesus told the servants to fill the water pots with water—that turned into even better wine than was first served.

The Bible doesn’t tell every detail, but we can get insight from the fact that Jesus said, I only do what the Father tells me to do (John 5:19).

You don’t need to do anything until you go to the Father to seek His voice about the matter. There are life decisions that you will have to make. First, you need to hear the Father speak. You need to do what He tells you. If you do that, you will make the right decision. You can’t lose if you do what He tells you to do.

Jesus went to hell and said in essence, “Too bad, devil, I am here to take away the keys. You no longer have power and authority over My people.” Jesus’s sacrifice on the Cross means that the devil no longer has power or authority over us.

Jesus has the keys, and He is giving them to us and telling us to choose life. He came to give us life, and life more abundant than we have ever known. In Matthew 18:19-20 (NKJV), Jesus says:

“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.”

Jesus is saying that if you are gathered in His name, He has given you His keys and His authority, and if you come together in unity, there is nothing you can’t do. Pastor Troy and I have seen that truth come to life. When we are in unity, when we agree, we come before the Father because we know His heart. He has told us to do some of the most impossible, incredible things that neither of us had a skillset for, we didn’t have an answer for, and we weren’t prepared for—but we know we heard Him speak so we prayed and obeyed.

And look at what has happened because we have! In 29 years, we are a church that is impacting the world for Jesus, and we’ve set captives free with the keys He has given us. We are like the old-school jailer with the big ring of keys—we walk in and set people free. When Pastor Troy goes in to rescue kids, he says, “I have the key that is going to set you free.” He takes the authority that Jesus gave him and sets people free from all types of bondage.

I am anointed to go in as mom to all the kids and make sure they have a family. I make sure they are taken care of in all the ways they need. Walking in that anointing brings me joy!

Walking in your anointing is life-giving. If you are feeling exhausted and miserable, ask God where your key is. Seek Him and ask Him to show you where your key is. You have to find your key because you can’t walk in someone else’s anointing. You need the key He has for you to walk in because it will open the door to your perfect place in the body of Christ. We are all part of His body, and there is a perfect place where you fit. Ask the Lord where your key is. Get that one key from Him, walk in that, and soon He will give you another key.

Jesus entrusts us with the keys to His Kingdom so we can share the Gospel, so we can renew our minds, so we can enjoy life abundantly, and so we can have intimacy with the Lord. Jesus opened the door to our salvation as only He could. He has so much more in the Kingdom for each of us. Let Him open those doors for you, too.