Binding And Loosing

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.

 Matthew 16:19

I've  been listening to Beth Moore's "Believing God" series on CD, after having read the book.  It's really great stuff!  Honestly, that book has helped turn me around and enabled me to get out of the pit of clinical depression.

But there was something interesting she said on one of the discs.  In the above Scripture, Jesus is using a tense in Greek that means "has already been".  So really He is saying "whatever you bind on Earth will be what has already been bound in Heaven."  In essence, He's repeating part of the prayer that He teaches the Apostles.

Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name,

your kingdom come,
your will be done,
    on earth as it is in heaven.

Matthew 6:9-10

Look at that last part.  Jesus is guiding us to pray that things on Earth happen as they already have in Heaven.

Why is this so powerful a thought and revelation?  Because we are given power to do things that God has already done!  Through all of our struggles we wonder how we can survive and do what we need to do.  But God already did it!  He has already overcome these struggles!  And He has given us the power to do these same things on Earth.

Do you think that God wants Satan bound up and powerless in our lives?  Well, He already did that in the spiritual realm, and has given us the power to do that in our Earthly lives.  Does God want the Holy Spirit free and loose to blow around us and through us?  He has allowed that in Heaven and released the Spirit onto Earth, so all we have to do is loose the Spirit within us.  God isn't asking us to take on unreasonable challenges.  All he wants us to do is use the power that He gives us and do in our lives what He has already done spiritually.

Grab hold of that thought!  God gives us power and authority to do what He has done in this regard!  And because God already did the "heavy lifting", our job is that much easier.