– My Journey From Zeal to Truth
“Satan, I bind you in the name of Jesus!!”
The first time I heard this prayed, my heart leapt. It sounded so bold, so powerful, so victorious. I thought, Yes! I want to pray like that too!
Before long, I was praying the same way. In fact, my prayers sounded something like this:
“Satan, I bind you in the name of Jesus. The Word says in Matthew 18:18 that whatever is bound on earth is bound in heaven, and whatever is loosed on earth is loosed in heaven. The Word also says that all authority has been given to us in heaven and on earth, so I bind you and command you to loose our finances, our health, our family…”
We prayed this way with great confidence—quoting Scripture, feeling in charge.
Only later did I realise we were pulling verses completely out of context.
The First Seed of Doubt
You might say, “But the Bible says so! Look at Matthew 18:18. And what about Matthew 12:29, where Jesus says you have to bind the strong man before plundering his house?”
I used to say the same thing—until something happened that shook my confidence in this whole approach.
One day, while making my bed, I was listening to a message by John MacArthur. He was talking about how so many people claim to “bind” the devil, but if we truly had that authority, why is he still roaming freely?
It made me pause… but only for a moment.
Back then I was fully immersed in the New Apostolic Reformation (NAR) movement.
And honestly? My reaction was, “What does he know? He’s just a Baptist.”
I brushed it off.
The Shocking Discovery
Years later, I was preparing to teach a Bible College lecture on prayer. As usual, I wanted to make sure I could explain every point well. I came to Matthew 18:18 in the notes and decided to study it more closely.
To my amazement, when I read Matthew 18:15–18 in context, I discovered it wasn’t talking about the devil at all—it was about church discipline!
I couldn’t believe it.
I messaged our pastor and told him I couldn’t teach that verse as it was presented. He agreed with me, but then suggested I use Matthew 12:29 instead.
So I looked that one up… and again, what I found didn’t support how we had been using it.
The Conflict of Conscience
There I was—committed to truth, standing in front of students, and realising I couldn’t teach what I knew wasn’t biblical.
I quietly skipped over that section.
I certainly couldn’t publicly correct the senior pastor of our mother church during a lecture.
But inside, a question kept gnawing at me:
If the Bible doesn’t tell us to “bind” Satan in prayer, what does it tell us to do instead?
Don’t miss Part 2… Do we have the authority? What do these Scriptures actually mean?