Aggressive and Authoritative Prayers

I believe the Holy Spirit is telling the Church to pray aggressively and authoritatively as we are approaching the close of this age. There are two specific forms of prayer which are expressions of aggressive praying. One is, "The prayer of binding and loosing" and the other is, "A specific directed, persistent prayer given by the Holy Spirit".

I am not suggesting that we can ever exhaust the possibilities of praying. Rather, these prayers we are about to discuss just begin to open the door, for there is more to be entered into in aggressive and authoritative prayers.

The Prayer of Binding and Loosing

Jesus said to Peter, "And I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven" (Matthew 16:19, KJV, emphasis added).

By saying the above, Jesus had conferred to Peter the most tremendous spiritual authority, an authority to be exercised on earth but effective in heaven. Notice that in Matthew 18 Jesus gave the same promise, but this time it was given in the plural:

"Verily I say unto you, whatsoever ye shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever ye shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. Again I say unto you, that if two of you shall agree on earth as touching any thing that they shall ask, it shall be done for them of my Father which is in heaven. For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them" (Matt. 18:18 - 20, KJV, emphasis added).

One of the advantages of the King James translation of the Bible is that it preserves the distinction, in the second person, between singular and plural which does not exist in Modern English. Usually we say "you" whether we are talking to one person or to more than one person. But in the Elizabethan English they say "thou" to mean one and "ye" to mean more than one.

For instance, Jesus said to Peter at the Last Supper, "Simon, Simon, behold, Satan hath desired to have you, that he may sift you as wheat: but I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not: and when thou art converted, strengthen thy brethren" (Luke 22:31, 32, KJV, emphasis added).

Notice that "thee", "thy" and "thou" are all singular.

Let us go back to Matt. 18:19 again. The Greek word for "agree" is "sumphoneo" which in English means, "in perfect harmony" or "in perfect accord with one another". It does not mean intellectual agreement, like in many of our Local Church prayer meetings, to pray for someone who is sick. It means harmony in the spirit. If you don't have harmony, don't waste your time in the prayer meeting. Your prayer will not be answered.

In my opinion, a more accurate translation for Matt. 18:20 is: "For where two or three have been led together into My Name, there am I in the midst of them". The word "led" speaks of a leader - the Holy Spirit.

Paul said, "For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God" (Romans 8:14, NKJV).

So, Jesus was speaking about believers brought together by the Holy Spirit around the focus of the Name of Jesus - not in the basis of denomination or doctrine, but around the Person of Christ represented by His Name. Clearly, the exercising of the authority of binding and loosing depends on the leading of the Holy Spirit.

On the above basis alone, Jesus said, "Whatsoever ye shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever ye shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven" (Matt. 18:18, KJV, emphasis added).

In Greek, the phrases "shall be bound" and "shall be loosed" are very emphatic. The tense used here in English is a perfect past participle and not a simple past. For example, if I say: "The door was closed yesterday" which is a simply past, I say nothing about the situation of the door today - opened or closed. But if I use the perfect participle I will say: "The door has been closed" which implies that the door is still closed now. In other words, the perfect past participle tells you something that happened in the past with continuing application right on into the present.

This was what Jesus actually put it in Matt. 18:18. - Very emphatic and very accurate with no room for any kind of alternative or dispute or doubt. Notice that there are actually two ways of looking at what Jesus said - one, emphasized on man's responsibility and the other, emphasized on God's sovereignty.

On man's responsibility

"Whatsoever ye shall bind on earth shall be 'haven't been' bound in heaven". The moment you bind it on earth it is bound in heaven. In other words, your action is decisive. As you take action on earth its consequence is effective in heaven.

On God's sovereignty

"Whatsoever ye shall bind on earth will be there which has already been bound in heaven". This places all the emphasis on God's sovereignty. In other words, you can only bind on earth what has already been bound in heaven.

However, it is extremely important to note that in whichever way you choose to look at it, it still places upon us the responsibility to do it, because until it is done it is not effective. Actually it is the same truth with two different emphases. What I am trying to say is the fact that we have a much greater responsibility and authority than we are wiiling to face up to! God places the initiative to bind and loose on us and He just goes along with us.

The importance of binding and loosing

I have spent a lot of time and effort to explain the principle of binding and loosing because it is extremely important in spiritual warfare. Binding and loosing essentially cover any situation you can think of. Basically if you know how to bind and loose, there is no situation to which you do not have the answer. In those two verses (Matt. 18:18 and 19) God gave us all the authority that will ever be neeeded in warfare prayer.

The need of the right relationship

The whole essence of the matter is having the right relationship between God's people. The authority of binding and loosing is not given to those who are not in right relatioship. God has invited believers to share the Throne with Him:

Paul said, "... and raised up up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, ..." (Eph. 2:6, NKJV).

God has got to take some elementary precaution because the heavenly realm is going to have problem if His people are not in right relation with one another.

Binding the Strongman

The following passages of Scripture spotlight the two kingdoms in conflict, the Kingdom of God and the kingdom of Satan:

Jesus said, "But if I cast out demons with the finger of God, surely the kingdom of God has come upon you. When a strong man, fully armed, guards his own palace, his goods are in peace. But when a stronger than he comes upon him and overcomes him, he takes from him all his armor in which he trusted, and divides his spoils" (Luke 11:20 - 22, NKJV, emphasis added).

The strongman is the devil fully armed and Jesus is the One stronger than the devil. The devil guarded his goods kept in his palace and he was in peace thinking that no one could overcome him. But Jesus came upon him, and took from him his armor and his spoils. The devil is therefore an unarmed foe now. The armor is on our side.

There is a parallel passge in Matthew:

Jesus said, "But if I cast out demons by the Spirit of God, surely the kingdom of God has come upon you. Or how can one enter a strong man's house and plunder his good, unless he first binds the strong man? An then he will plunder his house" (Matthew 12:28, 29, emphasis added).

By comparing the two passages we learn that "The Spirit of God" is also "The finger of God". That means the Holy Spirit is our helper in binding the strongman. Jesus is the One who has defeated the devil (Colossians 2), but we still have our part to play to deal with the strongman because we have to administer his defeat. Matthew said specifically we have to enter the strongman's house and bind him.

I believe the Holy Spirit is seeking to show us that much of our prayers and activities, though good, are not fully effective until, in any given situation, we learn how to deal with the strongman.

Daniel 10 gives us a picture of strongmen that hindered Daniel's prayer. There were strongmen over the kingdoms of Persia and Greece. Before the answer to Daneil's prayer could come, these strongmen had to be overcome by Michael, God's archangel.

Strongmen are Satan's delegated representives to watch over Satan's interests in various places. I believe there are many levels of authority in Satan's kingdom. I also believe Satan has echelons of strongmen, not only over the major cities, but over areas of a city, smaller towns, villages and communities. Some cities have the strongman of gambling; other cities have the strongman of alchhol, strongman of homosexual, strongman of pornography, strongman of lawlessness and strongman of legalism and so on (You many wish to read my earlier message: "The Strongman").

The identification of these strongmen depends, to a large measure, on revelation; not Bible revelation but by direct Word of knowledge. If we can find the specific strongman and bind him we save ourselves a whole lot of hard work and frustration.

A specific directed persistent prayer given by the Holy Spirit

Let us take two pictures from the Old Testament:

1. The capture of Ai (Joshua 8)

Joshua 8 deals with the capture of the city of Ai by the children of Israel. In the previous chapter, they tried to capture it but failed because there was sin in the camp. Sin was dealt with and then God gave them the military strategy to take the city. In the middle of all the military operations God told Joshua to do something which had no military significant at all. He was to stretch out his spear directly toward Ai and God would give it to him (Joshua 8:18). Like a prayer, this action had spiritual significance. Verse 26 says that Joshua, laying hold of God's promise to give them Ai and claiming it until it was completely fulfilled.

To me, that outstretched spear is a beautiful picuture of a God given persistent unwavering directed prayer. Just like the psalmist David, Joshua knew that God never approved a partial victory:

"I have pursued my enemies and overtaken them; neither did I turn back again till they were destroyed" (Ps. 18:37).


2. Prophet Elisha and king Joash (2 Kings 13)


Elisha was a prophet in the Northern kingdom of Israel. The king over Israel at that time was Joash. Elisha was sick and was about to die.


"Elisha had become sick with the illness of which he would die. Then Joash the king of Israel come down to him, and wept over his face, and said, 'O my father, my father, the chariots of Israel and their horsemen!'" (2 Kings 13:14, emphasis added).


Now, why did king Joash acknowledge Elisha as Israel's chariots and horsemen? In my opinion, the king acknowledged that the true spiritual protection of Israel was not in the army that the king commanded, but in the presence of the prophet in their midst! And now where would the protection be since the prophet, a symbol of chariots and horsemen, was about to leave them?


Elisha told the king to do something that was related to the military situation in Israel at that time. Israel was being threatened by a stronger power from the East - Syria. Before Elisha died he made a remarkable provision to deal with the threat of Syria against Israel. The provision was quite similar to the situation with Joshua except the weapon used was bow and arrow.


"Then he (Elisha) said to the king of Israel, 'Put your hand on the bow.' So he put his hand on it, and Elisha put his hands on the king's hands" (2 Kings 13:16).


The above action signifies the anointing of Elisha had been transferred to the king through the prophet's hand. The next verse says, Elisha told the king to shoot the arrow to the directio of Syria and he shot. Then Elisha told the king to strike the ground five or six times until Syria was completely destroyed. But the king stopped too soon and though he defeated Syria, he did not completely destroy it.


The above picture is also a picture of a God given directed prayer. It tells us that military victory is directly dependent on spiritual forces. It tells us if you win the battle in the spiritual realm, it will be worked out in the military, the political, and the social or economical realm. That is the power of our aggressive and authoritative prayers.