Tues.’s Devo - Binding and Loosing

Read Luke 11:23-28 Jesus doesn’t give any room for middle ground: you are either with him or against him; gathering sheep or scattering them. Then he gives us a glimpse into the spirit world and what happens to a demon that is cast out of a person. It is sent out to walk among dry places - places not watered with the spirit. This unclean spirit is looking for a place to rest and make its home. When it doesn’t find one it returns to see if it can reenter - if there is room and the person is unprotected. If the person is then it will reenter with seven of its friends and the person will be worse off than before. So how do we keep from having that happen? None of us want unclean spirits, but if to cast it out means that we will end up with eight spirits, who wants to chance that? Here is the secret. When you send an evil spirit out of a person or yourself then you have to replace it with a clean one. For example: you want to cast out a spirit of unbelief. Then you replace it with the opposite which is faith. You fill your mind with scriptures on faith and you look for opportunities to step out in faith. Jesus taught about binding and loosing in Matt. 16:19. He said, “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.” So when you bind something that is evil, you need to loose something that is godly. If you bind unbelief then you loose belief and faith and you act on it. That is what will fill your house so that when the spirit comes back he will find no room for him and leave. While he was teaching this concept a woman cried out of the crowd and wanted to give praise to Jesus’ mother. She was speaking from an unclean spirit whose aim was to take the attention away from Jesus and put them on an earthy vessel. How could he answer this without dishonoring his mother? Jesus always has an answer because he is the Word. His answer was to listen to the Word and keep it. That was his way of saying, “listen to me.” And that is what we fill ourselves with when we have empty spaces: the Word! Lord, may we always be filled with your spirit and your Word.