“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.” Matt 16:19
If you are reading this, there is a 100% chance that you are familiar with this scripture in Mathew. There is equally a good chance that you have prayed with this passage by simply making a declaration such as “I bind poverty, demons of broken marriage, spirit of addiction, sickness, failure, etc from my life, in Jesus name! I also loose money, good husband, success, good health upon my life, in Jesus mighty name! Amen!!
If my guess is right, I encourage you take a reflective journey at your life to as far back as you can and recall and document how many times such prayers have been effective in your life. Now, what can you document? Do you see frustration, discouragement with God and church, doubt, weakness in faith towards biblical promises, or do you see excitement, hope joy, sense of victory arising from such prayers? Just be honest.
If you see frustration rather than confidence, discouragement rather than strength, you may have concluded that biblical promises are untrue and untrustworthy, or perhaps wondering if God really cares about you. If this is your thought, you are not alone at all in this valley of despondency. There are multitudes that have been buried in it, and the only miracle that can raise up their dry bones is knowledge and understanding, “You shall know the truth, and the truth shall set you free.” Pick up your strength; I am here to perform that miracle to help revive some dry bones, but a little tip first.
I guarantee you that using this scripture in the way I have portrayed, is a sneak misapplication of it and a misrepresentation of God’s intent. If you apply God’s promises this way, you will never receive the promises. While there may be nothing wrong about positive declaration, unless it is matched with deliberate actions necessary to produce manifest results, such positive confessions alone will serve no good. Of course, positive declarations stimulate your mind to step out in faith and boldness to do what it may take to receive what you desire; faith without work is dead.
When Jesus gave Simon this promise, He never intended for it to be applied with passivity as we do today. The scripture is actually a call to action. Jesus surely guarantees in it that if man would take the necessary actions to bind or to loose by employing the spiritual keys, heaven would throw its weight to back up such actions to make them work. But what does it mean to bind and loose if not a mere verbal passive declaration we make in prayer? While most people are familiar with the word, “Loose”, “bind” seems confusing to many. Other alternative words for bind are “stop, lock, reject, forbid, refuse, disallow.” In the same vein, other words for loose are “allow, open, accept, embrace, invite.” Keys are used to open and close. Having this understanding in mind makes it obvious that God has given you the responsibility to initiate necessary actions that would lead to your desired goals. Here is the beauty of the kingdom – the freewill or free choice of man. The scripture could be read as “whatever you make up your mind to stop shall be stopped in heaven; whatever you make up your mind to accept shall be accepted or approved in heaven.”
You cannot stop poverty or marital failure by binding them or the demons behind them through mere verbal confessions alone. You cannot have wealth or a happy marriage by verbally accepting, loosing, or receiving wealth and happiness. To stop poverty in your life, you must consciously and deliberately find the cause(s) of the poverty and stop or avoid them – you must find something to do (and do the right way) to make money. To loose or receive wealth and happiness, you must find out what makes someone wealthy and do the same; this calls for actions.
You must make up your mind through deliberate actions to do some work to put an end to poverty. To enjoy a happy and healthy marriage, you must find out and practice what makes a happy marriage and avoid what makes it fail and painful. This calls for understanding and application of the spiritual principles that govern wealth creation, happy marriage, and all other aspects of life. Understand that God’s approved keys or principles to victorious living are different from that which the world offers. God is the author of life, and He knows what makes life successful hence He has given them to us in form of keys, laws, or principles.
When you approach life this way rather than being passive or employing the wrong keys, you will have great success in what you do. God backs up every action we take that is in line with His spiritual laws. We fail in life because we break spiritual laws and expect things to still work for us. God is a worker building His kingdom and has called us to work with Him. Hear what Jesus says, “My Father has been working until now, and I have been working.” John 5:17
Faith is not passive, but active. Understand that God has not called people to laziness or passivity. Instead, He has made available the resources you can employ to receive what you want in life. The extent to which you leverage these resources determines the level of success you receive. This is why some people are more successful than others; it makes no difference whether you call yourself a Christian or not. What sets you apart is your level of understanding and application of the spiritual keys. When you approach your Christian life this way, you will appreciate God and love His idea of church. You will never again resent bible reading and study, and you will look for a bible teaching church, and not a religious center.
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