13 When Jesus came to the region of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, “Who do people say the Son of Man is?”
14 They replied, “Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, Jeremiah or one of the prophets.”
15 “But what about you?” he asked. “Who do you say I am?”
16 Simon Peter answered, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.”
17 Jesus replied, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by flesh and blood, but by my Father in heaven. 18 And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it. 19 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 16:13-19
“Truly I tell you, whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.
19 “Again, truly I tell you that if two of you on earth agree about anything they ask for, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven. 20 For where two or three gather in my name, there am I with them.”
–Matthew 18:18-20
Many find this concept of binding and loosing confusing. There are tons of opinions about what this means exactly, and I think most of them are correct. But the one thing I think we miss when we read this is the power Christ reveals when He’s talking to His disciples. And not His power, but the power He gives His followers.In
In that second passage, he told Peter, He would build His church on the Rock of the gospel message. Paul told the Corinthians no other foundation can be laid except Jesus Christ. 3:11
But so often people try to make Christianity about everything else. That’s because the enemy knows when we get distracted, we lose our power.
Paul told the Romans (1:16)
For I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes: first to the Jew, then to the Gentile.
Jesus is Central to Our Faith
Our faith is all about Jesus and nothing else. When we try to make it about being good, about our purpose, about numbers, we lose our power. And Christ wants us to have power.
I know I forget how powerful I am sometimes. When I make my life about Jesus, the Messiah, the Son of God, I have power. When I make it about my to-do list or rules, I lose power.
I no longer have the power to love. I no longer have the power to have joy, peace, or patience, I no longer have the power to bind or loosen.
But that’s where a lot of people get hung up. What do I have the power to bind or loosen?
I guess first we need to make sure everyone knows what it means to bind and loosen. When you bind something, you tie it up tight. Books are bound. The pages don’t fall out in bound books. They might tear out but they don’t fall out. If they start to fall out it’s because they are glued, not bound with string.
When you loosen something you set it free, you give it room to move.
I’ve heard people pray to bind the enemy. And don’t get me wrong, that’s a great prayer. We want the enemy bound, and we have the power to bind the enemy.
What Do You Loosen in Your Life?
But there are so many other things we can bind and loosen every day that are more practical, more useful.
For instance, do you bind up the truth or loosen it?
Most people lie to themselves every day. They believe the lies of the enemy the “I can’t” or “I’m not enough.” But here’s the thing. When you loosen the lies, the truth is bound up. You may have to repeat the truth over and over until it is completely loosened, but whatever you need to do to loosen the truth, you need to do it. Because if you live in the lies, you surrender your power.
And what about trust? Do you bind or loosen trust?
How much do you trust God? How can you tell?
If you obey Him, you trust Him. If you don’t obey Him, you’ve bound up trust. And when trust in your Heavenly Father is bound up instead of loosened, you lose your power.
Or do you loosen doubt? I don’t tithe because I doubt God can provide. I don’t take time to read and pray because I doubt God can give me back my time.
Do you loosen abundance or scarcity? Abundance believes God will provide. It treats everything it owns with respect and as if it were a steward, but abundance doesn’t hoard. Scarcity hoards, it fears there won’t be enough. I’ve lived with bound up abundance. It’s easy to do when your paycheck doesn’t look like it will meet the bills. I’m not telling you to spend more than you make. We have to be responsible. But I am saying we have to remember our Father owns everything. Instead of saying “I can’t afford that,” we need to say, “God must not want me to have that yet because He hasn’t given me the funds yet.”
When I loosen scarcity, I believe God is done. When I loosen abundance I believe there’s more—there’s always more.
Loosen the Spirit
Do you bind the Spirit? On Sunday mornings, when we get together, and you start chatting with the person next to you or letting yourself be a distraction to those around you, even if you get distracted by what’s around you, you bind the Spirit. Loosening the spirit happens when we keep an attitude of prayer throughout the entire service. When we sing the songs and tell God Yes, I agree with that or Wow, God, I’m not doing very well with that. During the sermon, you pray and ask God to remind you of parts during the week or you praise God for something that’s said because you know it’s already true in your life. We loosen the Spirit when we stay focused on what God wants instead of the things around us.
What if part of the things God wants us to bind and loosen are the things in our life that allow us to experience the Kingdom of Heaven here on Earth? In Luke 17, Jesus said we don’t have to go looking for the Kingdom of God because it’s within us.
But having a Kingdom within us implies a few things:
- There’s a King – Do you allow Jesus to be King?
- Kingdoms are huge—Do we live like a huge Kingdom lives within us? Do we live like it takes all of us to make up the Kingdom or do we think we can be a Kingdom all by ourselves? Jesus told his disciples that anytime two or three gather in His name—or because of Him—He will be right there with us. The kingdom of God is bigger than we can imagine, and it offers more power than we can imagine. But most of the time we don’t all the power to work.
- Kingdoms have wealth and majesty—Do we embrace the blessings God wants to give us when we loosen the things that loosen the Kingdom?
- Kingdoms have power
Jesus told Peter “on this Rock I will build my church and the gates of hell will not overcome it.”
The enemy can not overcome the church—all of us working together. In chapter 18, he said that when two or three agree on something, it will be done. How much more power do you need?
Abundant
For the last few years, I’ve seen people choose a word for their year. I’ve never done it before, but this year, I chose the word abundant.
As 2025 ended, I felt like God wanted me to start thinking bigger. And by January 1, the concept had brought itself to one word – Abundance.
The Greek word Perissos means beyond, exceedingly more than you can imagine. It’s as if you are pouring liquid into a cup and it keeps running over. It never stops.
I want this to be my year of Abundance.
So far, I’ve explored Abundant worship- what would it look like if I went further in my worship, if I worshipped more abundantly?
Abundant Praise
Abundant Prayer
Abundant trust
And most recently Abundant Power. What will I do with God’s enormous power- power that is exceedingly more than I can imagine? In Ephesians 3:20 Paul said that God can do immeasurably more than we can ask or imagine. In Greek, the word for immeasurably is huperekperisou—In other words beyond abundant.
God wants us to have huperekperisou power. Jesus said we would do greater things than He did. But we’re too busy hiding our potential, clinging to false modesty, and binding up the power of God to really see His power in action. I’ve begun to see it a bit more than I used to, but it’s only because I’ve started to loosen the Abundance of God and His power.
What is Christ calling you to loosen or bind up? He may need you to bind up sin or evil thoughts. He may need you to bind an attitude or an old habit. But more than all the things we need to bind, we all need to loosen our trust, our truth, our abundance, and power, and embrace them until we have the fullness of the Kingdom living in us and shining through us.
I shared this message during the January 2026 snowstorm when our church couldn’t get together.
You can check out the video on my YouTube Channel
