Satan has directed his attack upon the home, and he is winning his battle! There are several reasons for that, and one of them is this: the unbelieving world does not even know that we are engaged in spiritual warfare. What they see is a problem before them, and they call it a social problem. For example: the problem of the American home. Not knowing what the real problem is, and not knowing who the enemy is ? certainly not knowing the end result of what is taking place ? they try to solve what they consider a social ill by finding some social solution.

    Now here's the dilemma unbelievers face. If you have a spiritual problem and attempt to solve it by finding a solution, it just won't work. It's like trying to mix oil and water. So the unbelieving world throws up its hands and says, "Well, we've tried everything and nothing works." "Why don't we just decide to live together and avoid the marriage ceremony and the necessity for judges and lawyers when we can't get along?"

    So we have a society that is drifting to the conclusion that the best way to deal with the problems of marriage, for example, is to discard the Godordained institution altogether. That's the world's natural, normal way of viewing spiritual problems as social problems. It just doesn't work. Not only is this true of the unbelieving world. It is creeping into the Body of Christ. We are beginning to compromise the laws of God. Christians are opening the doors of their lives to Satan, giving him a stronghold, through their disobedience toward God.

    Christians are inviting into their lives all the problems of the unbelieving world: broken homes, anxiety, and alienated affection. They are giving Satan entry into their lives. These are the results of sin, disobedience, and rebellion toward God. It is happening in the church as well as outside the church. The problem is that we don't know what to do about it. Satan is winning the battle, in our homes and in our nation, because we are giving up and saying, "That's just the way things are today." When you hear someone say that, you ought to send up the red flag and object, "No, that's not the way it is! It is the way we are making it. It is not the way God intended it to be!" Learning HOW.

    There are three reasons to Bind Satan, three purposes for learning how to bind Satan's influence in our lives. We must bind him in order to be released from a particular bondage; to be restored to our rightful position in Christ, and then to restrict Satan and his work in our lives. When we accept Christ, we assume through grace a position in Him. Paul's favorite term, which he used to describe everything he believed, was "In Christ Jesus." When we are settled by faith in Jesus, our position is secure forever. We are all familiar with the command to make disciples of all nations. We are commanded to continue the work of Christ, and we are assured of having the power we need. "You shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you. . ." (Acts 1:8).

    There is a power available to us that we often overlook described in John 14:12: "He who believes in Me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go to the Father." Now abiding in the believer is the Holy Spirit, the "Comforter," who abides in us forever. The believer has within him a Power sufficient to conquer Satan. 1 John 4:4 tells us ". . . greater is He who is in you than he who is in the world." The power is available to us to do works even greater than those done by Christ, if God puts the need for such works before us. You and I are to be walking in a continuing process of doing, fulfilling, and carrying out the works of our Lord; and God will do through us what He requires us to do. It is His responsibility to supply the strength and our responsibility to be available to Him.

The Problem

    Our problem is unbelief. We live in a time when there is very little talk about the power of the Holy Spirit who is within us. We forget that the battle's final outcome is accomplished, that our victory in Christ is assured, and that we need only claim that victory and appropriate that power in our daily battles with Satan. Jesus explained that power in His conversation with Simon Peter in Matthew 16:19. There has been some confusion about its meaning, but the Greek words make it clearer. Jesus said "I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and (from the Greek) whatsoever shall have already been bound in heaven shall be bound in earth. Whatsoever hath already been loosed in heaven shall be loosed on earth."

    Because Satan already is a defeated foe ? Jesus triumphed over him at the cross ? the believer can claim victory over him in daily battles. A believer who is indwelt with the triumphant power of the Holy Spirit has the privilege of exercising a divine authority more powerful than the authority of Satan. Through the power of the Holy Spirit, the believer can bind Satan's influence in another person's life. We can restore and release someone who has been bound by exercising the higher authority of the Holy Spirit.

    As a practical matter, though, how can we use this power and this authority to bind the influence of Satan? What things are absolutely necessary to us if we are to act on the power of the Holy Spirit to bind Satan, whether it be in our family or in our nation? There are three things we must have and use. They are the name of Jesus Christ, the blood of Jesus, and the Word of God. The authority over Satan is in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. The protection from satanic power is in the blood of Jesus, and the final authority is in the unchanging Word of God.
 

The Name of Jesus

    First, let's look at the power of the name of Jesus. The Bible tells us over and over again to pray in Jesus' name. John 16:23 clearly says, ". . . if you ask the Father for anything, He will give it to you in My name." Throughout the New Testament, the apostles go about healing and doing the works of the Lord in Jesus' name. In Acts 3:6, Peter declared, "I do not possess silver and gold, but what I do have I give to you: In the name of Jesus Christ the Nazarene ? walk!"

    The name is the symbol of authority, delegated to us by Jesus Christ and available to us, in His physical absence, through the indwelling Holy Spirit. You and I transact spiritual business, so to speak, by using the currency of the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. But what happens to us if the Holy Spirit is' indwelling us? Will we ask things for our sake? No, we will not. The Holy Spirit, living in us after Jesus ascended to the Father, empowers us to ask for the same things Jesus would have asked. We are to act in His stead. When we ask in Jesus' name, we are saying to the Father, "Jesus would have asked this if He were physically here now." Let's be clear about this: God did not intend that the works of the Lord should be done only by preachers. He didn't limit the power of the Holy Spirit. It is the work of the Body of the Lord Jesus Christ to love one another, to pour out our lives into somebody else's, and to bind the work of Satan. Can you imagine what would happen to the Church today if believers took God at His Word and appropriated the power of the Holy Spirit?

The Blood of Jesus

    The second thing we must have in order to bind Satan is the protection of the blood of Jesus Christ. We dare not come boldly into conflict with Satan without the protection of the shed blood of Jesus Christ. Throughout Scripture, from the Old Testament Passover examples of the protection of blood against the power of death, to the New Testament crucifixion at Calvary, the shed blood is the symbol of protection and of our redemption. We are covered by the blood of Christ's sacrifice which paid the price of sin and eternally broke the power of Satan.

The Word of God

    The third thing we must have is the Word of God. It is the foundation of all that we have been talking about. Through the Word of God we are enabled to see the problems that confront us in their real terms. You see, Satan will always try to distract us from the real problem, making us think that we see things clearly. But what happens is this: outside the Word of God we see things in temporal terms. We see spiritual problems as social problems, for example, and we then have no hope of finding a real solution.

    What did Jesus say to Satan in the temptation? He quoted God's Word in Deuteronomy and said, "Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God." He confronted Satan in spirit?to?spirit combat using the Word of God. Now this is the key to all we have been saying. We must rely on the guidance of God's Word. In all our affairs, whether it be in our family lives or in our prayers for the nation, we sharpen our vision through the lens of the Bible, and there we find the basis for all that we ask.

    The power we need to win victory over Satan is available to every believer. We find it in our relationship with Jesus Christ and we guide and harness it through the direction of the Word of God. Every single one of us has the power to deal with Satan by the almighty supernatural power of God. Being indwelt by the Holy Spirit, we have the right to declare Satan bound, his work restricted, and the prisoner set free. Do you have the courage to allow God to use you to the maximum?