The Freedom House team is seeing some incredible healing miracles by applying Jesus’ teaching on ‘binding the strong man’.
You can find it in Mark 3:27, Matthew 12:29 and Luke 11:29.
In Mark 3, Jesus spoke about Satan and demons.
And then he said (v 27): ‘No one can enter a strong man’s house without first tying him up. Then he can plunder the strong man’s house.’
Jesus sometimes referred to someone afflicted by demons as a ‘house’. And his teaching makes clear that:
- The Strong Man is outside the house.
- The Strong Man’s goods are inside the house.
And if you don’t bind the Strong Man first, you cannot remove his goods – sickness, demons, curses, and bondages.
This explains why some people aren’t delivered and healed.
What is a Strong Man?
Is the strong man a demon? Probably not.
He stands outside the house. And demons prefer living in bodies.
This indicates he is an evil spirit – a satanic angel. And deliverance will be ineffective unless he is bound first.
Matthew 12:29 gives another important insight: ‘How can anyone enter a strong man’s house …?’
This suggests the strong man owns the house. And ownership is a key to deliverance and healing.
Jesus debated ownership with some Jews, who said they belonged to Abraham.
But Jesus disagreed. ‘You belong to your father, the devil,’ he told them in John 8:44.
So house ownership may not be clear-cut. And we must address it, before we bind the Strong Man.
Is the ‘house’ – the person needing ministry – truly born again ?
Do they belong to God or the devil? Like those Jewish people, they might wrongly think they belong to God.
So, Satan’s Strong Man may contest ownership.
What are binding and loosing?
In Jesus’ time, Jews went to Rabbis for rulings on Mosaic law.
The Rabbi could either bind them to it, so the activity was forbidden.
Or the Rabbi loosed them from it, so the activity was allowed.
And in fact, Rabbi Jesus demonstrated how it worked just before teaching about the Strong Man.
He loosed both his disciples (Matthew 12 1-6), and a disabled man (Matthew 12: 10-13) from the Sabbath rules.
And some time later, (Matthew 18:18) he gave the disciples the authority to bind and loose.
This enabled them to set new legal rules based on the New Covenant.
So, with deliverance, we can only bind the Strong Man by challenging his legal claims over the ‘house.’
He may claim that the person:
-
- Isn’t saved.
- Hasn’t confessed and renounced their sins.
- Hasn’t brought fruits of repentance.
- Hasn’t forgiven someone.
- Is affected by generational curses, occult curses or spells.
But if the person is genuinely owned by Father God under the New Covenant, we have the legal power to:
- Bind the Strong Man.
- Loose person from him.
- Plunder the house.
Then they should then be freed and healed.
Ownership v Occupancy
What happens next?
In Matthew 12:43, Jesus says: ‘When an impure spirit comes out of a person …’
Note – Jesus now refers to the house as a person. Ownership has been sorted. The strong man has been bound, and the impure spirit has left.
So, the impure spirit tries another tactic: ‘I will return to the house I left,’ it says in Matt 12:44.
He wants to squat in his old ‘house’. But can he?
Yes.
Jesus says in 44-46: ‘When it [the impure spirit] arrives, it finds the house unoccupied, swept clean and put in order.
‘Then it goes and takes seven other spirits more wicked than itself, and they go in and live there. And the final condition of that person is worse than the first.;’
So, freedom now depends on occupancy.
The person must convert their ‘house’ into a temple of the Holy Spirit (1 Cor 6:19).
Prayer, praise bible study and attending church are important.
But they may make the person worse (see Matt 12: 45) if the house isn’t occupied.
Being filled with the Holy Spirit is essential.
A time for miracles
Jesus’ teaching on the strong man can be life-changing .
The FH team has seen several amazing miracles. You can too.