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NASB | Isaiah 57:1 The righteous man perishes, and no man takes it to heart; And devout men are taken away, while no one understands. For the righteous man is taken away from evil, |
AMPLIFIED 2015 | Isaiah 57:1 The righteous man perishes [at the hand of evil], and no one takes it to heart; Faithful and devout men are taken away, while no one understands That the righteous person is taken away [to be spared] from disaster and evil. |
Subject: Thorn in the flesh |
Bible Note: All that you have stated is true that is what I normally see when I hear my brothers and sisters in the Charismatic church praying and binding and loosing. This is why I do not have a problem with the application they use of binding and loosing. If they are praying for someone to be free from the bondage of anything and they are praying that God will bless them with His liberty and they are full of the Love of God and Faith by being filled with the Spirit, it does not matter much the exact words they are using. If they are saying binding and loosing then I do not really care. But if that is what these verses mean I can not see it. Becuase I do not see Paul or others ever praying that way. It seems to me that there is an authority given to saints from these verses but my understanding cannot seem to get it. I see that if I pray for the brother to be free from alcohol and I pray that this brother be holy and know that power of Christ that is in him as a result of faith that I am accomplishing the same thing in the spirit realm that the brother who says I BIND, and I Loose thinks he is doing. I only see satan addressed a few times and told get behind me or the Lord rebuke you and it never seems to be while the saint is praying as I see it done so often by the charismatics. Don't get me wrong I believe in the Gifts of the Holy Spirit for the Church as defined in the NT but I don't see an example of saints addressing satan in one breath and praying to the Father in another while in coorporate prayer. As a matter of fact this sort of bothers me. However I do not think God is limited by such things, He still hears the heart and faith of the praying saints that are doing this. I think praying "God grant thy children boldness" is scriptural but then in the next breath saying "We bind the spirit of fear" seems somewhat senseless. If it causes the saint to have faith I suppose it has value, but where can I see in the scripture that saying "I bind the spirit of fear" does anything that "God grant me boldness" has not already accomplished. If the binding and loosing verses mean what the charismatics think, then I want to do it. If the authority that is given to saint when Jesus says whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven (and I do not see the greek saying "must already be bound in heaven") is an authority that is over the powers of darkness which would fit the often mentioned promises of Christ to the believer then do I exercise it in instances of say demon possession, casting them out? WOW! I just had a revelation! Jesus was talking about binding the strongman. In that context he was saying He was greater than the devil, and John repeats this when he says Greater is He that is in you than He that is in the world. I think I am seeing it as I write these words. This has to do with a legal battle. The devil is the accuser. The power the devil has is legal the devil can do things or is allowed to do things through legal accusation. We can bind his access to a heavenly realm or courtroom of accusation. WOW!!! Consider the story of Job. Consider the passage about satan being cast down in Rev not allowed to accuse the saints before God (some heavenly level). We can file motions as it were to keep the devil barred from entering in the courtroom to accuse a brother that has sinned against us? I think there are things going on in the spirit realm that we effect in prayer and intercession even if we do not use the words binding and loosing. And also there is something to the context about kicking out the one that will not repent. So when he goes out from the church after given every chance the Lord lets satan do things to his life that he was once protected from with the hope that the brother will repent and come back having been disciplined by the misery of sin. The spiritual darkness that want to destroy may be held back not by his past relationship with God but on our account that walk with God, so when we tell him go out of the church and do not comeback until you are ready to repent only then can the powers of darkness do what they want with him. This is very sobering. |