Big Healing Book - Matthew 18:18-20

Matthew 18:18-20:

Verily I say unto you, Whatsoever ye shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever ye shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.
Again I say unto you, That if two of you shall agree on earth as touching any thing that they shall ask, it shall be done for them of my Father which is in heaven.
For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them.

Notes on Matthew 18:18-20:

This passage is a complete answer to the people who think that everything is up to God’s sovereignty. Far from it! Most of what goes on here is up to us! When we bind something on earth, only then does God consider it bound in heaven. When we loose something on the earth, only then does God consider it loosed in heaven. This is why prayer is so vital! Many things will simply not get done until WE do something! WE are the ones with the keys to the kingdom; the keys Jesus is holding are the keys of hell and death (Revelation 1:18).

Don’t make this hard! There are only three rules for praying the prayer of agreement:

1. Two or more of you must agree on what you want.
2. Those agreeing must be on the earth.
3. Those agreeing must explicitly ask God for the result.

Yes, but what if it isn’t God’s will? Watch out! As proved elsewhere in this book, God will sometimes give you what you agree for even if it isn’t His will, so find out first! This passage is another proof that healing is available to all, because you could certainly make healing the subject of this prayer and get it. In the case of healing, healing has already been paid for, so you would be agreeing for a manifestation of what has already been purchased.

The end of this passage is often quoted at church services with low attendance to console those who bothered to show up with the fact that Jesus is present. That use of the verse is out of context. The idea is that Jesus is in the midst of you to do whatever you agree for. He was not suddenly talking about sparsely attended worship services in the middle of His discourse. And by the way, Jesus lives in you. So when YOU walk into an empty church building, He just walked in there with you whether a second or third person ever shows up!

The fact that the people agreeing must be on the earth negates the error that you can agree with Mary, Jude, or anyone else who is not still on the earth for something to be done, as is sometimes taught.

As far as the binding and loosing part goes, in this passage you could argue that the binding and loosing is only in the context of disciplining an unruly person at church. I don’t think that’s clear-cut, as the next two verses aren’t about church discipline; they are about agreeing for God to do something. In any case, Jesus’ statement about binding and loosing is also found in Matthew 16:19, where church discipline definitely isn’t the subject.