The New Testament of the Christian Bible is a record not only of the binding and loosing power granted to believers by Christ, but also of the many accounts of deliverance from demonic possession. Sadly, some leaders who profess to use the power of God in deliverance ministries teach that evil spirits who indwell a person must first be bound before they can be cast out so that the person may be delivered. They teach that this is the reason for which the Lord gave his followers binding and loosing power.
When Jesus Delivered People from Demonic Possession
Christ commanded evil spirits to leave people and his disciples did the same works in his name. When Christ delivered the man of the Gadarenes from demonic possession, we simply read that he commanded them to leave the man and that he allowed Legion (the name of the many devils who inhabited the man) to possess a herd of swine. We do NOT read of binding and loosing taking place (Luke 8:26-33).
We also read, "And in the synagogue there was a man which had a spirit of an unclean devil and cried out with a loud voice, Saying, Let us alone; what have we to do with thee, thou Jesus of Nazareth? Art thou come to destroy us? I know thee who thou art; the Holy One of God. And Jesus rebuked him, saying, Hold thy peace, and come out of him..." (Luke 4:33-35). Where do we read that the unclean devils were first bound? We do not read such a thing.
And again, we read of when the apostle Paul, in the name of Jesus, delivered a young girl from demonic possession. Scripture says, "And it came to pass as we went to prayer, a certain damsel possessed with a spirit of divination met us, which brought her masters much gain by soothsaying. The same followed Paul and us, and cried saying, These men are the servants of the most high God which shew unto us the way of salvation. And this did she many days. But Paul, being grieved, turned and said to the spirit, I command thee in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her. And he came out the same hour" (Acts 16:16-18). We do not read that binding and loosing was carried out by Paul to deliver the girl from demonic possession. He simply commanded the spirit to leave her.
The list of examples of deliverance from demonic possession by the Lord Jesus and his followers is long if all of the accounts in the Christian Bible are considered. They do not include the act of binding and loosing evil spirits. This is why we should not make the mistake of associating binding and loosing to deliverance of people from demonic possession. Take the time to learn what the Bible means when it speaks of binding and loosing. To teach that we must always bind a spirit before casting it out is to have a "cookie cutter" formula for dealing with the problem of demonic possession.
The follower of Christ follows Christ in every situation; and no two situations are ever exactly alike. We follow his guidance. If we are told to command evil spirits to be silent, or to be rendered helpless to give someone an opportunity to be free, we obey. If our instructions are simply to cast the spirit/s out, we obey. In each case, God knows what needs to be done. Genuine followers of Christ do not walk by preconceived ideas or formulas, neither do we apply erroneous meanings to the scriptures.
"...Get wisdom. And, with all thy getting get UNDERSTANDING" (Proverbs 4:7).