What Does binding and Loosing Mean?

So, I just want to give a praise report. Leverne Belle's not. I thought Belle told me she was going to be here, but she's not here. Um, she saw Bel, uh, saw saw Leverne today, and, you know, she had that issue in her body, which she was really not looking good at all. I was a little concerned about her, and she's all, all spiffy, and they look at her, and it's all gone. Completely gone. She said, "It's because I got prayer." I know. That's what she said. Yeah, Chuck's fine. He just, just gotta, he's got to eat, just got to eat apples and nuts and things like that, you know. Poor Chuck. Oh, no. She's already. She, I've always have pictures of her lunching lunches. Apples and nuts and beef. Okay. >> No beef cook. No beef cookies. Yeah. Is there anything else you want to say? Are we ready? Okay, I'm live. I was once was dead, but now I'm live here in Clearwater.

So, um, we're. This is going to be a two-parter because I just don't want to overload everybody like I normally do. So, just so we talk, we've been talking about what this is actually inspired by Dave Mandell. See, we have a school on Thursday, and he always makes these interesting comments, and he always gives me things to think about. So, um, this is about binding and loosing. And since Longer Ministry is very involved in that doctrine, we should know a little bit more about it, right? What does it mean? And how do we use it? And how do we don't use it? I think there's a lot of misuse of it in the body of Christ. And because there's a lot of misuse of it, I would say the lion's share of the church, Christianity, does not believe about about binding and loosing as probably you do in this house. They have a different concept of what that means. So I think it's only fair to see what they think and what they say and why, because they have some very, very good points. And I think it's important to be objective and, you know, to look at it so that we have a greater understanding of what it means.

So, so, so the first, the first slide, I think up there. Could you put that first slide up there? Because this is how we're going to approach this. I, I've told you about this before. This is the word Pardes. It means paradise. And this is, this is the way, um, the Hebrews, or the way, uh, the rabbis teach people how to study the word of God, okay? With this format. Um, Pardes, paradise means paradise. Of course, what happens in paradise? That's where Adam talked with God in the cool of the evening. So, what is the Torah? It's his words speaking to you. And so, um, they, this becomes an acronym. So, they, you know, there's no real vowels in Hebrew. So, you got the, you got the consonants. You got P, which stands for Peshat. It means when you first read the word of God, you look at the very simple, plain sense of the word, right? Whatever just, you don't have to go deep, just what it says, black and white. And then a lot of times when you're reading the word of God, you think, hmm, I wonder what he meant by that. I mean, weren't the disciples going, uh, can you speak more plainly? What? And so then there's usually a hint in things that Jesus says or in the word of God. So that's called a Remez. And if you listen to any Hebrew teachers, they'll, they'll often say there's a remez here, and that means there's a hint here. And what that means is for you to go deeper. So the Holy Spirit, I believe, does this on purpose. He doesn't make things plain. Deny says to you, I, I give you to understand the mysteries, but to those outside, I just speak to them in parables. So there's a reason for it. And God wants us to seek him, right? He, he can be found, but he wants to see who's going to seek him. You know, he doesn't just give food to just anybody. He gives food to the hungry, right? He gives drink to the thirsty. So he wants you to seek him. And I think many, many times the word is ambiguous by design. And a lot of it's to test our hearts to see how we'll walk together. And a lot of it is because there are multiple layers of interpretation and understanding in the word. And it's not always the simple, plain sense. Okay.

So the next thing, you'll see a hint in the word of God, and then, then there's the Dash, or Darash. And that means I see a hint. That means I've got a secret. God, I have to research it. I have to see what other scriptures say in the Bible. Compare them, different versions. I mean, you go deep, right? You start studying, right? So that's Darash. And then you arrive at Sod. Sod means the, the mystery, the, the mystical aspect of the word of God. And we know the word is mystical. I think the word mystical, um, is used over 30 times in the New Testament. And a mystery is not a puzzle that we try to figure out. A biblical mystery is a discovery, something that gets unveiled. And, um, before I go much further, I want to set my watch because I want, this is a two-parter. If I go too long, you guys are going to be not happy with me. Hang on. It will let me know. Okay. All right. So, a biblical mystery is not a puzzle to be solved. Just think about that now. It is an unveiling of a reality or a discovery. And we are encouraged all through the New Testament by Jesus himself, by the Apostle Paul, to find out what the mysteries are. And if you look up mystery in the New Testament, there's a mystery of lawlessness. There's a mystery of Christ. There's a mystery of faith. There's the mystery of being married. It's the mystery of the church. It is full of mysteries that angels have longed to look into until we came along, and we get to know what the mysteries are. But you have to go through this to get there. Mysteries are the Sod of the word. And so, um, you know, I, I was telling Marie, I said, "Well, sometimes you have to look at the spaces between the letters to find out really what things mean." And that's a very Hebrew thought. Do you know that the letters in Torah are considered black ink on white parchment? Right? And they have rules and regulations about that. They're very strict. The black letters are called black fire, and this space around the letters are called white fire. And you, you have to have them both. And the white fire is considered the Sod. It's considered the mystical portion of the, of the, that is not really understood like if you're reading the letters. It comes in another way, another resource. So, do you see how that fits in when Jesus knew that? Cuz what does he say? My, my word is spirit and truth. My truth is spirit, right? It's spirit. And you can only understand my word, but through the spirit. That's the white fire of the word of God. So, there's white fire here. So, we're going to end up on the white fire, but the black fire is important, too. You can't have the one without the other.

So this topic has been, um, debated for for various reasons, mainly because of misuse from charismatics. We, we get out of control sometimes, you know, we, we go a little bit over the edge, and, you know, um, and it, it kind of dishonors the word in some ways. And so there's been a lot of criticism. But it's, but sometimes a lot of the church, they don't want to go past the Peshat, the simple plain sense of things, because it becomes scary to them. Um, they don't want the mystical. I personally want the mystical. I feel that's where the life of God is. He's a mystical God, right? He created. We just sang about it. So will I. A billion, you know, praises go to him for everything he's done. That's pretty mystical creator that we have. And so, um, we have to look at him like that. You know, there's a lot of assertions about binding and loosing. You know, when, when he told Peter, you know, upon this Peter's name is rock, right? And then he goes, upon this rock, I will build my church. So, you know, of course, Catholics say Peter was the first pope, right? So, I'm not even going to undo that one because all you guys know that ain't true, right? So, I'm just going to bother there. So, but, um, but a lot of people do not believe that binding and loosing has anything at all to do with the demonic realm. Nothing. And I'll show you why. >> And they, and they are right on one level, but they need to go further, right? They need to go further. So, um, so there's a major consensus that Jesus is only using binding and loosing in reference to church discipline and leadership. It is in reference. They are right, but it's not an only. It's not an it's not an only. So the word for bind is deo. It means to tie or fasten. And then it became to mean prohibit later by the Jews to prohibit something. And then loose is luo. It means to release, untie something that's been fastened, bound, um, to unbind and to permit. So it's basically the opposite of bind, you know, fasten or untie or untie, prohibit or permit. Okay. Um, in the, in the Hebrew, that's exactly what it means to permit, prohibit or permit in the Old Testament. Those are the Hebrew words that are associated with it.

So let's look at how it's used for church discipline, which is important because you got to have discipline in the church, right? There has to be order and there has to be discipline, or you know, demons are going to run over everybody and everything, and it's going to be chaos. So let's, let's start with Matthew 18:15. We're going to start that one. So, moreover, if you're, uh, can you go to the New King James on this one? That's what I usually use, but we, we will flip around later. Moreover, if your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault between you and him alone. If he hears you, you have gained your brother. But if he will not hear, take with you one or two more, by the mouth of two or three witnesses, every word may be established. And if he refuses to hear them, tell it to the church. If he refuses to even hear the tr, uh, hear the church, let him be to you like a heathen and a tax collector. Assuredly I say to you, whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven. Again, I say to you that if two of you agree on earth concerning anything that they ask, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven. For where there are two or three gathered together in my name, I am here in the midst of them. Okay, so let's look at this as church discipline. This is a church issue, right? There's a fence. So there's been a problem. Now it's been brought to the church. I want also, I want to note here that the word for church, ekklesia, is only mentioned two times, and it's mentioned in the context of binding and loosing. So binding and loosing is not so much for personal use as it is for corporate use. Okay, that's where it's usually applied. Not the.

Now let's look at these verses a little bit deeper. So I have from experience known, being on both sides of leadership, that God will honor the decisions of the elders. And even if the especi, if the decisions are done with a pure heart and integrity, he will honor those decisions. They may not be the, the best decision. It might not even be the right decision, but it's the best one the elders or leaders came with. That's the one that they, um, are, are declaring in the congregation. God will honor their declaration. In other words, whatever they're permitting or prohibiting, God will honor it. Now, um, the New King James Version says, "Whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven." Well, the, the tents will be loosed. That's really not a great translation. So if you, if you want to flip over to the New American Standard, I think it says it better on this verse. Okay. So, "and whatever you loose on earth shall have been loosed in heaven." So, so that's a better translation that gives you a better understanding that leaders and elders are supposed to be in tune with what heaven is already decided and be able to project that to the congregation so things are done in order. So I know I have been under leadership where decisions have been made, and I knew they weren't right, but because of respect and honor for the authority in the house, you know, you just, you just abide by those things, and God honors the words of the elders. He will honor. And if you rebel against the words of the elders, it will not go well with you. Honestly, it won't, because he's respecting his, his binding and loosing, um, in, in the church. All right. So, but the leadership, and that's not saying you can't get some weirdo leaderships out there and they say some crazy things. Run. Just run. But I'm talking about in a, and you know, in a good congregation where the leadership is doing the best they can, and you know, they, they'll always make mistakes. God will fix it. He's has a way of re-taking things around and fixing things. Okay. So there's, there's that kind of thing that goes on.

Now the common understanding in Jesus' time was the authority of the rulers, uh, in the synagogue, whatever they said went. Okay. So, um, because the Torah, they needed that, they need the binding and loosing because the Torah is not always clear. When I say Torah, I mean the word of God. And we know that the word is not always very clear. So, you know, you're not supposed to work on the Sabbath. Okay? So, uh, then they got mad at a guy that picked up his mat and walked, right? Is that work? Well, see, the rulers or the synagogue or the Sanhedrin decided that was work. They prohibited that. Okay? And, and then, um, so that's, but that was their place in the synagogue. They could put you out if they wanted to. They had that rule and authority. They could prohibit you from coming back to the synagogue, synagogue. Um, these, these, I have this down here, I can't remember the name of, but anyway, let's, let's go here in Acts 15. You can see this, and in, and where Peter, this is the Jerusalem Council. They, they had a Jerusalem Council, and this is the leadership of the church at that time. They were binding and loosing in this council's meeting. And so this is what it says: "For it seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us to lay upon you no greater burden than these necessary things." So they're loosing the law off of them, right? So all the Jews are under the law still, and they were saying, well, these Gentiles are coming in, and you know, they're trying to do everything, and they can't, you know, they don't understand. This is, this is what he says, that you abstain from things offered to idols, from blood, from things strangled, and from sexual immorality. If you keep yourselves from these, you do well. So this is a, this is an example of Matthew 18 where it says to bind and loose, right? In, in the church, to, to allow or what not to, what to not allow. And remember, remember the guy he was having a relationship with his, uh, father's wife. There was a little bit of incest going on there. And what did they tell him to do? Kick him out of the church. Right? Kick him out of the church. And then at one point, they said, Paul said, "Now loose him from that and bring him back in." So that was a binding and loosing situation. So that was, so this is, this is basically the Peshat, the plain sense of these passages dealing with making legal judgments called Halakha, or the ways who walk in the law. This is called Halakha. So that was their, that was their job.

Now, um, is there a picture next of a guy with a key on his shoulder? Okay, put that up there. There he is. Okay, so this is one of the Remez ways they use binding and loosing. You remember in Isaiah 22:22, um, Isaiah the prophet's talking about the priest Eliakim, who represents Jesus in our time. He says, "I'm going to put the keys of the house." Yeah. Oh, that was good. Go put that back there. That was good. "I will set the key of the house of David on his shoulder, and when he opens, no one will shut, and when he shuts, no one will open." So, this is a binding and loosing. It has to do with keys. So keys and binding and loosing kind of work together. Keys represent authority. Things you can open and shut things, right? Okay. So, let's go back to, um, the picture. Yeah, it's hard to bounce back and forth. So only the rabbis had the keys to safely lock the Torah scrolls in a treasure box. And, um, when they were ready to teach, they would loose the Torah from the box. So it was the Torah was living to them. It was like the most highest treasure that anybody could ever hold. It was the greatest treasure in the temple. And they would lock it up when they were done, and then they would unlock it when they wanted to release it. So, okay, that's the black fire of binding and loosing. Here's the white fire from that. When you come into a situation like if you come into a teaching, so tonight I can say, we unlock the word of God here tonight. We loose the word of God for every heart to hear and understand and see what God wants to see. You can loose it, right? We just open it up and loose it. And then, you know, so I, maybe maybe this is a good example, like, you know, don't throw your pearls before swine. Sometimes it's best to keep your mouth shut and lock it up, right? Let it be dishonored or twisted and misused. Um, so, you know, the hint here is, you know, the we can release the word of God for hearts and ears to open. That doesn't not what it says. That's a Remez. That means you're looking a little bit deeper than what the black and white letters say. So, you know, Peter, as well as Paul, used these keys. What did Peter do on the day of Pentecost? He loosed the word of God. He opened up the doors to, to what? 3,000? I don't know how many people, more than 3,000, 5,000. How many were being saved on the day? And I know 3,000 got baptized. And that's that's a big baptismal, right? And that Peter, who was told he had the keys of the kingdom to use and could bind and loose, that's what he did. That's what he was doing. Binding and loosing the kingdom of God onto the onto the people. Paul did the same thing. Was he not the, the apostle to who? The Gentiles. And he said he opened up the doors to the gospel to the Gentiles. So he loosed the word of God to the Gentiles. This is the basic meaning of binding and binding and loosing.

Now these, these are, um, in Aramaic, the people that, uh, were called the scribes or the lawyers or the, they were called Soferim. You know, so not go so far, but Soferim. You know, like sophomore in high school comes from that same word. Soph means, um, like wisdom. More means fool. So, a sophomore in high school is called a wise fool. I don't know if you knew that or not. You know, kids when they're 16, they think they know everything. That's why they're called sophomores. But a Sofer was a person of wisdom, and they're the ones that had the keys to lock and unlock the Torah scrolls. And just like us in our day, people were very interested in the prophetic word. And so they mostly went and delved into the mysteries of the prophetic word. And they did it with such flare and with such excitement, and people would flock to hear the Soferim talk about the prophetic word that it bound the people. They actually bound the people from hearing the word of God because now all they did was listen to them and not search the scriptures themselves. I would say today's church is in the same position. We have so many Soferim, so many prophets out there that we adhere to so diligently, and everything they say, you know, it's going to happen. And you, you know, so and so says Trump is going to do this, or so and so says this is going to happen in Israel on on such and such a date. Well, that all may be true, but the thing is, what they do, they're binding us to their flamboyance, and that we are not loose to seek the word on our own. And, and this is why I'm going to read this word. This is why in Luke 11:52, this is he says, "Woe to you lawyers. Woe to you Soferim." He says, "You have taken away the key of knowledge." Remember the keys were given. "You have taken away the key of knowledge. You did not enter in yourselves, and those who are you who, and those who you were entering in, you hindered or you bound." So not only do you refuse to enter in, you also forbid anyone else from entering in. I have the word of the Lord here. I have the word of the Lord. Thus says the Lord. This is what's going to happen. You know, it's a scary thing to say, thus says the Lord. So keep that in mind when you say that. I'd rather say, I feel like the Lord might be saying. So you have to be a little, a little careful. So, you know, um, they were actually hindering people from studying the scriptures for insight on their end, increasing, and causing them, this is the biggie, causing them not to have a relationship with God for themselves. And this is what you want a good teacher to do, to inspire you to have your own relationship, to dig for yourself, and to know how to dig for yourself. That's the purpose of a teacher. That's the purpose of the five-fold ministry. Right? Okay. Uh, Matthew 23:4 says, "For they bind heavy burdens hard to bear and lay them on men's shoulders, but they themselves will not move them with one of their fingers." See, see what, you know, they were supposed to take the Torah and like things like, like the Sabbath, you know, don't work on the Sabbath. Well, what, what did that mean? Maybe, maybe you had an illness in your family, and something has some work has to be done by somebody else in order for you to survive. Was that prohibited or was that accepted as okay? You see what I'm saying? So that became, uh, their job, and but they abused it. And then Jesus comes along with a mystery, and he upgrades the binding and loosing. Did you have a word that? Yes, that's a good example. You know, uh, they were upset with him for healing on, what, the Sabbath as a work, right? And he said, "Well, if your ox is in the ditch, aren't you going to go get it?" That was the Halakha for Sabbath, but it wasn't okay to pull somebody out of the ditch of infirmity. So they were abusing the law just to have control and for their own benefit. Thieves. Mhm. Okay.

So now we're under a new covenant. And the whole thing about this new covenant is a dispensation of an unveiling of mysteries. And we shouldn't run from mysteries. We should run into them and pull off the veil and say, "What do you got for me, Jesus? What's underneath there? What kind of light do you have for me?" And, um, so you have to ask, what kind of accumulation is there in heaven? Because we have not pursued the kingdom like that. We have not pursued the kingdom authority to open and to shut. A lot of the binding and loosing was the bind scrolls or open scrolls. That means in Revelation, the seals, right? Open the seals. Loose the seals. Loose the seals or bind up that se, bind up that scroll, angel. Don't let that out yet. Um, so there are, there are scrolls in heaven. This, this is the white fire of the word, right, for us. There are scrolls in heaven, some written just for you personally, that you need to open, or we need to open up scrolls for one another. Isn't that what prophetic words do? Um, especially in the ministry here, when we ask for prophetic words and words of knowledge, what are you doing? You're, you're loosing a scroll over that person. That's something that's been written about them that they now can learn to walk into. It's, it's, we don't think binding and loosing on these terms, but this is the primary basis for binding and loosing. Okay? So, we are supposed to be what? Good stewards of the word of God. 1 Peter 4:10 says, "As each one has received a gift, minister it to one another as good stewards of the manifold grace of God." A steward was to take care of the keys in the house, right? You are supposed to take care of the keys of the house. You are supposed to use your gift to unlock the word of God for people. And it's so important to understand that the ministry of the gospel is for other people, not you. Okay? We come to church for us. I hope I get delivered tonight. I hope I get healed tonight. I hope God touches me tonight. When really, you're here because you're, you're here to create an atmosphere. You have a purpose of being here besides just getting something for yourself. And you get what, if you get something for yourself, you're not supposed to keep it. You're supposed to give it away. As soon as God touches you, what are you supposed to do with it? As a steward of that gift, you're supposed to unlock it and release it to other people. If it releases, or maybe release it in the next 24 hours somewhere, at least something has to happen with it. You just don't let it sit there for yourself and enjoy it, or be like, um, um, when the revival was hitting in the, was it the '90s? When was, when was it hitting? And in the '90s, people were coming, oh, they called it their happy hour, like, like you do when you go home from work and you stop at a bar and you get a drink. That is extremely dishonoring to the spirit of God and holiness, and that anointing will lift off your people if that's how they're coming in because it's very self-centered, right? Okay. So, binding and loosing is a congregational anointing for the congregation. Um, so Luke 12:42 says, "Who then is that faithful and wise steward whom his master will make ruler over his household to give them their portion of food in due season?" Who, who is the believer who's walking in the gifts of God and stewarding them properly? You know, you know, are you walking into place? "Hi, I'm Prophet Kathleen. Glad to meet you." You know, "I'm Apostle whatever." That is already as a red flag. I'm not against titles, but those aren't titles in the Bible. Those are job descriptions. That's not your name. And that is an abuse of the gift of God. You are supposed to use it to express the glory of God, to get people to come closer to him, not to you, right? Not to you. All right?

So, the new covenant Halakha, remember, Halakha means the path or the way one walks. That's what they did. They called it Halakha. Is, um, is what the binding and loosing the scribes and the Pharisees, the Soferim were supposed to communicate to the congregation. Okay. So when Jesus comes along, he is the rabbi of rabbis. Correct? He's a rabbi of rabbis. Okay. So what does this rabbi do? He's the head, he's the head wisdom guy. He changed the rules all in this, in this, he changed the rules constantly. Right? He interpreted the Torah in a new, fresh, different way. He unveiled mysteries. So, um, for instance, he's, he said, "Wherever two or three are gathered, there I am in their midst." Right? Well, according to the rules of that day, a minyan, which is was a quorum of 10 men, 10 men. You had to have 10 men. Not two or three. And he didn't say two or three men. He just said two or three. Two or three people, and my name. So, there he is. He's, he's doing a Halakha. He's changing it. So we have to be open to New Testament understanding of what the word says. And they study the word so intensely, these prophetic folks. And yet they still missed his coming. They did not recognize the day of his visitation. Right? They missed it. They, they missed the white fire. They missed the white. All they saw was the black letters, and they totally missed the white fire of, of, of the word. Right? So in a sense, uh, when he was, when he was, um, anointing his disciples for binding and loosing and the keys of the kingdom, he was appointing his disciples to be his successors, right? Because he knew, he knew he was going. They didn't quite get that yet, but he knew he was going. So he wanted to make sure whatever he did continued. That's why he left teaching so that he could have disciples and teachers. And so he invested them with the same authority that he found in the scribes and the Pharisees. He's basically was lifting it off them and giving it to his new covenant believers. That same authority to bind and, and to, to loose because what were they doing? They were putting heavy burdens on folks and not willing to walk in it themselves.

Now, here's another act of binding and loosing that you may not think about, and it's in John 20:23 where this, Okay. Well, well, I'm getting, that's what I'm talking about now. Maybe it will. Yeah, that's right. This is not saying we do not have the power to, uh, forgive sins. And I said, I, I will, I'll explain that for you in a minute, Robert. These are my notes that Maria makes slides out of. The, you know, we talked about that today. I think I should just color-code my notes so you just don't put everything up there. Anyway, okay. So, this is a John 20:23. This is an amazing, powerful verse for binding and loosing. Okay, this, this I've seen this work miracles so many different times. It says, "If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them. If you retain the sins of any, they are retained." This was right after he breathed the Holy Spirit. You need the Holy Spirit for this. So he breathed the Holy Spirit on them, and, and he said, "If you," he said this verse over them. So how is that binding and loosing? So forgive is a female means to release, to send away, to divorce. And then of course, um, if you retain them, that means to bind somebody to them. So, you know, just practically, if someone offends you, there's something wrong against you, and you retain that offense, right? You, you, you've created a situation now that is just going to develop into wickedness and darkness, not only for your own self, but it makes it difficult for the person that, that did you wrong as well. So many times when we pray for people, we have a, a strategy called the cross. And so what we do when some, if someone has an offense against you, or you've had, uh, what you do is you take that person, and you, uh, come, come into a confession that you have agreed with that offense. Oh, time's up. You have news. Cuz I'm going to come to a good point here. You have agreed with that offense, right? And so you confess that. Then you renounce the fact that that sin ever occurred to you. And then you repent of ex-receiving offense, and you release the debt of that person. It doesn't mean God has forgiven them. It means you have released the toxicity, the poison of that sin, that serpent. These are serpents. Serpents bite you. Remember the serpents in the wilderness? They represent sin. And a bite is deadly. This is a deadly bite of offense. I'm just using offense as an example. It goes across the board with almost any sin. So, it's easy to think about it this way. So what I meant by that underlying verse in my notes is that you can forgive someone of offending you, coming against you, doing wrong to you, but that doesn't mean that they're off the hook with God himself. Only God can do that. What means you've unhooked yourself to what sin is trying to perpetuate. It's trying. Sin is like an alien from outer space. It's looking for a host to lay its eggs. You are the host. It will lay its eggs in you. It will, it will, you entertain it. It will grow into an alien inside of you, and you will become what that other person was to you in the first place. You will become that sin if you do not abort right away. So by remitting the offense, you've released yourself from it. You divorce. Apheimi means to divorce. Actually, in the Aramaic, it means to divorce. It means you divorce. You know when you divorce someone, you're done, right? It's over. No more covenant. No more covenant with that sin. That means no more agreement with that offense. You've released it. And then that's only part one. As an act of your remittance of that sin, you take that person, hand them over to Jesus on the cross, and say, "Jesus, you died for this person. You died for this sin. Your blood is available for them." And then according to 2 Timothy 2:24, I pray that you grant this person repentance that they may stop their foolishness, come to know you, and no longer be captive to do the devil's work. That's in 2 Timothy 2:24 and 6. And that is an amazing key to unlock sins against you. And then what happens over and over again, it is so consistent. Those people end up repenting, calling, you know, "I was, that was really not nice of me to do that to you. Will you forgive me?" And boom, relationships are restored. As long as you held people in that sin, bound them, it made it difficult. It aggravated a situation, it made it difficult for them to hear God because it is God who grants repentance, and he's ready for you to receive it. He grants it to you, and then you move on. And then once you receive that repentance, that there's no, there's no barriers between you and somebody else, right? So you loose sin. That. And if you hold on to sin, the curse, pain, jealousy, bitterness, you both are being bound into a prison because you are demanding a debt that you do not deserve to be paid, right? You're putting that person in a debtor's prison. And of course, if they're in a debtor's prison, how in the world are they ever going to pay you back, right? They can't. They have to be out of prison. So you basically, I release them from the debt that they owe me. Lord bless them now with repentance. And consistently, those relationships are healed every single time. Consistently.

>> Hey Kathleen, uh, that when you go Matthew 18:17 where the, where the church, you know, if the brother won't listen, the church puts him out. >> Yeah. >> What you described is exactly that. >> Yeah. Because if you don't put him out, you're binding him. You're actually, by not saying you need to leave, by not treating him as a heathen and a tax collector, you're actually binding him to his sin. Whereas if you loose him, >> and give him a chance at repentance and pray like you said, and that's what that verse is about. And I've heard a lot of confusion on that. Well, the reason it isn't, you aren't treating him like a heathen and a tax collector to because you want to, uh, put him off. What you don't want to do is falsely treat him as a brother because obviously they're not behaving like one, and they need to seek God's repentance. And that's loosing them like you just said. >> Yeah. >> If you keep them in the church, you're just binding them. >> Well, repentance is your gateway to freedom. Without it, you're not going to have experienced any freedom. And that's why Paul told him, "Put that young man out of the church so that he, of what? For the destruction of the flesh. Turn him over to Satan." That's pretty heavy duty, right? And then that was a releasing of him to that. But that loosed him from, he became repentant. And then he had to teach them, "Okay, now take him back. Bring him back into into the fold." So this is a, this is a, this is a powerful key for anything you do. You cannot hold people and their sins against you. Whether they're right or wrong is irrelevant, right? That's God's business. It's the Holy Spirit's business to convict people of sin. It is your business to re-release it. It is your business to see God's image in each other. So, this might be a little, a heavy thought, but I was thinking about this the other day, that hate is an un, is from an unimaginative mind. You have an unimaginative mind. Why? Because it takes imagination. Remember, we've talked about God's imagination, God's imaging, right? We are God's image. You have to imagine God's image in that person in front of you. And when you imagine God's image in that person in front of me, whether they're torturing you for your faith, whether they're being vile to you, and if you can use your imagination and see God's image in that person, you won't have trouble with bitterness and hate. It's, use your imagination. See God. There was a guy that when his persecutors, he said, "Lord, I want to see their angels." And the persecutors, the angel would come right there. Everybody has an angel. The person you don't like most has an angel. And that angel moves in front of that person you don't like. And then you see through that angel, and you see God's image. And it removes any anger, any bitterness against that person. It, it can. This is the white fire of the word of God. Okay? This is the white fire of the word of God. You cannot do this by rote. "I'm going to forgive. I'm going to forgive. I'm going to forgive. I'm going to, yes, I'm going to forgive." You cannot do it that way. You cannot demand it. That's legalism. You have to throw yourself into the white fire, the spirit of God, and see people through that white fire so that, you know. Okay.

So, we're going to, we're going to end here because I, the real fun part is yet to come. The fun part of, um, the part where it is related. So, so far, this is only not even. I already went beyond the Peshat of what most of Christian do. You, you're going to hear in Sunday morning, Sunday morning, binding and loosing is church discipline and nothing more, nothing less. That's it. And it's only for the leaders, nobody else. That is the extent of their understanding of binding and loosing. So we already went a few steps beyond that. Right? We went into a Remez, and then we went into a Sod about having to remit sins or retain them. And so we can do that. That's binding and loosing. So I just want to loose the word of God over you. I just, I just pray the white fire of the word of God to be unveiled when you read it. That there's more than just the first image or the first black and white understanding of the, of that verse you're reading. I, I just, I just pray that you would park yourself there and that you'd begin to exercise your imaginations to see the image of God in other people so that you can no longer bind them in sin, but loose them to the grace of God. Right. Amen. Okay. I think that's a good stopping point because All right. That's a good. That's a good. Okay. So, all right. So next week will be more exciting.