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Find the answers to all those questions you were too embarrassed to ask in Sunday School. Welcome to Weird Stuff in the Bible, where we explore scripture passages that are bizarre, perplexing or just plain weird. Hosted by Luke Taylor.
Dive deeper! Sign up for the newsletter (and catch up on past newsletters) at this link: https://weirdstuffinthebible.beehiiv.com/
What Happens When You Bind a Spirit | Revelation 20 & Enoch 13
Revelation 20
Introduction
Thor has his hammer. Indiana Jones has his whip. Robin Hood has his bow. Iron Man has…laser hands. I don’t really know what you call them.
Anyway- in Matthew 16, Jesus gave us an incredible weapon that we can use to fight our enemies as well. He said
(Matthew 16:19)
“I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.”
And wouldn’t you know, Christians like to argue about what exactly these words mean. Is this about spiritual warfare? Is this about church discipline?
In the words of Iron Man himself: “is it too much to ask for both?"
Thankfully, this answer is not a mystery. When we look at the biblical vocabulary around fighting off demons and fallen angels in the Bible, it actually becomes pretty simple.
Notice: I called today’s episode “What Happens When You Bind a Spirit,” and I didn’t put a question mark on the end of it. I’m not asking a question today. I’m going to show you what happens when you bind a spirit.
And once I’m done, you’ll be praying prayers of binding and loosing more than ever.
Because this concept is not supposed to be weird for Christians to do. Some Christians think that praying prayers like this is kinda out-there. But it’s actually supposed to be pretty normal.
So if you want to learn more, turn with me to Luke 13, and let’s get normal.
[theme music]
Binding and Loosing and You
Welcome to Weird Stuff in the Bible, where we explore scripture passages that are bizarre, perplexing or just plain weird. This is Luke Taylor, and today we’re going to be talking about prayers of binding and loosing, once again, with a little more biblical and extra-biblical exploration.
Because right now we’re in a series where we’re looking at places where the Book of Enoch intersects with the Bible. I’d say we’re about or at least halfway through this journey. And today, I’d like to examine the issue of binding and loosing, as I’ve done previously on the podcast.
Let me recap what I’ve discussed on the podcast about this topic before, to save us some time. It’ll be a good refresher if you’ve forgotten any of these details. And then we’ll get to Revelation 20 and then Enoch 13 after that.
In episode 52, I first taught about praying prayers of binding and loosing. And in that one, I showed that binding and loosing are words associated with spiritual warfare: quite literally, the binding of demons and setting people loose from them. In Luke 13, Jesus healed the woman who had a physical condition that was due to the presence of an evil spirit,
and He said in verse 16:
So ought not this woman, being a daughter of Abraham, whom Satan has bound—think of it—for eighteen years, be loosed from this bond on the Sabbath?”
The words for bound and loosed there are the Greek words “deo” and “luo,” the exact same words that show up in Matthew 16.
We also see these words in other spiritual warfare passages, talking about Satan, demons and fallen angels.
Matthew 12:28-29
28 But if it is by the Spirit of God that I cast out demons, then the kingdom of God has come upon you. 29 Or how can someone enter a strong man's house and plunder his goods, unless he first binds the strong man?
Spiritual warfare. For a future, prophecy, let’s look at:
Revelation 9:14
“Release the four angels who are bound at the great river Euphrates.”
And when it says “release” right there, it’s the Greek word “luo.” It means to set them loose. Now, releasing these angels is not something I’d recommend you use your Kingdom authority to do; that’s something God will do in the end times. I’m simply trying to demonstrate: it’s very clear biblically that deo and luo- bind and loose- are vocabulary words often used for the binding and loosing of spirits. That was episode 52.
Then I came back and discussed this issue again in episode 73. I was asked: wait, what about church discipline? Jesus again quotes these words about binding and loosing in a church discipline context in Matthew 18.
Great question. But it actually is a bit different context. It’s not a direct quotation in the Greek, but it does look like a word-for-word quotation in English. I go into this more in episode 73, but Matthew 18 is discussing church discipline.
It says:
if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector. 18 Truly, I say to you, whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. 19 Again I say to you, if two of you agree on earth about anything they ask, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven. 20 For where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I among them.”
So right there it includes a quotation about binding and loosing. So is this about spiritual warfare, or is it about church discipline? It’s both, because church discipline IS spiritual warfare.
I Corinthians 5 explains all this. Your church is holy ground. If someone comes under church discipline and must be put outside the church, I Corinthians 5 says it’s handing them over to Satan for destruction of the flesh. If he’s inside the church, he’s in Holy Ground. That’s why Matthew 18 included the comment about where two or three are gathered in my name, there I am among them. The physical place. Our Lord and Savior is not on a zoom call. He’s right there among us. When someone is trying to bring sin into that holy gathering, Jesus says to remove them and hand them over to Satan.
It’s literally a matter of spiritual geography, like we talk about on this podcast a lot. Church discipline IS spiritual warfare. It’s not an either-or. So that’s where I land on this subject.
And in a personal sense, I want to say that I’ve seen situations change and turn around when I started praying prayers of binding and loosing, sometimes instantaneously. So I believe it in a personal way. But I’m not here trying to build doctrine on experience. I’ll build doctrine on the Bible.
And one more doctrinal building block I want to share real quick:
In episode 100, I interviewed Michael Miller of Remnant Radio. Exceptional interview. He showed us, biblically, some important insights to keep in mind as we’re reading our Bibles. 1, demonic possession/oppression should be better understood as demonization. We tend to separate demonic possession and oppression into separate categories in English, but the Bible doesn’t do that. It’s not about whether a demon can possess you; the issue is whether you can possess a demon. That’s called being demonized. 2, believers- Christians- can be demonized. He showed that even saved believers- such as the woman in Luke 13- can be demonized and need the demon cast out.
Revelation 20
Now back to binding and loosing: let’s look at one more place this comes up in Revelation 20. This is at the end of the Bible. In Revelation 19, we read about the Second Coming of Christ. In Revelation 20, we read about a one-thousand-year period called The Millennium.
Now, I’m not here to pick a fight with other Christians on how we view end times. I tried to make that point clearly last week. But I am going to explain how and why I understand Revelation 19 and 20, because it does affect how we understand this thing of binding and loosing in real-world terms.
Some Christians believe that Jesus returns at the END of the millennium. Some will even say that we are in the millennium now, and that Jesus is going to return someday at the end of it. But that just doesn’t make sense to me because Revelation 20- which talks about the millennium for 10 verses- comes after Revelation 19.
As I said, Revelation 19 contains the second coming of Christ. And as you turn the page to Revelation 20, chapter 20 begins with the word “then.” The word “then” means “the next thing in a sequence of events.”
For example: “At 5pm I got off work. THEN I went to Dairy Queen. THEN I ordered an ice cream sundae with skittles and M&Ms. THEN I ate it. THEN I had a tummy ache for the next two hours. THEN I stood on the bathroom scale. THEN I threw the bathroom scale out the window.” Nobody would hear that and think I ate the sundae before I went to Dairy Queen or that I became dissatisfied with my judgy bathroom scale before I went and got off work and bought the ice cream. Because the word “THEN” conveys a specific series of events.
So Revelation 19 has the Second Coming of Christ in verse 11. THEN the antichrist and false prophet are defeated and thrown into the Lake of Fire in verses 17 through the end of that chapter.
And chapter 20 begins
THEN I saw an angel coming down from heaven, holding in his hand the key to the bottomless pit and a great chain. 2 And he seized the dragon, that ancient serpent, who is the devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years, 3 and threw him into the pit, and shut it and sealed it over him, so that he might not deceive the nations any longer, until the thousand years were ended. After that he must be released for a little while.
So a few notes here.
A. The thousand years here is the Millennium. That’s what a thousand years means.
B. The Bible also makes it 100% clear here: the dragon is the serpent, the devil, Satan- these are all terms for the same dude. Some Christians try to say that Satan was someone else than the serpent in the garden, etc. The book of Revelation clarifies it for us.
C. The devil is thrown into something called the bottomless pit, also known as the abyss, for a thousand years, because of a key and a chain. Just like the word “key” comes up in Matthew 16:19 about the keys of the kingdom.
D. The devil is “BOUND” for the thousand years. And that greek word “Bound” is deo. And how is he bound? A chain. Literally tied up in a chain. And then he must be released- the Greek word “luo”- for a little while. So we see the two words right there, deo and luo, talking tying up a spirit in a chain.
Now, please don’t read anything I’m saying as trying to be condescending to anyone else’s eschatology. I’m just explaining why I don’t believe we’re in the Millennium now. These verses in Revelation say that during the Millennium, Satan is bound. Tied up and thrown into the abyss. Well there are a couple of reasons I can’t believe that Satan is bound up right now.
Number 1- all of the New Testament warnings about him. If Satan were locked up in prison today, why does Peter warn us that he goes about as a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour (I Peter 5:8)? Why does James tell us to resist the devil if he’s all tied up (James 4:7)?
Number 2- just the evidence of my own eyes and ears. As I look around, it seems obvious that Satan is pretty busy. Look at what happened October 7, 2023, in Israel? Look at the persecution of the church in Nigeria right now. I mean, if Satan is bound right now, he must have a pretty long leash.
So I take this as a future prophecy. This hasn’t happened yet, and it won’t happen until the second coming of Christ. THEN the antichrist and false prophet are thrown into the Lake of Fire. THEN the Millennium happens and Satan is locked away in the bottomless pit (which is also where I was trying to throw my bathroom scale). THEN he’s released and THEN he’s thrown into the lake of fire himself shortly thereafter.
There is coming a day that Satan will be bound. It’ll be literal. It’s in the spiritual realm, but there are literal chains in the spiritual realm that can be used to bind spirits. And now let’s go into this further with some insight from the Book of Enoch.
In our Enoch series, we’ve been reading about a very similar binding of some spirits in the pre-flood world…
Enoch 13
Now, I am not relying on the Book of Enoch to made my case about binding and loosing. I was able to do that without touching the Book of Enoch. But I’m gonna use the book of Enoch to help us understand even deeper what Jesus meant when He used the words deo and luo.
Remember that this book was a popular piece of second-temple literature at the time of Jesus. That means, it was a work that was often read and studied. The vocabulary you find in this book will reflect the vocabulary of the Jewish people in Jesus’ day. And the Book of Enoch is going to back up this interpretation of binding and loosing and what it means.
So we’ll mainly read Enoch’s 13th chapter today, but let’s start with something we already looked at in the tenth chapter. The Watchers- which you could call fallen angels, but these are not everyday angels; these are higher-class angels which you might refer to as principalities- and they were in trouble with God because they had mated with human women to produce the giants back in the pre-flood world. The book of Enoch gives us the names of some of these beings, and the two main ones were Azazel and Semjaza. God instructed some of the archangels to go down and capture those Watchers and to imprison them in the underworld.
Here’s what we read in Enoch’s 10th chapter. “And again the Lord said to Raphael: ’Bind Azazel hand and foot, and cast him into the darkness…and on the day of great judgment he shall be cast into the fire.’” Later that chapter says, “And the Lord said unto Michael: ‘Go, bind Semjaza and his associates who have united themselves with women…bind them fast for 70 generations in the valleys of the earth, til the day of their judgment…”
This is what the book of Jude is talking about when it says,
And the angels who did not stay within their own position of authority, but left their proper dwelling, he has kept in eternal chains under gloomy darkness until the judgment of the great day—
So notice what this binding entails: chains. Also check out
II Peter 2:4
For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but cast them into hell and committed them to chains of gloomy darkness to be kept until the judgment
Just like the Book of Enoch says. Chains. Darkness. Kept until the judgment. The word for hell there is “Tartarus,” which is a word that Enoch uses for this pit in Sheol. Side-note: I had a fun little conversation this week with a guy on Twitter. Fellow Christian, but he rejects the Book of Enoch. I said, “What about how Jude quotes from it and says that quote was literally from Enoch himself?” He said, “That was just that one quote. You can’t prove that anything else from the book of Enoch is legitimate.” I said, “What about the angels who were locked away in Tartarus?” And then he stopped talking to me.
Alright, so in our book of Enoch study, we’re in a part where Enoch is going to visit these Watchers who are now bound up in the underworld. Last week, we saw how Enoch was caught up or taken up into the spirit realm. The Watchers want Enoch to pass messages back and forth between them and God. They are going to seek to appeal their case; they want to be freed. So today and next week, we’ll look at chapters 13 and 14, as Enoch is essentially acting as this legal scribe or go-between between the Watchers and God. But what I want to focus on is the state of the Watchers.
Enoch 13 begins: “1. And Enoch went and said: ‘Azâzêl, thou shalt have no peace: a severe sentence has gone forth against thee to put thee in bonds: 2. And thou shalt not have toleration nor request granted to thee, because of the unrighteousness which thou hast taught, and because of all the works of godlessness and unrighteousness and sin which thou hast shown to men.’”
Note that he is in bonds. This is what it means to bind someone. Jude and Peter referred to it as being in chains. So here’s my point: Azazel is literally tied up. In a physical sense, he can’t leave his prison. It’s not just that he’s been told, “You have to stay here and you aren’t allowed to leave.” That’s what the Watchers were already told when they left their heavenly domain to come down to earth. They had the potential or possibility to choose to do that; it was wrong, but they had the ability.
But in this pit prison that Azazel is in, he now literally can’t leave. He is bound there. He is restrained. Now, in chapter 10 of Enoch, Azazel was singled out first, and then all the rest were bound as well. Here in chapter 13, Azazel was singled out for a word of condemnation from God, and now Enoch will speak a word of condemnation to the rest of the Watchers also.
“3. Then I went and spoke to them all together, and they were all afraid, and fear and trembling seized them. 4. And they besought me to draw up a petition for them that they might find forgiveness, and to read their petition in the presence of the Lord of heaven. 5. For from thenceforward they could not speak (with Him) nor lift up their eyes to heaven for shame of their sins for which they had been condemned. 6. Then I wrote out their petition, and the prayer in regard to their spirits and their deeds individually and in regard to their requests that they should have forgiveness and length 〈of days〉”
So Enoch takes down a petition from them. This is the appeal I was talking about. And we’ll pick it up right there as we continue this story and talk about the appeal next week. This is kind of a part one-part two type of thing. I just want to focus on the bound up state of the Watchers today.
This illuminates for us what is happening in the spiritual realm when a spirit is bound. They are literally restrained in bonds. This is not just figurative language for telling them to go away or something.
And this point is important to make because that’s how some Christians will read those verses in Revelation about Satan being bound. They’ll say, “Well Revelation is very symbolic. Everything is metaphorical.” I’m not denying that Revelation has some symbolic truths in it, but it also has a lot of literal truths. When Satan is bound up during the Millennium, it means he’ll literally be tied up in chains or fetters and prevented from engaging in activity on the earth during that time. The abyss is a real place. We’ll read about it later in the book of Enoch, too.
And so the Enochian text, as a piece of Second Temple literature, shows us what Jesus, John, Jude, Peter and the other bible writers had in mind as they penned the words of the New Testament. Which means this: John, the author of Revelation, saw Satan being someday bound and thrown in this abyss. He’s using similar words as what Enoch uses because John saw this as a similar event.
Testimonies
Which means for us: this is what happens when a spirit is bound. The spirit is tied up. The spirit is actually restrained. This isn’t just mystical mumbo jumbo that we say; it’s something that actually happens in the spiritual realm.
So my application to you today is really simple: pray prayers of binding and loosing. It works. I’m not saying it’s fool-proof-100% of the time- always fixes a problem. But I do think these prayers are effective. You pray in the faith in the authority Jesus has given you.
You don’t have to address the devil directly. I try to do it from a place of humility. I say, “Lord, I pray over this-or-that situation, and if the enemy is involved in it in any way, I pray that you would bind the enemy and prevent him from doing any harm, in Jesus’ name.” Virtually every day, I pray that the enemy would be bound from the property of my house and to stay away from my home and leave my family alone.
Some people are more direct than me. They say things like, “Devil, I bind you…” And I’m not saying that’s wrong. But I don’t really feel like talking to the devil. I’d rather talk to God and ask Him to dispatch His angels. That’s my style. Find what works for you.
I’ll give you an example of a time I saw it in action. Last year a man named Mike asked me to pray for him. He had pain in his shoulder. I was preaching a sermon; he said he was sitting there listening to that sermon, and the pain in his shoulder was screaming. It was all he could do to sit still.
Afterwards I prayed for him. I said, “Lord, I pray that you would touch Mike’s shoulder with a healing touch. And Lord, if there is any spiritual enemy who is afflicting Mike right now, I pray that he would be bound. I pray that the enemy would be bound and cast out in Jesus’ name. I pray that Mike would be free in Jesus’ name.” And I might have said a little more, but I didn’t say much more than that. I went on and started praying for the next person. I see Mike the next week. He said, “Ever since you prayed for my shoulder, the pain instantly went away and it hasn’t been back.”
And I could go through more examples. But I’ll share a couple of listener emails that have come in.
Last fall, I got this email. I’ll leave it anonymous for their privacy. It said: Just wanted to let you know that the episode of binding and loosing really spoke to me. I had an addiction for years and I studied and prayed the prayer of loosen the spirit and bind it and haven’t even thought about the addiction for weeks now. God works even through your podcast.
I got another testimony sent in last week. It said: Cool story our men’s group we had a man who said he couldn’t get closer to God because he was carrying hate from years ago. I asked him when it started he said 1999 I told him let’s pray that the spirit of hate that entered you then would be loosed and bound and we get past it. He wasn’t sure if he wanted to at first because that’s all he’s known for so long but he asked us how to pray that it leaves him “what is bound on earth will be bound in heaven” what a great men’s group to watch him change
So I just want to encourage everyone: pray prayers of binding and loosing! Whether it’s for healing- physically, psychologically- whether it’s for strained relationships. I know demons are involved in a lot of relational conflict. Whether it’s for your finances. Whether it’s for focusing better on your prayer and Bible reading time. I’m sure the enemy tries to interrupt that. Whether it’s for whatever your struggle is right now. I’m not saying it will make every problem in your life go away. But it’ll work for some of them. Just like I believe penicillin works. Doesn’t mean it’s gonna solve every problem in the world. But it will solve some of them. And prayers of binding and loosing are probably effective for more things than penicillin.
One more email I want to share is from Amy in Casa Grande, Arizona- she sent me an email this week, said she’s listened to almost all the episodes of the podcast, so this lady is an official weirdo. No going back now, sorry Amy.
She also said this: It has been fascinating learning about our true identity the true details of the world's history and how to be effective in God's army.
That is a great summary of what I feel like I’ve learned in the process of producing this podcast. When I started, I saw it as “exploring Bible passages that are bizarre, perplexing or just plain weird.” But in studying the weird stuff in the Bible, what Amy said is exactly what I’ve learned: our true identity, the true details of the world’s history, and how to be effective in God’s army. Thank you for writing in, Amy. And shout out to Rod who also lives down there in Casa Grande and introduced her to this podcast.
And one more shout-out to Emily who wrote in last week, but I didn’t see her message until this week.
And to everyone else, I can be reached at any time at: weirdstuffinthebible@gmail.com
Closing Thoughts
Let me remind you what Jesus said in Matthew 16 (verse 19).
I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.
Some will say that binding and loosing isn’t about spiritual warfare because the words bind and loose- or deo and luo- are very broad words that can have a variety of meanings. And that’s true. You can use the word bind or the word loose in all kinds of scenarios. But when we use them together, they have a specific context that Jesus and His disciples would have understood.
Kind of like the words “rock” and “roll” are very broad words that can be used in a variety of ways. But when I say “rock and roll,” you know I’m talking about a specific genre of music.
We have lots of word pairings like this in the legal realm. Terms and conditions. Cease and desist. Null and void. When the disciples heard Jesus talking about binding and loosing, they don’t ask Him for clarification. They knew: oh, this is spiritual legal lingo.
This may well go back to the Hebrew, too. In Genesis 3, God pronounced a curse on the serpent. First place the word “curse” appears. And the word curse right there is the Hebrew word “arar” (aw-rar). Fun fact: It’s the only Hebrew word that a T-Rex can say. Arar. It means to curse; it also means “to bind, to restrain, to place a sentence on” (citation: Remnant Radio “Can Christians Be Cursed” April 28, 2026 episode, 34:14).
In a sense, when we bind a spirit, we’re cursing that spirit. We’re pronouncing a sentence of restraint and binding on it in the spirit realm. Binding a spirit is restricting its rights.
Now, some people get a little wigged out about binding and loosing language because they’ve heard some weirdo Christians use these words before, and they were weirdos, and we don’t want to be weird, right? Well let me set your mind at ease.
The gift Jesus gave us in Matthew 16 is not simply the words. “Binding and loosing” is not a magical incantation. It’s not that it makes all your problems go away just because you said the words. The gift is the authority.
In other words, you can pray prayers of binding and loosing without using the words bind/loose/deo/luo. You can just pray that the Lord would stop the enemy, or protect you from him, or make him leave. If you’re in the presence of a demonized person, you can just tell the enemy to go in Jesus’ name. It’s not about a specific word; it’s about the authority you have as a child of God. You have the keys of the Kingdom.
I John 3:8 says
The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil.
And what’s interesting about that verse is the word destroy. It’s the Greek word luo. The same word that almost every single time in the New Testament is translated as “loosed” or “released.”
Jesus sets the captive free. And He’s extended that authority to us as well.
And one way we can do that is with our prayers. Because what’s bound on earth is bound in heaven. That means in the spiritual realm. That means God sends His angels to deal with our enemies, and heaven moves on our behalf.
Chains are placed on demons and fallen angels. That’s deo.
Chains are broken off people. That’s luo.
When we pray, God hears.
Angels are dispatched.
Demons are bound.
Chains fall.
Situations change.
Miracles happen.
And heaven moves…
…because prayer works.
Binding and loosing evil spirits is not weird. WE are weird when we don’t exercise the authority we have. But I hope that now we will. Thanks for listening, God bless you for sticking around until the end, and we’ll see you next time on Weird Stuff in the Bible.