Matt 10:37 He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me.
“To have real weight or clout with Jesus. “ Having a greater affection for anything makes a believer unfit to follow Jesus. He is unable to adequately respond to his life and call. The spiritual power necessary to please the Lord will not be there. There will be a lack of balance between the believer and Jesus.
Revelation 4:11 Thou art worthy O Lord, to receive glory and honour and power: for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created.
1 John 2:15 Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him.
All verbs are in the present tense, showing proportionality.
Love for the world proportionally robs the believer from the love of God and the things of God. Our hearts have a limited space. Any space taken by the things of this world is space gone for the things of God.
Matthew 6:24 No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.
Greek: You cannot be a slave to two lords… You will hate one, and love the other one unconditionally…you will embrace one; and think little of the other…Ye cannot be a slave to God and to material acquisitions.
To the extent that we embrace material gain for wrong motives is to the same extent that we will think little of, and hate the Lord.
By hating the Lord, I mean to say that we will hate what He requires from us.
Our ability to obey the Lord, as Lord, will be restricted by how submitted to the lordship of materialism we are.
Mat 10:39 He that findeth his life shall lose it: and he that loseth his life for my sake shall find it.
He that lights upon, finds delight and holds on to his selfish life, shall bring ruin, destruction, uselessness and misery through the corruption that his selfish life creates.
He that ruins, destroys, and wastes away selfish life for the sake of God shall discover, recognize, acquire real life.
Jude 1:5 I will therefore put you in remembrance, though ye once knew this, how that the Lord, having saved the people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed them that believed not.
Jude 1:11 Woe unto them! for they have gone in the way of Cain, and ran greedily after the error of Balaam for reward, and perished in the gainsaying of Core.
Matthew 16:24 Then said Jesus unto his disciples, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.
In actuality the word “follow” is defined as unification in traveling the same road. It is an agreement with the pattern of Jesus’ life, His ministry, and even of His death.
This is why the apostle Paul said,
1 Corinthians 11:1 Be ye followers of me, even as I also am of Christ.
“Be a mimic of me, even as I am also a mimic of Christ”
“Forsaking’: This is the act of our bidding farewell to, and renouncing what will not glorify God. The scriptures in Luke and Mark use the very same Greek word for forsaketh.
Luke 14:33 So likewise, whosoever he be of you that forsaketh not all that he hath, he cannot be my disciple.
Luke 9:61 And another also said, Lord, I will follow thee; but let me first go bid them farewell which are at home at my house.
Mark 6:46 And when he had sent them away he departed into a mountain to pray.
Thirdly is “our ability to be a disciple”.
Luke 14:26 If any man come to me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple.
Luke 14:27 And whosoever doth not bear his cross, and come after me, cannot be my disciple.
Luke 14:33 So likewise, whosoever he be of you that forsaketh not all that he hath, he cannot be my disciple.
These scriptures enlighten us that the Christian who does not bear the cross, forsake all that he has, and put his family his life behind God’s will, will not have the “dunamis power “ or capacity, or ability, or power to be a disciple of our Lord.
The “cannot” is constructed as an “absolute negative”. Simply, “under no circumstances”, or, “never”, or, “it is impossible” for the Christian who is not willing to do these things to ever become a disciple of Jesus. The spiritual capacity or ability simply is present.
Rev 12:11 And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony; and they loved not their lives unto the death.
They overcame Satan by means of the blood of the lamb and by means of the word of our martyrdom.
The word of our testimony is a confession of what the cross has done and doing in our lives. Only then, will our words be backed up with the authority of a resurrected life that emerges from martyrdom. The devil cannot touch resurrection life and will back away from us.
Binding
John 14:30 Hereafter I will not talk much with you: for the prince of this world cometh, and hath nothing in me.
Hath nothing (Greek absolute negative) “The devil has absolutely nothing in me or nothing in common with me.”
The Lord had effectively bound the devil out of His life, thus giving Him absolute power over him. This is what the demonic shuddered at, and was the cause of their torment.
Matthew 8:29 And, behold, they cried out, saying, What have we to do with thee, Jesus, thou Son of God? art thou come hither to torment us before the time?
Mark 1:24 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.
Luke 4:34 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.
This is the true meaning of Biblical binding.
To bind is not to allow or let something to occur.
Genuine binding of the demonic occurs within a pure life, which has no defilement, with what is common with Satan and his cohorts. At every point of our lives in which purity reigns, the devil shares nothing in common to us, he has been bound
Be assured that our vocalized confessions of binding the enemy is scorned and mocked by him who will continue to afflict and latch on to us wherever he finds sin.
Binding the enemy is very similar in nature.
1 John 2:14 I have written unto you, fathers, because ye have known him that is from the beginning. I have written unto you, young men, because ye are strong (SPIRITUALLYSTRONG), and the word of God abideth in you, and ye have overcome the wicked one.
Ephesians 2:2 Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh(ENERGY) in the children of disobedience:
The Greek word for worketh is defined as giving energy to.
The sons of disobedience energize the scheme of the devil on a continuous basis.
Disobedience gives energy for the devil to work in our lives.
The word for disobedience is being non-compliant.
Non-compliance or compliance holds true for unbelievers and believers.
The sons of disobedience are simply not the unbelievers, but anyone who chronically resist God in their hearts.
Eph 6:13 Wherefore take unto you the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.
“Having done all” is the word.”katergazomai.’
Paul tells us that after having completed, accomplished all things that God has given to us, and gotten the victory over all things, remain standing.
The Christian life is one of accomplishing all things that God gives us to an utter completion and victory. No stone must be left unturned.
“Having done all, to stand,” is represented by the cartoons of the coyote and the road runner. In one of their many scuffles, as a ball of dull is kicked up, both of these guys get lost in their dusty fights. When the dust finally settles, the road runner usually remained standing. This is what it means to “having done all, to stand.”! We must fight by the Spirit without compromise, or without discouragement, until we remain standing victoriously; as Satan, sin and the world lay scattered at our feet in full visibility, once our ball of dust finally settles!
Phillip 2:12 Wherefore, my beloved, as ye have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.
Work out: Carry out all things that pertain to my salvation to absolute completion, resulting in success and liberty.
To work out is in the middle Greek tense, signifying that the responsibility to complete our salvation is ours.
Utterly carry out, finish and achieve to completion everything that has to do with your salvation. Utterly finish it!
Do not leave anything lacking!
Mat 12:29 Or else how can one enter into a strong man’s house, and spoil his goods, except he first bind the strong man? and then he will spoil his house.
Greek (paraphrase) No one will have the dunamis power to come into the strong one’s house to change the situation, thoroughly plunder his goods, until they are laid waste, and then occupy. He must bind the strong one first and then he will be able to thoroughly plunder.
After twenty-two years of serving the Lord Jesus, He is finally dealing with the strong man in my life. I am of the belief that every believer has a strong man .The strong man is the demon that is last to be bound from our lives. He is the one that we can discern constantly opposing and withstanding us every second of our lives in a variety of deceptive measures.
The Lord has allowed the strong man to afflict me until I have bound every major area of sin in my life through obedience to Him, which has led to liberty in those areas. After completing this process, the Lord is now dealing with the strongman in my life.
Luke 11:21 When a strong man armed keepeth his palace, his goods are in peace:
Greek: When the strong one fully furnished with weaponry guards his palace, his goods, wealth, and property lie in peace.
22 But when a stronger than he shall come upon him, and overcome him, he taketh from him all his armour wherein he trusted, and divideth his spoils.
Greek: But when a stronger one than the strong man comes upon him with a hostile intent, attacks him, and conquers him, he takes from the strong man the armor which he trusted in, and thoroughly distributes out (to others) the strong one’s weapons and goods.
Jesus is obviously the stronger one. The strong man must be defeated in two ways.
His binding by us is the point where there is not one significant area of unrepentant sin left in our lives.
Secondly, it is only the revelation of the Lord Jesus laboring in us by His grace, and attacking the strongman as the stronger one, that is effective.
With the strong man is finally bound and conquered we find ourselves running, leaping forward, and plundering for the Lord!
Mark 1:25 And Jesus rebuked him, saying, Hold thy peace, and come out of him.
Rebuked him – Greek “To heap something upon someone’s honor.”
All created things have an honor that makes them up. Honor that belongs to someone, or something, is the glory that makes it into what it is. Even sickness and sin has a glory, though perverse, that identifies it as a particular sickness or sin.
When we rebuke a sickness with faith in the name of the Lord Jesus, we destroy the very substance and power of the sickness.
Hold thy peace – To muzzle something. Effectively the Lord Jesus commands the demon to be reduced to silence and his activity to be placed in check.
Ephesians 4:27 Neither give place ( a space which has been marked off) to the devil.
The New Testament Believer
Mat 11:12 And from the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffereth violence, and the violent take it by force.
The kingdom of God is taken by spiritual violence and spiritually strong and forceful people must from moment to moment snatch, seize it, and take it away as a precious bounty.
Jose and Mary Alvarez 