I am a relatively young 47 year old man. By no means am I "old," but I have been around and seen a lot of things on my journey of faith. When I was younger, I thought that prayer was all about binding demons, casting out demons, casting down principalities and powers, and taking dominion over evil spirits, so forth and so on. Given that, I am going to pause my thought because I want to be crystal clear about what I just stated.
We are in a spiritual war. This spiritual war is about the very existence of souls, both your soul and my soul. It is through prayer that each of us must take up the whole armor of God (Ephesians 6:10-19). Our enemy is Satan and the powers of hell are dedicated to dragging our minds and lives through the mud. They work 24/7, all year long, and take no vacations because they are constantly finding ways to entangle our minds over and over and over. However the Word of God declares in 1 Peter 5:8, "Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour." This verse does not say to fear our adversary. We do not have to be afraid of him. We do not have to fear him. This verse does not say to cower from him. This verse says that we are to be on guard at all times. We must be alert because the devil is a liar. His full-time mission is to steal, kill, and destroy every one of us and our families; by any means necessary. But this spiritual war is not easily won, we must pray, fast ... and take up the whole armor of God. There is no reason to yield one inch of our lives to the enemy if we have taken up the whole armor of God. I firmly believe in spiritual warfare praying. I firmly believe in binding and loosing strongholds and the like. Those strongholds must and will come down ... break down ... be destroyed in the name of Jesus. Amen? So be it.
Now that I have that cleared up. As I have gotten older, perhaps wiser (I have plenty of grey hair to prove it!), I have come to the conclusion that it is me. It's always been me. When it comes to prayer, specifically binding and loosing, it's more about binding my flesh to the altar. Living for God is a lifelong process of maturation and growth. My conversion is the miracle of the moment, but living for God is a lifetime journey of spiritual developement. The carnal, fleshly appetite is enmity against God (Romans 8:7), and it constantly wars against the inward person that hungers after God. It is me. I need to humble myself under God's mighty hand and crucify my fleshly desires, appetities, negative and pessimistic thoughts, and allow the Word of God to have its way in me.
I used to think the devil was my greatest foe. However, being a true disciple of Jesus Christ involves a lifetime of discipline that keeps me under subjection to the will of God. It's me that is the single greatest enemy, not the devil. It has always been me. There is an ongoing war between the Spirit and the flesh. Naturally, the one we feed the most will be the one that controls us.
Thanks for reading,
CRG