Historically the power to bind and loose has been understood as a verbal power and Christians have attempted to bind and or loose by speaking to the problem, however, by careful scrutiny, it is glaringly obvious this is not what Jesus said. Jesus explicitly said, anything we bind on earth would be bound in heaven and vice versa. This is not a cart blanch power to bind and loose, it is a specific power to bind or loose heaven. For the life of me I cannot understand why it would ever be a good idea to bind heaven for any reason. Still, Jesus gave this power to Christians. Perhaps this power speaks of God's confidence in man's ability to do the right thing, but more likely speaks more of the incredible love God has for the crowning glory of His creation. God so believes in us.
It has always seemed strange to me that love believes the best of people (1Cor. 13). Since God is love, this means that God believes the best of us, knowing all the time that we will utterly fail Him.
The power of binding and loosening is not found in verbal commands even though Jesus did tell us to speak to the Sychamine tree, tell it to move, and it will obey you. There is a difference between speaking in faith, believing, and binding and loosening. Binding and loosening is performed by obedience and disobedience. Let me refer you to the book of Judges. Each time the Israeli's repented of sins and walked in obedience to God, the power of God was loosed out of heaven to deliver and heal. On the other hand, each time the Children of Israel disobeyed God and walked in disobedience, the power of God was bound up in heaven and their cries for help went unanswered.
The Children of Israel bound up heaven or loosened heaven by their behavior, not by their words. Since the Old Testament stands as examples for Christians, is it possible that the power to bind and loose today can be found in behavior as well?
If we apply this teaching to the new covenant, there is one commandment left by Jesus to lost souls all over the earth. This commandment is not stated as such, but it remains so. It is found in John 3:16, if you would be washed from your sins and clothed with righteousness, you must be born again. If you believe in Jesus, all your sins will be washed away. This commandment is not stated in the negative, as in "you must not," it is stated in the positive, as in "you must." Similarly, Jesus issued one commandment to Christians and this commandment is not issued in the negative, but in the positive.
The old covenant was a covenant of 'thou shalt nots." The new covenant is a covenant of "thou shalt." The old covenant had thousands of commandments. The new covenant has two, issued to two separate groups of people. One commandment was issued to the lost, the other was issued to those who received Jesus' righteousness, Christians. By their ongoing blatant disobedience of the one commandment Jesus issued to Christians, Christians have bound up heaven. Our words cannot negate our actions. In other words, we can get down on our knees and bombard heaven with requests for His help; we can fast until we are nothing but skin and bones, but it is by obedience that we loose heaven.
In Acts 1:4, Jesus stands in front of the charter members of the Church and issues the Church's prime directive with all the authority of heaven and earth (Matt.28:18). In what universe does it make sense that the Church should ignore the commandment issued to the Church, but strive to keep those issued before the Church was established? Why oh why did Jesus give the Church the power to bind up heaven!!!!!?
It might appear obvious that Jesus believed that the effort to save the populations of the world would best be executed by the Church on the earth. Jesus had just given His all to provide a path to heaven for mankind. He believed men would be overwhelmed with gratitude and seek obedience. From the perspective of omniscience, there may have been times where orchestrating the amount of the presence of God on the earth would have provided strategic advantages. Either way, it is obvious that Jesus placed the authority of saving the world in the hands of the Church. As such, the Church has just as much God on the earth as it wants, no more, no less. If we want more of the presence of God in our churches, we have the authority to release Him out of heaven.
It is no accident that Jesus said, "All who believe on me will have rivers of Living Water flowing out of the belly." Living Water flows out of the belly by obedience to the Lord ship of Christ. John 7:39 reveals this Living Water to be the Holy Spirit, Himself, who is God and it just so happens that on the day of Pentecost, the Holy Spirit flowed out of the mouth of 120 believers on Jesus as the gift of tongues. Oddly enough, 3,000 lost souls asked, "What must we do to be saved?" If we want the power of God on the earth to convince the lost that Jesus is not in a grave outside Jerusalem, all we have to do is loose Him out of our bellies.