Another translation puts it this way: "If you're going to spoil the strong man's house, you must first bind him."
In our case, the strong man would be Satan. When you go out into the world to win souls, it is Satan's "house" you are entering, his "territory," and he will not allow you to come in and "spoil his house" without putting up some opposition.
That's why I always suggest that you bind the devil so he can't interfere. Your first question then would be: "When do we do that? After we get out there?"
No. I suggest that you bind the strong man before you ever go. If you take care of Satan before you go, you won't have to put up with him when you get out there.
How I Learned This Lesson
I remember the first time the Spirit of God taught me this lesson. As I took groups of people out with me to witness, to share Jesus, many of them would come back and say, "You know, I'm getting tired of people arguing with me. I'm tired of them coming up with some religious doctrine to argue about when I'm trying to share Jesus with them."
I remember one time when I was sharing Jesus with an elderly man in a shopping center, only five or six words had come out of my mouth when he interrupted me.
"What about evolution?" he asked.
"Well, what about it?"
He answered. "Well, I believe...." Then he went on and on, expounding to me what he believed.
I have since learned to keep control of the conversation; otherwise, people will lead you off on all kinds of tangents into religious discussions and debates, and you'll never get back to the point you wanted to make.
It is very important to remember: Keep control of the conversation. If you don't, you may end up spending an hour and a half listening to someone tell about all kinds of things. Then you end up discouraged because you never got to share the Good News with him.
When I deal with a person who wants to lead the conversation off into a religious discussion or debate, I just very politely say, "Listen, let me share this with you first. Then I'll be happy to discuss those things with you. Okay? I've got something I want to share with you that I believe is very important."
You can do that very nicely without offending the person or hurting his feelings.
What you want to do is get the Word out. Then you can talk about doctrines afterwards, if necessary. I've found that if I can control the conversation and just keep putting the Word out, most of the time we never get to those silly questions.
We never get around to those religious discussions. Somehow when the Word goes out, those old religious speculations don't mean anything anymore.
Let me give you an example of what I'm talking about when I say we need to bind Satan before we go so he can't interfere.
One time while I was in Oklahoma City, a group was sharing Jesus in a shopping center called Shepherd Mall. Quite often we would take a group of young people there to witness. One night we left the church, went to the mall, and spread out to meet and talk with people in different parts of the mall.
In a little while one girl came back to me and said, "Brother Savelle, do you see that guy sitting over there by himself?"
"Yes."
"Well, I'm having a lot of problems with him. All he wants to do is argue with me. How do you handle that?"
I gave her some instructions and she went back. In a few minutes, here she came again.
"Brother Savelle, he's still arguing."
"Why don't you let somebody else share with him for a little while. Let the other person do the talking while you just pray."
She found someone to go with her to talk to this young man, but in a little while they both came back with the same story. "This guy's something else! All he wants to do is argue. We can't get a word in edgewise! What do we do?"
By this time others were coming back, saying, "I've never seen so many religious people who want to talk about doctrines. What should we do?"
Not Getting Anywhere?
At that very moment I was trying to share with a Jehovah's Witness. I want you to know, friend, that when you approach a Jehovah's Witness, you had better know your business because they are indoctrinated with their doctrines!
There I was sharing with this person and finding it a little difficult to get through to him. Then here come all these kids complaining about how much trouble they were having. It seemed like we just weren't getting anywhere.
Suddenly, the Spirit of God said something to me, something very simple. I'll never forget it. It has been a tremendous help to me ever since. He said, "Son, if you would bind the devil before you come out here, you wouldn't have to put up with this."
I thought, "Isn't that simple? Why didn't I think of that earlier?"
He said, "If all of you would join together in agreement and bind the devil in the lives of the people you're going to be ministering to—before you ever get to them—you won't have this problem."
So we started doing that. Instead of waiting until we got out and ran into these pressures, we decided to bind the devil before we left the church. Then we expected him to be bound when we got there. From then on, we didn't have those problems.
We learned the importance of binding Satan before we go out. He is the strong man in this situation—the one who has blinded the minds and understanding of the lost. Jesus said that if we are going to enter the strong man's house, we must first bind him. Then we can go in and spoil his house.
Psalm 111:6 says, "He hath shown his people the power of his works, that he may give them the heritage of the heathen." God is telling us that He has empowered His people with His own miracle virtue to enable them to claim their inheritance of unregenerate souls.
These unregenerate souls are part of our inheritance as ambassadors for Christ. Causing these unregenerate souls to be made new creations is part of our inheritance. God has empowered us to do that.
But always remember: Bind the devil before you go out to spoil his house. You spoil Satan's house by taking those unregenerate souls and making them new creations.
Excerpt permission granted by Jerry Savelle Ministries, Intl.
Dr. Jerry Savelle was an average, blue-collar man who was struggling and needed God's help. While he considered himself a "nobody," when he became a believer God told him not to worry about it because He was a master at making champions out of nobodies. God has since taken Dr. Savelle from being a constant quitter to a man who knows how to stand on the Word of God until victory is experienced. Because of the life-changing combination of God's faithfulness and Dr. Savelle's "no quit" attitude, his life is totally different than it was thirty-eight years ago.
