An acquaintance of mind told me that her church had prayed for someone, "binding" Satan to prevent that person from committing an imprudent and sinful act. I looked up Matthew 18:18 which reads:
Matt 18-19"18 Assuredly, I say to you, whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven."

Fine. The thing is, if you read the sentence in the context of the whole of Chapter 18, it doesn't mean what it might by itself. The disciples were given the power to cast out demons, but that isn't the point or even the issue of Matthew 18:18. A full reading of Chapter 18 reveals that the "binding and loosing" had to do with decisions by the body of Christ made in relationship to church discipline, or in instances where a church had to deal with an unrepentant and sinfully rebellious believer. This passage in particular teaches us about the decent way in which we must deal with such situations and about how we are to forgive those in or out of Christ who sin against us.

I looked up Matthew 16:19 as well, where our Lord is talking to Peter. It reads;
19 And I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven."

Actually, that verse when read in context has nothing at all to do with casting out Satan, but instead has to do with the matter of making the gospel message known. The binding and loosing had to do with the fact that people would either believe and be saved or reject Jesus and remain lost. The simple fact is that Peter was given the privilege of being the first person to present the gospel message after Pentecost.

What's more, the biggest emphasis in the New Testament epistles is never on attacking Satan. Instead, the emphasis is on preaching the Word and upon building women and men up in Christ, so that they can draw nearer to God in Christ and resist the enemy.

Seems to me that though Satan does push every sort spiritual rip-off and evil agenda, the whole "binding and loosing" approach allows believing folks to ignore the real issue of individual and personal sinfulness. Satan is often blamed for our sins when he's actually just guilty of fanning the flames of an already blazing fire, a fire we started. If we need to blame someone, we should look to our own ignorance, our own lack of spiritual maturity, our failure to read Bible passages such as these in their full context and our failure to walk with the Holy Spirit by the fullness of His Word and power.

I can't "bind" Satan spiritually. This is a being who has been around for a minimum of thousands of years, and standing toe to toe with him, intending to do battle with him would be a stupid mistake. Most Bible scholars would agree that the person being described in Ezekiel 28:12 as; "Full of wisdom and perfect in beauty." is Lucifer. He is too wise for me to take on. I would fail every time most likely, if not for Jesus.

All the Bible says we have to do is resist him and he will flee from us. That is what we must do time and again because he will not stop trying to tempt us again and again, but saying that we have any true ability to bind him is a mistaken notion, biblically speaking.