And I will give you the keys of the Kingdom of Heaven. Whatever you forbid on earth will be forbidden in heaven, and whatever you permit on earth will be permitted in heaven.” Matthew 16:19 (New Living Translation, NLT)

Keys represent authority. In the natural world, keys give us access. In this passage, Jesus was telling Peter and the other disciples that He was going to give them authority. Actually, He was going to give them back authority- the authority that the devil stole when Adam fell. Jesus paid a heavy price to get it back for them- and for us. He died and went to hell and forcibly removed the keys, or the authority, from the devil.

Then Jesus made a public spectacle of all the powers and principalities of darkness, stripping away from them every weapon and all their spiritual authority and power to accuse us. And by the power of the cross, Jesus led them around as prisoners in a procession of triumph. He was not their prisoner; they were his! Colossians 2:15 (The Passion Translation, TPT)

When we receive Jesus as our Lord and Savior, we get the keys of the Kingdom. In other words, we have the authority to bring Heaven to Earth. We can forbid things on Earth like they are forbidden in Heaven. We can permit things on Earth like they are permitted in Heaven. As I said before, keys provide access. We can determine what has access into the Earth and what does not. She may not realize it, but the church has the power to rule in the Earth! We have the authority to control what is and isn’t permitted on this planet.

The keys are in our mouth. We bind and loose with our words. We release God’s will in the Earth by speaking it out, and we can also release the enemy’s plans into the Earth by speaking them. It’s high time we took our place as the ones with authority in this Earth. Let’s use our authority and speak the words to remove the devil and his wicked plans from our presence. We don’t have to be beaten down and abused. We can send the devil packing- and we have the authority to do it!