Luke 6:27-28 (NIV) But I tell you who hear me: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you.

The enemy-person is usually occupied territory of Satan. How would we go about conquering that territory and taking that person away from Satan? The above Scripture tells us how that might happen. We are dealing with this person’s will. If they don’t want to be delivered from Satan and experience the saving grace of God, they don’t have to. However, when we love them, do good to them, bless them, and pray for them, we are using the best spiritual warfare techniques for conquering that territory for Jesus. Plus we are setting a person free from sin and the devil. And, we are helping them to make heaven their eternal home. That is awesome spiritual warfare.

Once Jesus teaches us that we are not fighting against flesh and blood, it helps us look differently at various circumstances we face. We become more aware of the fact that these situations need to be handled using spiritual warfare or spiritual principles rather than just “normal” systems. Once we and Jesus defeat the powers behind people, behind people-generated circumstances, and behind people-run organizations, the natural aspects of the circumstances melt away. We have to allow Jesus to help us keep in mind that Satan is often using people, using people-generated circumstances, and using people-run organizations to transport the sin and/or humanistic temptations to us.

Gal 5:22-23 (NIV) But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. If we fight back using anger, revenge, greed, human efforts, and world systems; we can get mauled spiritually. But, if we use love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control; we defeat the powers behind people, behind people-generated circumstances, and behind people-run organizations.

For our struggle is. . .against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. That has some very important connotations. Jesus is going to have to help us face these struggles with a whole new approach. Since this is going to be a spiritual battle, we are going to have let Him teach us how and empower us to use spiritual techniques and equipment.

2 Cor 10:4 (NIV) The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. If our battles were human issues, we wouldn’t need these kinds of weapons. But, since most if not all of our struggles are with spiritual issues, we are going to need to have these weapons readily available. And, we are going to need to know how to use them. That is where Jesus’ spiritual warfare training becomes important.