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Are Monitoring Spirits Biblical? Testing Deliverance Teaching Against Scripture
By Dawn HillAre “monitoring spirits” a biblical category of spiritual warfare, or has modern deliverance teaching created a doctrine Scripture does not support?On this episode of NAR to Christ, Dawn Hill examines the increasingly popular teaching surrounding monitoring spirits and compares these claims with the Word of God. Beginning with statements from Ryan LeStrange and then examining teaching from Tiffany Buckner, Dawn considers whether the ideas being promoted can actually be established from Scripture.The Bible clearly teaches the reality of Satan, demons, and spiritual warfare. First Peter 5:8 warns believers that the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. But acknowledging the reality of spiritual opposition is not the same as constructing an elaborate doctrine of monitoring spirits.Listen or Watch
Testing the Teaching of Monitoring Spirits
Some modern deliverance teachers claim that monitoring spirits observe believers, gather information about their weaknesses, and work through people or circumstances to hinder their lives. These teachings may identify concerned family members, jealous friends, people asking questions, procrastination, relationships, or even people offering prayer as possible evidence of demonic monitoring.Dawn examines these claims and asks an essential question: Where does Scripture actually teach these things?Throughout the episode, she considers passages and biblical figures that are sometimes used to support this doctrine and demonstrates why Christians must distinguish between what the biblical text actually says and ideas that have been imposed upon it.The Danger of Demonizing Ordinary Life
One of the serious consequences of this teaching is that it can encourage Christians to view ordinary relationships and struggles through a lens of suspicion.If someone asks questions, are they operating with a monitoring spirit? If someone struggles with jealousy, is that necessarily a demon? If a Christian procrastinates or experiences difficulty accomplishing something, should that automatically be attributed to a spirit of delay?Scripture gives Christians categories for sin, temptation, suffering, human weakness, and spiritual warfare. Believers do not need to invent additional demonic classifications in order to understand these realities.Teaching Christians to identify demons behind ordinary human behavior can produce fear, paranoia, isolation, and an unhealthy preoccupation with Satan rather than confidence in Jesus Christ.What Biblical Spiritual Warfare Looks Like
The answer is not to deny the reality of spiritual warfare. The answer is to understand spiritual warfare according to Scripture.James 4:7 tells believers:“Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.”First Peter 5:8 calls Christians to remain sober-minded and watchful. Ephesians 6:10–18 directs believers to stand firm in the armor God provides. Biblical spiritual warfare centers upon trusting God, knowing His Word, resisting temptation, pursuing holiness, praying, and standing firm in the truth.Christians are not called to live in constant fear that demons are monitoring every conversation, relationship, or decision.
Christ Is Greater Than the Powers of Darkness
Those who belong to Jesus Christ have been delivered from the domain of darkness and transferred into the kingdom of God’s beloved Son. Believers have been sealed with the Holy Spirit and belong to Christ.Satan is real. Demonic opposition is real. Spiritual warfare is real. But Satan is not sovereign.God is sovereign over all things, including the demonic realm. Christians therefore do not need to live obsessed with identifying supposed monitoring spirits or attempting to discover increasingly detailed classifications of demons.Our confidence is in Christ.Returning to the Sufficiency of Scripture
Throughout this episode, Dawn encourages Christians to test spiritual claims carefully and refuse to accept teachings simply because someone claims special revelation, spiritual authority, or supernatural insight.Every doctrine must be examined according to the Word of God.Rather than making much of Satan, Christians should make much of Christ. Rather than living in fear and suspicion, believers can rest in the sovereignty of God, the finished work of Jesus Christ, and the sufficiency of Scripture.The answer to counterfeit spiritual warfare is not less biblical discernment. It is more.Listen and Learn More
If this episode helped you think more carefully about biblical spiritual warfare, deliverance teaching, and Christian discernment, explore more episodes of NAR to Christ with Dawn Hill.Read and listen to more from Dawn Hill: https://servantsofgrace.org/dawn-hill/Watch the NAR to Christ playlist on YouTube: NAR to Christ YouTube Playlist
Dawn Hill is a Christian blogger known as The Lovesick Scribe, and the host of The Lovesick Scribe Podcast. She is passionate about sharing the truth and pointing others back to Jesus Christ through the written Word as the standard of authority for Christian living and instruction while being led by the Holy Spirit into maturity. She is the author of NonProphet Woke: The Reformation of a Modern-Day Disciple. She writes articles for Christianity.com, Servants of Grace, and her blog posts have been shared by individuals such as Tim Challies. She will be featured in the upcoming docuseries, American Gospel: Spirit and Fire. She co-leads a women’s support group with Emily Massey called Snatched from the Flames, where they minister to women who have come out of the hypercharismatic and New Apostolic Reformation movement. She is a wife to Nicholas and a mother to Anabel and Ephraim. You can follow her on The Lovesick Scribe and Instagram.
