According to some people, a “monitoring spirit” (which is also called a “watcher” or “masquerading spirit”) is an evil spirit that follows someone around to “monitor their behavior” in order to bring harm to them. They will monitor your words, actions, and associations which will then help them to carry out spiritual attacks that will affect your walk with the Lord and rob you of your spiritual blessings and your testimony for the Lord. Some believe they can use objects (like mirrors, brooms, and crystal balls) and possess people or animals (cats, dogs, and birds) to aid them in their monitoring.

Is there any Biblical support for this? Some use the example seen in Acts 16:16-18 in support of this view. It reads, “Now it happened, as we went to prayer, that a certain slave girl POSSESSED WITH A SPIRIT OF DIVINATION met us, who brought her masters much profit by fortune-telling. This girl FOLLOWED PAUL AND US, and cried out, saying, ‘These men are the servants of the Most High God, who proclaim to us the way of salvation.’ And THIS SHE DID FOR MANY DAYS. But Paul, greatly annoyed, turned and said to the spirit, ‘I command you in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her.’ And he came out that very hour.’” They say that the “monitoring spirit possessed this girl in order to monitor Paul’s life.” One writer goes on to say, “Consider what would happen if Paul didn’t stop the girl who was watching his every move. It’s clear that he didn’t recognize it as a ‘spirit monitoring him’ until several days had passed.” This is a fanciful interpretation for the words “monitoring spirit” are not even mentioned (no matter what Bible translation you use). Instead, the girl was possessed with a “spirit of divination,” which means the evil spirit gave her the ability “to foretell the future.” As we saw, a so-called monitoring spirit is a “watcher,” and watching has nothing to do with fortune telling.

We do believe there are many “evil spirits” (called “demons”) who are doing Satan’s bidding. They are “evil forces” who are trying to “wage war” against believers to defeat God’s purposes in their life. We read of this warfare and evil spirits in Ephesians 6:10-12, “Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might. Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against PRINCIPALITIES, against POWERS, against the RULERS OF DARKNESS of this age, against SPIRITUAL HOSTS OF WICKEDNESS in the heavenly places.” We may not be able to distinguish between these but they must refer to positions of power which the devil gives to them in order to wreak havoc on the earth. Their main mission is to keep believers from focusing on Christ and His interests here on earth and to rob Christ of the glory He deserves. We can NOT read into any of these descriptions of evil spirits the thought of them “monitoring the lives of believers by possessing objects, persons and animals in order to learn their behavior.” It is reasonable to assume that “evil spirits” are observing us with “evil intentions” in mind, but they would not need to take possession of objects, persons or animals to achieve that (for they are INVISIBLE TO THE NAKED EYE). Nor is there any scriptural support that they are assigned to certain individuals and told to “follow them around indefinitely to learn everything about them.” It is clear that the girl possessed with the “spirit of divination” had been used by the evil spirit long before Paul came into the picture and the spirit’s mission was to “deceive people through fortune-telling,” not to “monitor people’s lives.”

In closing, a word of caution is in order. No where in Scripture are we told to be “occupied with evil spirits.” The Apostle Paul told the saints at Rome, “I want you to be WISE in what is GOOD, and SIMPLE concerning EVIL” (Romans 16:19). In other words, he wants us (believers) to “focus on what is GOOD” and to remain “innocent on what is EVIL.” No good can come from being occupied with “evil spirits.” It is enough to know they exist and are trying to defeat God’s purpose in our lives, and then to “put on the whole armor of God in order to defeat them!”  (DO)  (599.5)