The Rise and Fall of Big Sunset

Chocolate.  Tall.  Burly.  Kind.  Attentive.  Needy.  Obsessive.  Seductive.

I met “Big Sunset” in the spring of 2007 on a social networking website.  His profile picture was taken against a beautiful backdrop of a gorgeous sunset.  I was immediately drawn to his physical appearance because he was “my type”, hence the nickname Big Sunset.  I convinced myself that there was no harm in an innocent friendship. I wasn’t dating anyone so I felt free to engage in the process of getting to know him.  We started out by sending messages via e-mail and Instant Messaging, eventually moving to telephone conversations.  During our  very first conversation, the Holy Spirit said to me “cut him off”.  Instead, I conferred with my flesh and said “there’s no harm in having a friend.”   Right? 

 I ignored the instruction and kept talking to him.  Each time I talked to him, it got harder and harder to cut him loose. I was being wooed by his words.  He kept telling me how nice and kind I was.  He kept saying he could just hang on my every word and that I was a breath of fresh air.  His flattery was pulling me and pulling me quickly!  My thirsty flesh was excited that I was finally being paid attention to. My spirit, on the other hand, was trying so desperately to get me to slow down so that I could really see what I was dealing with but I silenced all the warning bells.  With no more warning bells going off, I further engulfed myself in the friendship.

Our first meeting was over breakfast at a beautiful park. Breakfasts then became lunches, lunches became dinners and dinners became a middle of the night rendezvous.  Now, one might be saying “I really don’t see anything wrong with spending time with someone. What’s the problem?”  Here’s the problem: Big Sunset was married and as soon as I learned this information that was supposed to be the end of it but I was in too deep. 

The spiritual atmosphere surrounding him was intoxicating.  My thinking became clouded with poor judgment, my spiritual vision was blurry, I became emotionally needy and I felt like I was on drugs all the time. It wasn’t long before I started operating like a person “under the influence” and compromised my celibacy.   I’d go to church on Sunday and relapse by Monday.  I had to see him.  I had to talk to him.  I had to hear him caress my ear gates with his complimentary words.  In reality, I was leaving my gates wide open for ALL the spirits living in this man to pass right through to me.   I was entrenched in a personal civil war all because I didn’t walk away when I got the first warning from God.  The battle between my hungry flesh and my dying spirit became exhaustingly fierce, so fierce I wanted to end my life.

We all know that the enemy comes to steal, kill, and destroy (John 10:10).  You see, from the very beginning Satan’s mission was to kill me through this man.  Satan already had Big Sunset on lock so I was the intended target.   The raging war inside of me came to a head one Sunday morning while I was sitting in the choir stand, just hours after Big Sunset left my apartment.  I couldn’t stop crying! I was consumed with thoughts of guilt for keeping him around versus thoughts of withdrawal if I let him go.  Frankly, I didn’t want to live with either.  I wanted out and death seemed like the only way out.  This seductive spirit had me on the ropes!  But God!

Thankfully, I was confronted with wise, Godly counsel.  About seven days after my “intervention”, I pulled together enough strength to end things with Big Sunset.  Up until this time he’d been nice, kind, attentive and sweet.  As I uttered the words that severed his rule over me the devil in him rose up and he called me everything but a child of God!  He went smooth off!  All of sudden I had mental issues and I needed therapy!  He was some kind of angry with me! THAT’S when I knew it was really over as I watched Big Sunset fall from grace, never to be resurrected again.

In Genesis 3, we read about the cunning serpent and his slick way of getting Eve to eat the forbidden fruit. He kept talking to her, perverting and twisting the word of God by telling half-truths better known as  “all the way lies.”  Once he convinced her verbally, he moved to convince her visually.  She saw the tree and took notice.  She noticed “it was good for food, delightful to look at and it could make her wise.”(v6)   It pleased her visually and perhaps she thought it could meet her other needs as well.  She finally ate the fruit and unbeknownst to her, she was fully under the influence of a seductive spirit.  See, the very thing you think you’re missing is the very thing satan will use to seduce you whether it’s money, fame, power or attention.  Seduction is almost always masked in flattery!  A seductive spirit will play on your weaknesses by talking to you and telling you everything you’ve always wanted to hear.    As SOON as you recognize this spirit, you MUST cut it off at the verbal level.  If you don’t, this spirit will progress to enticing you by presenting you with tangible, visual objects with the ultimate goal of escorting  you to places you thought you’d never go.   The Lord knew the MANY spirits operating through Big Sunset so He warned me because I was obviously too blind to see what I was about to get myself into.  The methodical infiltration of the spirit of seduction took me on a four month journey I never want to relive again in life.  Take heed to wise, Godly counsel and do not ignore the warnings.  Our Daddy loves us so much! Jesus gave His life for us so, please, don’t let the enemy and his vices take it away.

©2011 by Tamara D. Davis

Scriptures taken from the New King James Version. Copyright © 1979, 1980, 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc.  Used by permission. All rights reserved.