Have you ever had a moment where you just knew the Holy Spirit was speaking to you?

In this raw and riveting episode, Nina shares the true story of a night when the Holy Spirit quite literally saved her life. What started as a quiet evening turned into a supernatural encounter—a moment when a divine whisper became a lifesaving command.

From an ordinary prayer to an extraordinary warning, Nina invites you into the moment she obeyed the Spirit’s voice… and watched heaven move on her behalf.

This episode isn’t just a testimony—it’s a reminder that the Holy Spirit is alive, active, and ready to guide you through every battle—seen and unseen.

🔸 Why the Holy Spirit isn’t just a comforter—but a warrior

🔸 How obedience in a split second can change everything

🔸 What it means to live led by the Spirit

🔸 Why your soul is worth fighting for—every single day

If today’s message spoke to you, please share it with a friend and follow Born to be a Butterfly so you never miss an episode. 

📖 Ready to dive deeper into healing and transformation? Get my book, From Broken to Butterfly, on Amazon today! 

📩 If you have any questions or want to connect Send me a DM on Instagram at Born To Be A Butterfly or email me at ninapajonas@gmail.com. I love hearing from you! 

Remember, the Lord can turn your wounds into wings—you were Born to be a Butterfly! 🦋

Born to be a Butterfly © 2025 Nina Pajonas All rights reserved. The content of this podcast is for informational and inspirational purposes only and is not a substitute for professional advice. For the full disclaimer, visit ⁠ninapajonas.com.

Born to be a Butterfly © 2025 Nina Pajonas All rights reserved. The content of this podcast is for informational and inspirational purposes only and is not a substitute for professional advice. For the full disclaimer, visit ⁠ninapajonas.com.

This is a story about how the Holy Spirit saved my life,

literally.

And I don't say that lightly.

I think sometimes we forget to tell these stories.

We talk about Jesus,

we talk about God the Father,

but the Holy Spirit,

he gets left out.

And yet he's the one guiding us,

nudging us and warning us.

He's not just our comforter,

he's our lifeline to the Lord.

So today I want to share a real life,

bizarre,

beautiful,

Holy Spirit moment that showed me just how real and present he is and what happened when I listened to to his voice.

Welcome to Born to Be a Butterfly,

where we embrace healing and growth in Christ to experience true transformation.

My name is Nina Pajones, and I pray that today's episode ministers to you.

I'm going to set up this story by saying that this happened during the pandemic.

It happened during a time where we were all experiencing great isolation.

And that was extremely difficult for me, as it was for so many other people.

But the amazing thing about that season was that I grew so much closer to God during it.

And so I just wanted to make mention of that so you get an idea as to just how powerful our time spent and our relationship with the Lord is.

I was living in a studio apartment at the time.

It was actually a converted garage at the end of a driveway.

It was just me and my cat, Chloe.

One night I'm getting ready for bed and I'm praying.

I say,

lord,

protect me and my family.

The moment I said it,

the porch light outside my door,

the same light that hardly ever worked,

came on.

As soon as I saw that light,

my heart started racing.

I knew something wasn't right.

This wasn't some reliable motion light.

It had barely worked since I moved in.

So for it to turn on,

someone was definitely out there.

So I got out of bed and I walked to the door.

I moved the curtain and I couldn't see anything.

There was glass in the middle of the door,

but the glass was beveled,

so it only let me see so far.

But I looked as much as I could, as far as I could,

on both sideson the left side and on the right side.

And the light was on, but I couldn't see anything.

And then I put my hand on the lock of the door.

I was getting ready to open it.

And then I heard it.

Three words,

crystal clear.

Get the pipe.

That's what I heard in my spirit.

And I actually said it out loud. I said, what pipe?

Because I didn't think I had a pipe.

I didn't recall that.

Not at all.

But I did.

And suddenly I had a mental image.

God brought it back to my memory.

It was as if the Lord was saying,

do you remember? Now,

a year and a half earlier,

during my move,

I'd used one of those cardboard wardrobe boxes.

Hopefully, you know what I'm referring to.

It's one of those really tall,

more narrow boxes. But it has a heavy metal pipe that's across the top,

and it's supposed to hang clothes.

Anyway, my stepmother gave it to me.

And I remember thinking at that time,

this would make a good weapon if I ever needed to protect myself.

So I kept it.

I threw it in a drawer and forgot all about it.

But the Holy Spirit didn't forget.

He said,

get the pipe.

And I suddenly remembered where it was.

I hadn't touched that drawer in over a year,

but I knew exactly where to go.

That's how specific God is.

So I grabbed the pipe and I walked back to the door.

I peeked out one more time,

but I still couldn't see anything.

So I opened the door.

All of a sudden, a man jumped out right in front of me.

It was a young man. He was in his 20s. I mean, maybe at best 22, 23 years old.

And he was high.

He was high as a kite. You could see it in his eyes. And he was speaking really, really fast.

He said, sorry, I lost my cell phone. And I was just looking for it.

You know, it's just amazing how quickly your mind can work under such a stressful situation. But immediately I knew it was a lie.

Immediately my mind thought,

if you lost your cell phone,

you wouldn't be in a driveway,

right? You'd be on the sidewalk. You'd be in the street.

That's where you would look for it. Because you definitely didn't drop it in front of my door.

Just as I was thinking that,

just as my mind was filtering through the lies,

he started to step into my apartment.

And that's when I snapped.

I raised the pipe. I started screaming, I cursed.

I'm not proud of that, but I did. I mean,

I don't think anybody can blame me.

I told him,

get out of here.

Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

I will not repeat the rest.

And this young man,

drugged up young man,

leaped backwards like an Olympic athlete.

I mean,

he jumped back about two feet.

I've never seen anything like that in my life.

He had his arms up.

I mean, he looked petrified.

And here's the funny part.

I'm standing there in a granny nightgown and.

And I don't normally wear those to bed. I'm just gonna say that that's not normally my,

my bedtime attire.

But for whatever reason that night, I guess because God is good and he wanted to protect my modesty or something,

he was like, nope, nope, I'll make sure you're, you know, covered from neck to,

to foot and I won't let anybody see anything that your future husband's eyes will see one day, you know.

But anyway,

but that's what the kid saw.

He saw a middle aged woman with a pipe in her hand and a granny nightgown on.

I mean, when I think back to it,

I laugh,

but he was not laughing.

He was staring at me.

His eyes were wide,

they were full of fear.

And at that point he was walking backwards and he walked right into a parked truck that was behind him.

And that scared him so bad that he turned around to see what he bumped into and then he just jetted.

He just ran towards the sidewalk.

At that point I slammed the door,

locked it and called the police.

And they wound up picking him up two blocks away.

But let me tell you something,

that jump,

that look of terror on his face,

I don't think that was just because of me.

I don't think it was just because of the pipe.

And I definitely don't think it was the granny nightgown. Right.

In all seriousness,

I believe that young man saw something supernatural and it terrified him.

That's what the Holy Spirit does.

He doesn't just whisper comforting words.

He warns,

he instructs,

he saves.

When the Spirit of truth comes,

he will guide you into all truth and declare to you what is to come.

And that's exactly what the Holy Spirit did.

He said,

get the pipe.

But I think what he really meant was,

I'm already working.

Obey me and I'll handle the rest.

I'll never know this side of glory,

what truly happened that night.

However,

I do know this.

I must lean into the Holy Spirit and listen.

At that moment,

it was probably life or death for me in a physical way.

But there's also the life or death of my soul.

I have to ask for more of God and less of myself.

I have to die to flesh every day.

That's longsuffering for my Savior's sake.

We are supposed to strive for sanctification,

not settle in with the ways of Satan.

And I know that that sounds strong, but it should sounds strong because too many of us have gotten comfortable living in compromise.

We've mistaken Grace for permission,

and we've stopped pursuing holiness.

But sanctification is the call.

It's a daily choice to reject what's easy and embrace what's eternal.

It's saying, God, make me more like you,

even if it costs me.

We weren't called to blend in.

We were called to be set apart.

Our souls are a high and holy commodity in the Kingdom.

Think about it.

Your soul can have so many other souls attached to it.

Now, don't get me wrong,

we can't save them.

Only Jesus can.

But maybe,

just maybe,

you're the one who has to plant the seed for our Savior so that he can water it with living water and it could grow in the life of his child.

Maybe you're supposed to walk in the fields of their misery and plant a seed of hope,

or walk in the fields of their anger and bitterness and plant a seed of faith.

Or perhaps you're supposed to walk in their field of overwhelming grief and plant a seed of love and compassion.

That might be one of the stories that is attached to your soul.

I know there are lots of people who. Who don't believe in spiritual warfare,

but it's real.

We have wars amongst ourselves as human beings here on Earth over things that we think have value,

but ultimately have no value.

So with that being said,

if we have wars here,

why don't we believe that there would be wars in the spiritual realm for our souls?

Why do we believe that God would go to war for that our souls are so valuable to him?

Everything else perishes,

everything else dies.

Eternal life is only achieved through the soul, through the Spirit.

We must choose between sin and salvation every day.

It determines whether we are going to have eternal life or eternal death.

Right,

How much more severely do you think one deserves to be punished?

Who has trampled on the Son of God,

profaned the blood of the covenant that sanctified him and insulted the Spirit of grace?

We have to hear those words,

and we have to take them seriously.

I'm not trying to scare you, sisters. I promise I am not.

I am trying to impress upon you how important this is.

To understand that there is a battle being waged for our souls and we have to participate in the fight.

We can't be passive.

We can't just keep doing the same things we were doing before we came to Christ.

If we do not submit to the Spirit,

there is no transformation.

And if there is no transformation, then we're not of Christ.

We're just saying we are.

We have to know that,

and we have to live that way.

I have heard so many of my sisters say, and I've heard men say it, too.

I don't feel close to God.

But you need to ask yourself something.

If you feel that way,

you need to ask yourself,

am I spending enough time in his presence to even recognize his presence?

Am I being spiritually aware enough to recognize what he's putting in front of me,

to speak to me?

He's always there.

He's always trying to guide us.

That's literally why he sent the Holy Spirit to us.

When people say they don't feel close to God,

and yet you. You have the one true living God living inside of you through the power of the Holy Spirit,

you have to really be honest with yourself. And you need to ask yourself,

do you really want to?

Do you want to hear from Him?

And I know that the obvious answer would be, yes, of course I want to hear from my God. I want to know what he wants me to know, and I want to do the things he wants me to do.

But do you?

Do you really?

And the reason I say this, Sister, is because if you're struggling in that area,

it's not because he's not in close proximity to you. He lives inside of you.

So if you're not hearing him,

it could be that subconsciously you're not submitting,

you're not giving up control.

It's easier to say you don't want to hear rather than say,

I don't want to do the thing you told me to do.

It makes me uncomfortable.

It makes me know that I'm not in control of my own life anymore.

And I have to fully trust in you. And I'm not used to doing that.

There's a lot that comes with this.

I'm not blaming anybody. This is not a shame game, trust me.

I have ignored. I mean, for 17 years when I was drinking.

And I know the Holy Spirit was still living inside of me because I was a faithful follower of Christ as a child.

But when I walked away, when I ran away from him for 17 years, trust me, I felt the tug.

I did.

Every so often, I would feel the tug. He was trying to pull me back to Him a lot sooner than I came back to him. Okay, ladies,

let me. Let me just put that out there. He came to me a lot sooner and tried to get me back, and I wasn't having it, and I wasn't listening until the last night when I almost took my own life.

And he saved me.

By having my friend call me.

But it was really Jesus calling.

And when he knocks,

he's knocking on the door of your soul and he's saying, hey,

I'm here.

We could do things your way. But if you want to do things my way,

I promise you it's going to be a lot better.

And let me be clear, ladies. I am not saying it will be easier. I said it'll be better.

That's what I said. Because it's not easier.

Because when you're walking faithfully with Christ and you're submitting to the Spirit, you're going to suffer more spiritual attacks. It just is what it is.

The reason you're going to is because you're becoming more and more valuable to the kingdom as you grow more and more in Christ,

because you're going to be able to do more of his work.

He's going to hand you bigger assignments. He's going to give you more power. He's going to give you more fruit of the Spirit. He's going to give you more and more and more so that you can do so much more of his work.

And trust me when I tell you,

Satan obviously does not like that.

So, yes,

he's going to attack you.

But the good news is.

And I'm not just talking about the good news of the gospel,

but the good news is that you're not supposed to do it alone.

You're not expected to. You're not supposed to.

You're supposed to let the Holy Spirit help you.

You're supposed to let the. The Holy Spirit guide you and comfort you when times get rough, because they will.

But there's nothing he can't do.

And trust me when I tell you,

if he transformed me,

he can transform you. I have changed so much. And it's unbelievable the work that he's done in me.

I'm not ashamed of who I used to be.

I'll be clear.

I am not ashamed.

I am sorry that I ever did those things to myself.

And I know my Lord and Savior is as well.

I'm sure it made him very sad to see me do those things. But.

But I'm not ashamed of who I was.

I didn't know better.

And it's hard to do better when you don't know better.

We have to give ourselves grace for those times and those moments in our life,

those seasons where we thought we had all the answers and yet we didn't have a clue.

We have to give ourselves grace for that.

But that's why it's so important to walk in the spirit and walk with Christ,

because we can't do it on our own.

If we could,

we would've.

Right?

We would have made different choices.

But we didn't.

And again, that's not to shame. That is not a blame game. I don't play that here. You're never going to hear that in this space.

You're going to hear spiritual truth.

I'm going to say the hard things. I'm going to try to hold you accountable,

just like I have to hold myself accountable. And I have sisters in Christ in my life that hold me accountable, too.

Like, we have to do that for each other. And there's nothing wrong with that.

Nothing at all.

But what you'll never get here with this program, this podcast, you are never going to get shamed for anything you've done.

That's not what I do. And that's not what I think is acceptable.

Because shame just infects wounds. That's all it does. And it keeps us wrapped up in chains.

And I refuse to be in chains, and I refuse to wrap any around anybody else.

Nobody should be doing that.

And if you ever feel that way, that's not healthy, and it's not okay.

But I digress.

I apologize. But sometimes I just. I just get so passionate about these things, and I just have to say what's in my heart.

And it might take us a little bit off the path, but there's a reason I will say this.

When you're in tune with the Holy Spirit,

when you're really communicating well with God the Father and God the Son, and you're just really letting yourself be guided and led by the Spirit,

when you're doing that,

the Lord will speak to you through the most random things.

Sometimes it happened to me last week.

I had asked the Lord something in my prayer time with him,

and I was just trying to be faithful and wait for an answer.

And I always let him know,

or I try to. Now I say, lord,

I'm asking you this,

and I'm waiting on your answer.

I am not moving.

I'm going to be still, and I'm going to wait.

And he always finds a way to convey what he wants me to know,

to get me an answer. He'll get it in front of me somehow, some way. It always works.

And it's just a matter of, again,

looking for the Lord in things and really listening and leaning into the Spirit,

really being mindful to be aware of the nudges and the pulls and the whispers.

Because, like I said, I asked that question a week prior.

And then all of a sudden,

the answer was right in front of my face.

And it's. I mean, the most random things. I'm talking social media, the tv,

a song on the radio. I mean, weird things,

ways in which you would not expect. But that's what you need to look for the unexpected.

God is creative.

He's not boring. We do not serve a boring God.

So don't expect him to give you answers in boring ways.

The intimacy of relationship with the Lord is such that you'll see him in the details,

in the places where you would least expect him to be.

And I think the reason he does that is so we feel special.

It's like a godwink.

It's like he's saying, hey,

kid,

just between you and me,

because nobody else is going to recognize this.

Remember when you were asking me that question?

Here you go.

Here's your answer.

It's so subtle.

It's like a secret language between you and your Savior.

It's amazing when you live in that space,

but you can only live within that space if you're letting the Spirit lead you,

if you're leaning in with all of your soul,

all of your heart,

all of your mind,

with all of your might.

That's when you start seeing God everywhere,

or in so many things.

That's when you start hearing from him on a regular basis because you recognize his voice better.

Because you're not so hurried and you're not filled with such chaos and craziness trying to run around and figure things out on your own.

You're still.

Or you're moving slower because you're waiting on his answers and you're waiting on the Lord.

And when you're moving slower,

you hear better.

That just makes sense, doesn't it?

You hear better when you move slower.

So that's what we have to strive for.

How does the shepherd keep his flock with him?

He talks to a sheep.

So listen for his voice.

Look at the world and recognize the signs your Savior is showing you.

You can't keep looking at these things and putting your hand on your heart and saying, oh, my God, that was such a coincidence.

No, that wasn't a coincidence.

It was Christ.

See it for what it is.

Stop dismissing the extraordinary by pretending that it's ordinary.

I'm telling you right now,

you can walk in victory,

but you've got to walk with the One who declared victory.

You will win the war that the world is waging on your soul,

but you have to walk with the One who overcame the world.

The choice is yours.

You must let the Holy Spirit do what was sent to to do.

You must allow it to transform you.

Do not suppress the Holy Spirit.

Surrender to Him.

If you say,

I haven't heard from God lately,

could it be that you're not listening?

The question is,

if you don't spend enough time with him,

how will you recognize his voice so that you can respond?

Let me pray over you.

Holy Spirit,

help us to recognize your voice.

Help us to listen even when it doesn't make sense.

We repent for ignoring your nudges and for trusting our logic more than your leading.

We surrender to you today.

Give us ears to hear you and the boldness to obey you. In the mighty name of Jesus,

I pray if today's episode spoke to you,

please share it with a friend and follow Born to Be a Butterfly so you never miss an episode.

If you're ready to dive deeper into my story of healing and transformation,

get my book From Broken to Butterfly on Amazon.

If you have any questions or want to connect with me,

Send me a DM on Instagram @ Born to Be a Butterfly or email me at ninapajonas@gmail.com. I would love to pray for you, and if you are interested in emailing me, just look for my email address in today's episode description.

Remember,

the Lord can turn your wounds into wings.

You were born to be a butterfly,