Sometimes victory doesn’t look like winning—it looks like surrender. In this powerful episode, Nina Pajonas shares how God turned her seasons of struggle into seasons of strength through surrender and trust in His timing. From spiritual warfare to divine protection, Nina reveals how the Lord fought her battles, restored her peace, and taught her what true victory really means.

You’ll be reminded that the battles you face aren’t fought in the flesh—they’re spiritual. Through prayer, worship, and the renewing of your mind in Christ, you can walk in victory even before you see it in the natural.

✨ Key Scripture: Exodus 14:14 — “The Lord will fight for you; you need only to be still.”

🎶 Song Inspiration: “Defender” by Upperroom

Tune in now and discover how surrender becomes your greatest weapon—and how God’s peace can guard your heart through every storm.

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.

Sometimes victory can look like defeat.

There are a lot of people who would look at my life and not want it.

A lot of people would look at my life and say, she can have it.

They would probably say,

how many years did you lose to alcoholism?

You've been single for how long?

You've been celibate for how long?

God led you to leave your church after how many years?

But I wouldn't trade any of it for the world.

What looks like defeat to them is victory for me because I have surrendered my life to Christ.

I surrendered myself to the Holy Spirit.

I continuously ask my Lord and Savior every single day for more of him and less of myself.

And I know through his power and his authority that I walk in victory that the world cannot see or recognize.

Now, the next question you might have is,

will it ever show up in the world one day?

Yes,

I know it will.

However,

even in my struggles,

I knew I was victorious.

It's a state of mind even when everything is telling me otherwise.

Even when the devil was coming at me so hard, it didn't make any human sense. Sense.

That's actually when I knew it was spiritual,

when I couldn't even reconcile it in the flesh.

I thought to myself,

this is so insane,

the number of things that are happening to me.

It didn't make any logical sense because it wasn't just in the natural. It was in the spiritual.

It was spiritual warfare.

Welcome to Born to be a Butterfly,

where we embrace healing and growth in Christ so that we can experience true transformation.

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

The weight of the war that was waged upon me was very heavy.

So I ran to God.

My mind was filled with confusion. I didn't know what to do.

So I'm not embarrassed or ashamed that I ran to my Lord and Savior crying.

I was out of my depths, and I knew it.

I entered the throne room with thanksgiving and praise,

and then I pleaded my case.

I said, lord, I keep getting hurt because I keep getting attacked.

Please,

Lord, I need your help.

I was crying hysterically because I was at my wit's end. I didn't know what to do.

But the beauty of a relationship with the Lord is when you don't know what to do.

That's okay.

You just need to know where to go.

After I prayed to him, I went to sleep.

And less than 24 hours later,

I watched a video from someone that I admire and that I follow.

You need only to be still immediately.

I knew that the Lord had answered me after that video.

And this happened over the course of several days.

He was clearly telling me, be still,

I'm going to fight for you.

The Lord said it so many times I actually started to feel bad for my enemies because I realized just how angry God was.

The whole situation reminded me of my favorite song,

Defender by Upper Room.

It is my love song to the Lord.

It's as if somebody took my testimony and put it to melody.

The lyrics perfectly describe what Jesus did and what he continues to do for me on my journey with him.

Everybody and anybody who knows me knows that I have probably sang this song to the Lord more than I have any other song.

And so since all of you have taken the time to get to know me over these I don't even know how many months, I think I started in March.

Since you've been on this journey with me,

I think it's high time that you hear me sing just a part of my very favorite song to the Lord.

So I'm going to sing a little snippet and when you hear the lyrics,

I think you'll fully understand why I love it as much as I do.

You go before I know that you've even gone to win my war and you come back with a head of my enemy.

You come back and you call it my victory.

Yes,

We live in a broken and messy world,

but our battles aren't won with worldly ways or tactics.

We don't resort to threats, violence or power plays of the flesh.

Ultimately,

the war that we are fighting is spiritual.

So we must go to God,

for only he has the spiritual authority to destroy demonic activity in any form and of all kinds.

I'll refer to 2 Corinthians 10:4 where Paul says,

the weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world.

On the contrary,

they have divine power to demolish strongholds.

We fight with different weapons,

the Word of God,

prayer,

worship,

fasting,

truth in love,

forgiveness,

and spirit led obedience.

Those weapons carry the divine power to demolish demonic strongholds which are deep rooted lies,

arguments and habits that resist the knowledge of God in our minds and in our communities.

When we find ourselves Fighting people.

We must pause and remember that we are fighting spiritual forces and false ideas that keep people in bondage.

And Paul's next line,

2 Corinthians 10, verses 5. NIV gives the aim.

We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God,

and we take captive every thought and make it obedient to Christ.

What does that mean?

Well,

let me explain.

If your mind is not constantly renewed in Christ,

it is being continuously corrupted by the world in which we live.

So we need to take that thought,

that feeling,

and bring it to the Word.

We need to look it up.

We need to find something in the Bible that speaks to that subject and we need to read it,

whether it's fear,

anger, forgiveness,

ruminating thoughts,

worry,

anxiety,

whatever it is.

Once we understand what the Word says,

we can speak truth into that situation.

And that will provide us with clarity and with serenity.

You must grab the thought before it grabs ahold of you.

Now that's a word.

The Holy Spirit just gave that to me. You have to grab that thought before it grabs ahold of you.

As soon as it pops into your mind, you need to recognize it right away.

And to do that, you have to be highly in tune with yourself.

As soon as I feel myself going to a negative place,

I have to reflect on whatever triggered me.

The thought,

the comment,

the person,

whatever it was,

whatever happened,

I have to bring it to Christ.

I have to think, what does the Bible tell me about this situation?

What guidance does Scripture give me on recognizing and responding to this kind of person?

The Word will always point us to a righteous conclusion that leads to us to peace.

One day,

not too long ago,

I was sitting in my car when I received a word from the Holy Spirit.

It was only one sentence.

He said,

you need to be unflappable.

I remember hearing that and it made me pause.

I knew what the Word meant,

but it's not a word I normally use.

And I find in my journey that when God wants to get my attention,

he does that.

He will use a word that I know,

but that I don't normally use in my day to day conversations.

Anyway,

this time the Word was unflappable,

which means having or showing calmness in a crisis.

So how do we do that?

If we need to be calm in a crisis and we're searching for peace out there with people,

places and things,

we will be searching for peace for a very long time.

Our peace has to come from within.

Yet peace can only prevail if we stay in close proximity to Jesus.

Look no further than Philippians 4.7 ESV and the Peace of God,

which surpasses all understanding,

will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

Only the Lord can give you the peace that transcends everything the spiritual and the natural are trying to pull you into.

God covers you with his peace like a blanket.

It feels like the weight of the world has come off of your soul.

We must have our priorities in place.

We must have an eternal perspective,

not an internal one.

We have to walk through this world without becoming like it.

Because we are supposed to make a difference,

a divine difference.

When we live our lives the way the Lord designed them to be lived with him doing the good work he planned in advance for us to do with the gifts that he has given us.

That is spiritual success.

However,

there will be times when we fall short because we are human.

We are not perfect,

nor will we ever be.

But the good news is we have a Savior who is so. When we fall short,

we need to go to him and tell him that we repent of the ways in which we have sinned.

We thank him for the work on the cross that allows our sins to be forgiven,

and we move forward.

We are all sinners who fall short of the glory of God.

Our job as his children is to serve others to do what he calls us to do.

With the help of the Holy Spirit within us,

we cannot earn our place in heaven, and we don't deserve it.

But God,

he appreciates an earnest effort.

Earnestly seek him in all that you say and do so that the light of his love will shine upon you.

You will walk victoriously as you fulfill your divine destiny.

But if you don't,

you will have a void where victory should have lived.

That void was specifically put in you to be filled by your Creator.

God designed you to want him to need him so that you would ultimately look for him and find Him.

So many of us try to fill that void with things of the world. And then we wonder why we feel empty.

We feel an ache because we have a hunger and a thirst that can only be satisfied by our Savior.

Here's the truth that you might not know.

Your story is not about you.

It's about the Lord.

It's about how much he loves you and all the wonderful work that he wants to do through you as you walk through this world.

The love we carry in our hearts and the love that we leave behind when we're gone,

those are the greatest gifts we will ever receive from God or that we can give to God.

The victory is not for found in what we hold in our hands.

It is found in our Lord and Savior who holds us in His.

Surrendering ourselves and our lives to God is the greatest victory of all and it is the only one that matters.

Let's pray.

Heavenly Father,

please release the courage to surrender and the grace to be still while you fight for all of my sisters in Christ.

Teach them how to renew their minds and help them take every thought captive to Christ.

May the Holy Spirit help them guard their hearts and minds with the peace that surpasses all understanding.

Please give them the strength to establish holy boundaries.

Lead them by your spirit and bring them to a swift breakthrough.

May they be unflappable by staying anchored in your your word.

May they walk boldly in the victory of Christ Jesus.

In the matchless and mighty name of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ,

we pray.

Amen.

If today's episode blessed you,

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

If you're interested in learning more about my story of healing and transformation,

you can get my book From Broken to Butterfly on Amazon.

If you would like to connect,

you can send me a message on Instagram at Born to be a Butterfly or you can email me@nina pajonasmail.com.

the link to my email is always in my episode description.

Until next time,

Remember,

the Lord can turn your wounds into wings.

You were born to be a butterfly.