AN UNFORGETTABLE EXPERIENCE ~ Precious C Philip

What do you do as a foreigner in a foreign country if you accidentally locked yourself out on your balcony and you have no means of communicating with anyone outside to come to your rescue?

This was the situation I found myself on Saturday March 20th, 2021. On this day, I had finished sharing some daily posts on my social media platforms and went to the bathroom to wash my clothes. My balcony is next to my bathroom. After entering the bathroom, I remembered I needed to pickup something from my bedroom and so, I reached for the back door to open it and walk into the room, only to realize that I had accidentally locked it from inside.

At first, I thought, "This is not reality."😄 So I tried again, now holding the door handle firmly, and tried to open the door, but I realized it had been really locked for real.

At this point, I didn't know what to do. It was like a movie/dream to me; because I was wondering, how could I have done such a silly thing.

My balcony faces a secluded site filled with grasses, trees and flowers. So there was no one to call for help. I didn't have my smartphone with me; I left it in my bedroom. I had neighbors but we are separated by giant walls that makes communication impossible. My balcony is protected with iron bars that makes it impossible to stick out your head to look outside and call for help. I stood, not knowing what to do. I saw cars and motorcycles afar off moving to and fro on the road leading to my apartment, but no one could notice that a foreigner was stuck on her balcony.😔

Then the devil started shooting his lies at me: "You'll miss the fellowship meeting today (because we have fellowship meetings on Saturdays). You'll also sleep on the balcony. No one will know you're here and no one will come to your rescue. You may even spend more than one day here. No one will pass through the backyard and see me and rescue me. You may even die here." Hmmm!

All these thoughts were flying through my mind. But one thing I knew was that God will not let me waste away on that balcony. He'll definitely come through for me. What I wasn't sure was how long I would have to wait until He finishes working things out, but I knew He'll surely intervene.

So I began talking to God. Telling Him how I do not want to miss the fellowship meeting we had at 12:30pm, because I had gone to the bathroom between 9:20-9:30am, and I was supposed to leave my house at 11:30am to be able to arrive early for fellowship. I kept asking Him for help. I couldn't scream because I didn't want to draw a crowd and I didn't want to be mistaken as a mad person. But while I was asking God for help, I tried to help myself by using a wooden hanger to try to unlock the door, but I failed. At this time, I decided to stop wasting my energy and just focus on asking the Holy Spirit for help.

I stopped trying to open the door with all my might and focused on asking the Holy Spirit for help. Earlier on, I had seen two men walking across the secluded site and I tried to draw their attention to my plight, but none of them saw nor heard me and walked away. I realized then that if God did not get involved, I will not receive help anytime soon. So, I continued talking to the Holy Spirit, asking Him to help me. I calmed myself and encouraged myself with the knowledge that the Holy Spirit is with me and He'll help me.

After talking to the Holy Spirit, He told me to go back to the bathroom and continue washing my clothes, that He will help me. So, I went back to the bathroom. I washed the first cloth, but I couldn't continue washing because my heart was still wondering. So I told the Holy Spirit to just help me and act quickly because I really cannot concentrate. At this point, tears started dropping from my eyes because I had become tired and was sweating.

I went to the balcony to look outside again - to see if I could see anyone passing by. I saw no one. But when I looked farther, I saw an old woman living in a bungalow. She had come out to water her plants or trim them. I don't know which one exactly. As I tried to draw her attention, the devil whispered to my ears, "If the two young men that appeared a bit closer could not hear you, is it an old woman that is far away that can hear you?" 

I heaved a sigh. But I determined not to entertain the lies of Satan and just do what I felt led to do. It is better to try and not get what you want, than not to try and miss experiencing success. So I asked the Holy Spirit what I should do to really draw the attention of an old woman that may have difficulty hearing clearly. He told me to take one of the iron hangers and start hitting it on the iron bars as I look towards her direction and screech "Hello!". I did this the first time, the old woman didn't hear me. I did it the second time, she still didn't hear me. I felt it was a waste of energy trying, but I was encouraged to try again. I tried the third time and, Boom! She heard me, and looked towards my direction. I felt so good.😌

But now, what do I say? How do I relate my predicament for her to understand? Because we do not speak the same language. I can only but speak a little bit of Thai language. I immediately remembered a few words that could explain my situation in Thai language and I screamed it. Amazingly, this old woman understood what I meant. 💃💃

She responded in Thai language and told me I should be patient that she'll hurry and inform the cleaners of the apartment to come and rescue me. After some minutes, she came back with one of the cleaners to find out if my front door was locked from inside. This was another issue.😔

I had locked the front door from inside and bolted it. So no one can come in from outside even if they have the door key except I open it from inside. But as God may have it, I have a glass window close to the front door. I however locked it as well from inside, but they searched and found someone that could forcefully open the window from outside. The man finally opened the window after several attempts, and one of them came in through the window, opened the front door and came to get me. Immediately the back door was opened and I regained freedom to walk into my room, I burst out in tears in appreciation to my Heavenly Father who rescued me.

I spent 1 hour on that balcony. I came out at around 10:25am, I took my shower and dressed up for fellowship. But the Holy Spirit ministered to me to appreciate the old woman and share the Gospel of Jesus with her. So I packed some food items, a gift, some cash and gospel leaflets in Thai language and went to meet her. I wasn't sure of how to get to her home, so I asked the Holy Spirit to lead me to her if He really wanted me to give her those things I've packed.

Immediately I went downstairs, I saw the cleaner who had first come with the old woman and she directed me to where she lives and I went to meet her. I appreciated her and gave her the package and hugged her. Then I left for fellowship. But could you believe that the same fellowship the devil had told me I would miss, I not only attended the fellowship, I got to the fellowship earlier than before, because God sent a man who gave me a ride to the bus stop for the first time since I moved to my new apartment and attended the fellowship from there.

Truly, there is nothing God cannot do. There is no situation He cannot remedy. There is no problem He cannot solve. There is no challenge He cannot handle. The Holy Spirit is very real. He is God. He is not a dove. He is not a force. He is a Person. He is God. Jesus said in John 14:16-17 "And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever— the Spirit of truth (Holy Spirit). The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you." 

When Jesus was on earth, He was the Helper of His disciples and other people that came to Him. They would run to Him whenever they have a problem or a challenge. So when Jesus was to go back to Heaven where He came from, having completed His earthly assignment, He promised that God the Father will send us another Helper, being the Holy Spirit. 

Therefore, Jesus is no longer on earth, Who we have with us now is the Holy Spirit. He is on earth - doing exactly what Jesus did while He was on earth - helping the children of God. Jesus said that the Holy Spirit will live with us and be in us [John 14:17]. The Holy Spirit is Jesus unlimited. When Jesus was here, He could only be in one place at one time. But the Holy Spirit can be in all places at the same time. (Don't worry, you can't rationalize that with your human mind because it beats logic, just believe it). 

The Holy Spirit is with every genuine born again Christian and lives inside each one of them. I could talk to the Holy Spirit during my plight because I knew He is with me always. I'm conscious of His presence. When I talked to Him, He responded and helped me.

Every man on earth will one day come to a point where man's help will be vain: where no man can help you and all you need is help from a Divine Being. So far as you're on planet earth, such a day will come. If you don't believe in Jesus Christ, it may be your last day on earth when such situation confronts you because you'll not be able to withstand it no matter how strong/brave you may think you are., and if you run to demonic forces for help, they'll smartly destroy you because they cannot help any man. Their only mission on earth is to destroy man because man is their major enemy.

If you believe in Jesus and such challenge comes, know that the Holy Spirit is with you. All you need to do at that point is to ask Him to help you. Remember, He is the Helper of all disciples of Jesus.

If you're reading this and you still doubt the existence of God or do not believe in the reality of the Person of the Holy Spirit, I encourage you to learn from what happened to me and know that God is real and the Holy Spirit is real. It was God who moved that old woman to come out on that day and at that time to attend to her plants. It was God who made her to hear me and understand my plight even though I could not express myself properly in Thai language. It was God who made her decide to help me and hurried to get help. It was also God who moved a Thai man to give me a lift to the bus stop for the first time. 

None of these was a coincidence. It was all divinely orchestrated. And could you believe that the money I gave to the old woman to appreciate her kindness, she later returned it to me and said I should keep it, so the Holy Spirit knew the impression He wanted to drop in the heart of that old woman. Please put your faith in Jesus the Son of God today and be saved. Jesus is realer than you think. The Holy Spirit is real too.

He is the Third Person of the Trinity. You need Him to live a victorious life on earth. He is a very  IMPORTANT partner every man must have in the journey of life.

God bless you for reading my story. I hope it blessed you one way or the other. Stay blessed and anticipate next week's article.