Our Father's Heart
These podcasts are intended to nurture, instruct, and help you understand what the Lord has said in His Word that you may walk in the manner worthy of your calling in Him. We pray that you are blessed, not merely in the hearing, but more so in the doing. Simply put, our utmost desire is to be in the Father's heart, to know the Father's heart, and express the Father's heart to you.
Our Father's Heart
The Lovingier Testimony (Part 1) | Ep. 153
This Our Father's Heart podcast episode features an interview with Scott and Alycia Lovingier, a couple who share their testimony of faith and how God brought them together.
Scott recounts his upbringing outside the church, his initial interest in exploring various religions, and the pivotal moment when he sought guidance from Alycia's family, leading to a powerful spiritual awakening. Alycia details her own "rebellious" phase, during which she resisted Scott's initial advances despite a mutual attraction, as she focused on her own faith journey.
God intervened in unexpected ways, with multiple supernatural elements, including prophetic dreams, a deliverance experience, and a specific message to Scott. The couple's story highlights how God can transform lives and orchestrate relationships in surprising and divinely appointed ways, even when met with resistance and doubt. Their testimony underscores the power of faith, the importance of spiritual mentorship, and the transformative impact of encountering God's presence.
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The vision received was that of blood cells traveling throughout the body, supplying the much needed oxygen and other nutrients to the differing members of the body to fulfill their purpose. Once the blood cells are spent, they must return back to the heart to be refilled before being sent out again and fulfill their purpose and fulfill their purpose. Well, hello, faithful listeners of Our Father's Heart. I kind of feel like I am interrupting your regularly scheduled programming for this announcement. It's kind of odd because I am right now in the process of getting together this particular podcast that you're about to listen to, called the Lovinger Testimony, and I just felt like jumping in to tell you that last night as I started to gather together the material.
j - Jesus M. Ruiz:I thought I lost it.
j - Jesus M. Ruiz:I was internally freaking out. I thought I lost this whole two hour and 40 minute session that I had with the Lovinger family and I was trying to do a few things at one time, but I could not find this file. And when I did this podcast, I did it upstairs in the living room. I did it on the laptop a laptop that I just got last year, that I prepared to just be able to use it kind of on the fly so I wouldn't have to be at my main computer doing the podcast, like I'm doing this little intro right now. And I came back to it because we did it last week. I came back to it to try to look for it and I couldn't find it. I was and I had to do some other things. So I went and did the other things that I knew I could do so that I can accomplish something. And when I finished all of that, I came back and I started searching, searching, searching and I could not find it on the laptop. It was gone. It wasn't in the deleted items, it wasn't in the recycle bin, it just wasn't there. It literally was not on my laptop. Now, the reason why it wasn't on my laptop is because I'm just recently turned 50 years old and I know that I myself have weaknesses, and what I tried to do to compensate for those weaknesses is I tried to deal with things as immediate as I can, because there might be so many things going on in my life that I'll get sidetracked and then I'll forget to do something. So I preemptively do things in advance so that I don't forget later on, you know, to do something or to get something accomplished. Well, that's what I did.
j - Jesus M. Ruiz:After I had the podcast session, I dealt with the audio file and I, you know, did some editing and then I saved it on my downstairs main computer and I completely forgot. But I did that because I didn't want to lose it on the laptop and something to happen. So I just wanted to make sure that I took care of it immediately and put it in a safe place where nothing should happen, and I totally, totally forgot about it. So a week later, I am trying to work on it. We had the session on Sunday, I'm working on it on Friday and I can't find the file and I'm totally about to lose it. But I'm doing this, you know, on the couch and my wife is over there watching something and I just I said, oh Lord, help me find this file. So I remotely tapped into my computer downstairs and I said I've got nothing to lose, I'm not finding it on the laptop, let me just search the downstairs computer because I have no idea. And literally I just completely forgot that. I worked on the audio file and went and saved it downstairs. So thank God I found it. I was so relieved you guys do not know how relieved I was I felt like I might have cried if I had not found it, because you put a lot of effort, you put a lot of work into something and then all of a sudden, in a moment it seems like everything is lost and you're at a loss as to what you did, what happened to it. But just, oh, praise God, I found it. So I just wanted to interject that and just kind of give you a little side story before you get into the testimony.
j - Jesus M. Ruiz:But I did want to make one more point of mention, as I'm working on the podcast and thinking about all the things that were exchanged. I love the testimony, I truly do, and I realized that a testimony is not really a testimony if everything in the testimony is perfect. What do I mean by that? The testimony that the Lord Jesus works out in our lives is so powerful, it's so anointed, it's so potent Because of the imperfectness of our experience, the sin, the dumb decisions, the bad moves, the wrong turns that we took. It all is made powerful because God intervened in the situation and he brought about something good out of the imperfect situation that we lived in, that we experienced in. And I want to remind everyone of that because, because some of you, by the end of this podcast, might listen to it and sit back and consider everything that was shared and you might develop some sort of maybe attitude or maybe a critical spirit and say, but what about this, but what about this, but what about that? And I would say to you, if that's your response to this testimony, when it's all said and done, I would ask you to consider all of the testimonies in the Bible.
j - Jesus M. Ruiz:All of the testimonies in the Bible are about imperfect people living through and experiencing bad, wicked, evil, corrupt situations, sometimes of their own doing and sometimes not, but I would say 100% of the time. Most of the bad experiences that we have read through in the scriptures that are testimonies of the patriarchs and the patriarchs' wives and the women are because of sin, things that we did, and they ended up reaping the consequences of those sins. And that's for everyone, that's literally for everyone. So for those of you that might, at the end of this podcast, think, but what about this thing that they did or that thing that they did? Hey, everyone in the scriptures have, you can say that and you can be critical about you know the decisions that they made and be, all you know, lofty with yourself, like you know, because something that I learned very, very young or very, very early on in my life and I think I got kind of a little bit arrogant about it is that you can't expect someone to do what you would have done in their situation, because we always look at other people's lives and think, oh gosh, I would have never done that, I would have never done this, and that you don't know really what you would do or what you would not do until you're actually in the situation.
j - Jesus M. Ruiz:We all have these flights of fancies about ourselves, envisioning that we would always make the right decision, the wise decision, the correct decision. But be honest with yourself. You're not perfect and neither am I. And the last thing that we need is to start talking about somebody's plank in their eye or toothpick in their eye and we have a plank in ours. So I want you to listen to this podcast and I want you to discern all that God did in his intervention in this family's life to bring about blessing, goodness, prosperity and honor. And then think about what Jesus said when they brought the woman caught in adultery to him. What did he say? He who is without sin among you, let him throw a stone at her first. And by the time you're done listening to this whole podcast, you will realize to God be the glory. No matter what the situations were, he was able to redeem what transpired in the past to bring about something good. Hello everyone, thank you for joining us today on this special episode of our.
j - Jesus M. Ruiz:Father's Heart podcast. This is one of those special ones where if you've been listening for any amount of time, you know that it's usually you're just listening to me, your host Jay, giving a teaching of some kind that he's done in the past and just wanting to share it with the world in the hopes that it might, you know, spread out the seed everywhere and let the seed fall where it may, and hopefully it'll fall into a good soil and someone will respond to it in some fashion. Whether I know about it or not, it doesn't matter to me, but just the fact that God will use it to reach someone's heart. But this is a special podcast because I normally teach or release episodes in that way, but this particular episode I'm going to be having a discussion and a live conversation. I've done that a couple times before.
j - Jesus M. Ruiz:Those of you that are listening or have not listened, you might want to check out what was the previous one we did with Elder Strange and Marie Strange Life in the Supernatural. There we go. That was the other one. That was a series. I can't remember how many parts right now, but you might want to check that out because that was an incredible series to hear the life of an octogenarian and his wife and how they, you know, live through all of those years as you know, born again, spirit-filled, baptized in Jesus' name, christians and all of the changes that they went through. But it was really about the miracles that they experienced in their life.
j - Jesus M. Ruiz:And then another one that we did was we went from the octogenarians we went down to the youth and we addressed some of the issues that the youth were dealing with. I think that was about two years ago, based upon some questions that my daughter was giving me regarding her generation and the things that they were asking and stuff. So you might want to check that one out. Do you remember the title of that one?
Patricia Ruiz:I don't. It was with Amber and Malachi.
j - Jesus M. Ruiz:Yeah, we had Amber and Malachi, and Lydia was a part of it as well. That's our daughter and I'm going to find it right now because that's another good one if you want to listen to a live conversation between me and others. But today, oh, topics for young adults. That was an eight-part series. We talked about a lot of different things there. That was a long hours and I had to break that up. So today might be the same thing. I don't know if it's going to last as long. That'll be up to our guest. Here we have Scott and his wife, Alicia Lovinger. We've gotten to know them over the last few years because they began to attend our church. They come from the liberal state of California and they came here and they escaped the clutches and we're glad to have them here.
Scott Lovingier:So if you guys want to say hi, Hi, yeah, I think pastor today called me California boy. Oh, he did. Okay, we're hoping this is going to be five-part series, by the way, oh okay.
j - Jesus M. Ruiz:Well, it'll be dependent upon how verbose you are. How much do you put on? Okay, so we're going to get started. My wife is here as well and I'd like to introduce you to this family, because I think they have a tremendous testimony and they revealed some of it at a recent Sunday engagement. I believe Scott was teaching that Sunday right and was just opening up his heart and I said, wow, there's a lot there, and I'm the type of person that believes that the spirit of Jesus in one's life or the testimony of Jesus in one life is a prophetic testimony or a prophetic spirit.
Scott Lovingier:Yeah, the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.
j - Jesus M. Ruiz:Right, right. And I wanted to give you guys the opportunity to allow the Lord to use the testimony that he's done in your life to hopefully impact others. And the scripture that always comes to mind when I think about this is 2 Corinthians 1.4. It says, talking about our God and Father, the Lord Jesus Christ, that he is the Father of mercies, he's the God of all comfort. He says he comforts us in our tribulation so that we may be able to comfort others or those who are in that trouble that we went through. That God comforted us and meaning he got us through it, he took us through that Red Sea, that terrible time, and then we begin to comfort others with the same comfort that he comforted us with. And so that's the whole. That's my foundation, little principle of why I want to share you guys with the world. So let's start with the head of the house. Brother Scott, you came from California, but I don't think you were born there.
Scott Lovingier:Oh, I was.
j - Jesus M. Ruiz:Oh, you were.
Scott Lovingier:Yeah.
j - Jesus M. Ruiz:Okay, I thought for some reason you were in the middle of the country because you were born in California.
Scott Lovingier:Tell us about yourself yourself, like kind of introduce yourself um well, sorry, there's just a bug crawling in behind you for a second well, that will not bother any one of us.
j - Jesus M. Ruiz:Thank God my daughter's not here, so that's cool, that, hey, that's real life fellas. This is not for real, but anyway, see it's all right.
j - Jesus M. Ruiz:It's all right.
j - Jesus M. Ruiz:No, it's not. If I find it, I'll get it. Okay, you get it.
Scott Lovingier:So, brother Scott, go ahead and introduce yourself, okay so wow, where do I start? I'm going to be turning 42. Okay, born and raised in California, in Northern California, so just outside the Bay Area, was not raised in church, okay, so both of my parents came from a Seventh-day Adventist background.
j - Jesus M. Ruiz:Oh, you guys have got to be here to get all this. I am not editing this, okay. Oh my God, not the book. There you go. Just let it inside. That's good, just let it inside, all right. So to fill you all in because you can't see what's going on, we had a bug crawling down the wall and my wife went to the rescue and brought in the uh raid and just, uh, sprayed it all up and down. So, yeah, okay, she rained down on him, all right, uh, so you were raised in California, upper northern California, um, but I, I don't hear you having you having that surfer kind of talk. So you're not a surfer. That's Southern California. Oh, southern, you were Northern.
Scott Lovingier:Yeah, that's a big difference.
j - Jesus M. Ruiz:Okay, yeah, so Go ahead, I mean. Okay, okay, so you were raised in Northern California, Alycia, were you in California too? Yep, born and raised.
Alycia Lovingier:You were raised, yeah.
j - Jesus M. Ruiz:Oh, you both. I didn't know that. Yeah, for some reason I thought you were in different places. Okay, so were you raised in the same Northern California area?
Scott Lovingier:Yeah, I went to the same high school. I'm five years older, so I didn't go to school with her.
Scott Lovingier:Oh, so we grew up in the same my brother.
j - Jesus M. Ruiz:That's how I met her okay um, he hooked you up well, not really.
Scott Lovingier:No, not really. Was he ever interested like fourth grade?
Alycia Lovingier:way back, yeah okay yeah, that's when we were pretty much. We went from fourth grade up through all of high school together with his brother, so his brother and I were like the same age oh, okay um, I didn't actually know he existed until high school. Um, yeah, I don't even think I met him until after your brother went to college I think I met you when you were 19, yeah so I didn't like I heard about him, but I never actually met him okay, so you met her as a high school senior no, she was, I already graduated.
j - Jesus M. Ruiz:Oh, you already graduated, yeah okay, but you didn't know her from before, when your brother I think I knew the name okay, but I never met her like that interesting. Okay, all right. So then how did you end
j - Jesus M. Ruiz:what's the
Scott Lovingier:Just, I think, as my brother became, you know, an adult and then I, just I moved back home and, um, you know, I started hanging out with him and his group of friends occasionally and um, so I wasn't in church, she was maybe going through a little bit of a rebellious spirit, uh period. So we met at a party, um, and that was, uh, the first time we met. I hope that's okay if I said that that's fine.
Alycia Lovingier:that you were allowed to go to. I was still in the party. It was a party at his house.
j - Jesus M. Ruiz:Well, no, but you were you allowed to go to this no? Oh no, you've met her mom
Alycia Lovingier:right? I have. That's why I'm wondering no, Born and raised in church.
j - Jesus M. Ruiz:So you were still living with your parents.
Alycia Lovingier:Yeah, I lived with my parents up until we got married.
j - Jesus M. Ruiz:Was this one of those you snuck out the window, type of thing? No, they knew I was going out hanging out with friends Because it's sensational the context of the situation. Okay, yeah, okay.
j - Jesus M. Ruiz:So you met at this party,
Scott Lovingier:met at this party I mean nothing.
Scott Lovingier:I mean it was just a party.
Scott Lovingier:I mean obviously I looked her and was like, wow she's really cute. yeah, and then I would just kind of turn into a friendship after that. So we kind of became friends. I started our groups, just kind of intermingled with my group my friend group and my brother's friend group, and my brother's off at college, so he wasn't even there out kind of dated, but not really dated because she was like one foot in the church, one foot kind of you know experiencing the world a little bit uh-huh, not really a lot.
Scott Lovingier:You know some people like fully go experience the world. She didn't do that. She was, like, you know, still going to church, not really doing the things of the world that I was doing as a non-believer, but it dated a little bit. It didn't really work out because I wasn't in church and that was not going to fly with her and her family.
j - Jesus M. Ruiz:So she had some requirements that you weren't meeting at the time, so it didn't work out.
Alycia Lovingier:It wasn't like she told me these are my requirements. I think, ultimately, I knew this phase I was going through was a phase.
j - Jesus M. Ruiz:You knew that inside.
Alycia Lovingier:Yeah, I knew inside this was not going to be like a permanent lifestyle. I knew that and I always knew that even if I wasn't like fully in church, I was still going to church. Well, for one, because I had no choice. I lived with my parents, but I always knew that there's only going to be a certain, there's only a relationship. That was so far, because I knew he wasn't in church and that was still a non-negotiable for me, like I was still never going to give up.
j - Jesus M. Ruiz:Did you know you tried this relationship
Alycia Lovingier:we did, we did.
Alycia Lovingier:I don't think he really knew.
j - Jesus M. Ruiz:But did your parents know that you tried to attempt this relationship
Alycia Lovingier:kind of
Alycia Lovingier:They knew that we were like talking, kind of hanging out. I don't think they knew, I mean I don't know how serious. It wasn't like super serious Okay, because I was definitely younger, I was going through kind of a different phase in my life. But yeah, ultimately, like I knew, it wasn't really going to get very far because I was never willing to give up God and church, even if I was going through this little rebellious phase that I was going through.
j - Jesus M. Ruiz:So one of the interesting things that I just picked up on is that you immediately told me, or you told all of us, you told the whole audience. Your first impression was oh, she's cute.
Scott Lovingier:Yeah.
j - Jesus M. Ruiz:And I kind of know your testimony. What was your first impression of him?
Alycia Lovingier:I'm trying to remember, like the first time I saw him. I remember going over because the party was at his parents' house.
j - Jesus M. Ruiz:Okay.
Alycia Lovingier:And so I'd been to that house multiple times because I knew his brother.
j - Jesus M. Ruiz:Okay.
Alycia Lovingier:But I never. I think it was the first time I even met him. I mean, I thought he was cute. He had a couple of his college friends there too, so I was kind of just hanging out with him as well. Just kind of didn't really like kind of just getting to know people.
j - Jesus M. Ruiz:So you did think it was cute.
Alycia Lovingier:Yeah.
j - Jesus M. Ruiz:Okay, so there was a mutual physical attractiveness that you both had toward each other.
Alycia Lovingier:But nothing, you know Nothing. Serious, super serious came of it.
Scott Lovingier:She didn't flirt with you, kind of she's not a flirt.
j - Jesus M. Ruiz:Yeah, I've never been that type of yeah, but you both paused there and you thought about it.
Scott Lovingier:Well, because we did kind of date, we did yeah we, you both paused there and you thought about it.
Alycia Lovingier:Well, because we did kind of date. I mean, we did, yeah, we did.
Scott Lovingier:We went out and did movies and stuff like that, but we wouldn't have said this is my girlfriend?
Alycia Lovingier:Yeah, we were never talking about it. We were in a relationship oh okay. Yeah, it was never serious enough.
j - Jesus M. Ruiz:So dating just to hang out and spend a good time In our groups of friends inter. Okay, so you were always in church, always, always in church. What made you go into this little season of rebellious phase? What was that all about?
Alycia Lovingier:I was 19, and I think I was tired of living at home and I never really thought about why I went through that phase Because people I had friends who were not really like they would go go to church, so to speak. Like they say they're christian, um, but definitely not lead the lifestyle of a christian, and so someone might come by association. I was hanging out with them and then that's actually how we got invited over to his house, was my friend got invited and she said hey, we're going over to, uh, his brother's name is matt we're going to matt's brother's house or matt's house to hang out with some friends and his older brother.
Alycia Lovingier:So it was kind of by association. I kind of got in this kind of group of friends. Also the only one that kind of was really going to church. If that makes sense, yeah, like seriously going to church. But yeah, it kind of just fell into that.
j - Jesus M. Ruiz:So you tried early on. But yeah, it kind of just fell into that. So you tried early on but he wasn't. He was still in the world.
Scott Lovingier:He had no interest.
j - Jesus M. Ruiz:How did that change.
Scott Lovingier:Okay.
j - Jesus M. Ruiz:So that's, that's that's a full story.
Scott Lovingier:So she I mean she never talked to me about church at all. I knew her family was religious. I knew they were a different type of religious than my other Cause I mean I had Christian friends growing up and we all did the same stuff, like you know, it was no different but she, I knew her and her family were different but she never talked to me about that at all.
Scott Lovingier:Um, I always, just in life, had a fascination with world religions, so I just wanted to know what all religions said. Um, and I mean, it could only have been the Holy spirit to just bubble this up at this point in my life, of pushing me to sit to look. Okay, what does this, the Bible say? Cause I had no idea what the Bible said, other than just maybe just the basic children's stories that you might hear, cause I never, I didn't go to church other than just a handful of times like my grandma brought me a couple times or a couple ex-girlfriends, you know, drug me to catholic churches and and so that was basically my
Scott Lovingier:extent to knowing what the bible and what church was about. Um, so I just kind of had this thought and this feeling like, well, just read the bible and just see what it says, and then, after I'm done with that, I'm going to go read the Quran, I'm going to go study, you know, buddhist. That was just kind of my thoughts. So I went to Alycia, because I knew she was different, you know, and I was like, can you help me pick out a Bible?
Scott Lovingier:Because I didn't know how to pick out a Bible.
Scott Lovingier:I didn't want to get the wrong bible, I didn't. I had no idea what that even meant to pick out a bible. I thought there, I mean, obviously there's different translations, but I thought you could get like a wrong bible or something. So, um, she didn't really say much. But then, maybe a week or two later, um, her and her mom presented me with a Bible. They bought me one, they got my name engraved on it.
Scott Lovingier:It's a new King James version. It's actually the one I'm using at church at the moment. I just kind of pulled it off the shelf. I'm like I want to go back to my roots.
Alycia Lovingier:Do you remember that time? I remember I didn't specifically pick it out I remember talking to my mom about it, Like oh, hey, he asked for the. Bible Kind of like nonchalantly. Hey he wanted a Bible. You know, can you help me pick out one type thing?
Alycia Lovingier:Okay, that was kind of it.
Alycia Lovingier:My mom was the one that went and picked up the Bible and got it engraved.
j - Jesus M. Ruiz:So at that time you were really interested in reaching him for Christ.
Alycia Lovingier:I've never been that person. That's the one that's like hey, let me tell you about Jesus, like that's never been my personality. I'm very introverted. People ask me I'll talk about it Like I have no shame in talking about it. But I'm not one that's going to be like here, take a Bible, you know that's just, that's not me.
Alycia Lovingier:So I got to stop giving you credit for that story Um but yeah, I mean, I just had my mom like hey, mom, can you pick out picking a bible? And she picked it out, got it engraved, and then I don't actually remember physically giving it to you, like I don't remember that how that all played out.
Scott Lovingier:But I don't remember either, maybe she did
j - Jesus M. Ruiz:but, you kept it the whole time?
Scott Lovingier:oh yeah, because you know, then she gave it.
Scott Lovingier:I'm gonna say your mom gave it to, not you, apparently. She gave me the bible and um, and you know very slyly, it was like oh, by the way, we have a Bible study if you'd like to attend, and it's the Search for Truth Bible study, it's the one we're doing at church right now for our Sunday school.
Scott Lovingier:And I just had a couple requirements. I said don't preach to me, I don't want you to preach to me, I only want to know what the word says. Don't preach to me, I don't want. I don't want you to preach to me, I just want, I only want to know what the word says. Don't preach to me. And number two don't ask me to go to church, because I'm not going to church, I think those are my two requirements.
Scott Lovingier:I'll go to your bible study, but nothing else.
j - Jesus M. Ruiz:And you said that straight up to her parents.
Scott Lovingier:Oh, yeah, I was very blunt,
j - Jesus M. Ruiz:was she? Were you witness to ?
Scott Lovingier:I don't remember. She wasn't definitely wrong, definitely Um cause that's. That'll be the second part of the story then.
j - Jesus M. Ruiz:Okay.
Scott Lovingier:Uh of how she felt about me. Um and so, uh, yeah, I, I agreed to go to the Bible study and, um, it was definitely week three of the Bible study, her dad was teaching. It was at their house, week three, the Bible study, her dad was teaching. He was at their house. Week three, her dad's out of town. And they said the pastor is coming to teach the Bible study. Well, he's a fiery Armenian pastor. He's not a teacher, he is a preacher. So he comes over and I had the notes ahead of time. Throughout the week I would read what got to go through the lesson, so I knew what the lesson was.
Scott Lovingier:And this guy gets up there and he just starts getting really excited about Abraham.
j - Jesus M. Ruiz:So he's preaching from the search of truth, but just he's preaching.
Scott Lovingier:He really got off the lesson because in my brain I'm like this is not.
Scott Lovingier:I know what the lesson is. This is not the lesson, but he's like you know, I mean he's Pentecostal Armenian and just getting very excited about Abraham, and I just remember that vividly of like you know raising his voice and you know probably leave like you know raising his voice and you know probably clapping his hands and you know just man he's uh and then, and I knew they were pentecostal so I knew they were speaking in tongues. So after a few- weeks, you understood what pentecostal meant I'd asked her.
Scott Lovingier:I'd asked her mom Carolyn. I asked Carolyn. I was like are you guys pentecostal? Do you guys speak in tongues?
j - Jesus M. Ruiz:oh, so you knew what that was, yeah. Well, vaguely, because you mentioned that we're just a different kind of Christian, so I don't know what that meant to you. I knew what the internet said about.
Scott Lovingier:Pentecostals and speaking in tongues. They had internet back then. Yeah, careful, you're older now. And then my dad, kind of a sidebar. My dad had gone to a Pentecostal church when he was a child. His mom brought him to one, and so somewhere in life he had mentioned to me that he went to a Pentecostal church. He heard him speak in tongues. God made him really scared, and so Freaked him out.
Scott Lovingier:Yeah, freaked him out, so I knew that was a thing. But I signed up for a Bible study yeah, a search for bible study and this guy starts just preaching. And then there's people in the back that start speaking in tongues and like I'm like fight or flight seriously, like I was like I'm out of here or just you know.
Scott Lovingier:Maybe just fight, grin and bear. Just you know. Maybe just fight through it, just grit and bear it, just get through this. You know Jim will be back next week and you can continue on. This is just a weird experience. How packed was the ?
Alycia Lovingier:was pretty full. It was probably like 20 plus people.
Scott Lovingier:That was a full, yeah
Alycia Lovingier:, yeah.
Scott Lovingier:Sometimes they weren't that big, but for some reason there was people who were normally not there, who were there, people were sitting on the stairs because we didn't have enough seats did your dad travel often, that that happened every frequently um.
Alycia Lovingier:He traveled for work fairly often not like, not as much as he does now but, he every once in a while.
Alycia Lovingier:Yeah, he just happened to be out of town that week
j - Jesus M. Ruiz:so it wasn't planned by you or carolyn.
j - Jesus M. Ruiz:No, we're gonna.
Alycia Lovingier:No, it was definitely it was like it was a home yeah, just a home bible study.
Scott Lovingier:It wasn't like a private one just for me, because yeah, it was for like people in the part of church can go so this was definitely a divine appointment yeah, and so I'm just, I'm sitting there as people speak in tongues behind me and I'm just, you know, again this is a very weird experience and I just put my head like in my hands and I just start crying and just crying, crying and like crying.
j - Jesus M. Ruiz:Are you an emotional type of guy? Yeah, you are. Yeah, okay, yeah.
Scott Lovingier:And I'm crying as hard as I've ever cried in my life. You know I'm a. I would have been 24.
Scott Lovingier:No, I'd have been 23.
Scott Lovingier:I'm in 23. You know I'm a. I would have been 24. No, I've been 23. I've been 23, just crying my eyes out for and I had no idea why I was crying I'm just crying and crying and crying. Then you're a pink also things. So people now are touching you, they're laying hands on you, they're praying for you.
Scott Lovingier:So just you know a whole nother thing too, but I'm still just crying, and crying and crying um, and I, and I and I remember this you know, reflecting later, I was like I remember I saw words coming out of me, like there was words that were like floating and things that were attached to me, and I could see it in this, in the spirit, which I didn't know at the time right, these things that were attached to me were coming about in my life and so I that would have been a deliver, I would I went through deliverance. Yeah, in not knowing I was going through deliverance.
Scott Lovingier:I don't even know people there knew I was going through a deliverance right it's not something, not a word we really used until more, a little more recently um yeah, they just had their pentecostal radar detector on. Oh, she's crying, let's go yeah, so okay, um, and it was in conjunction with that and a couple of just supernatural dreams and experiences really close together within like a week of that moment. Yeah, that moment of just god showed up that he was real and then I was just hooked so, and my logical brain was if there's a God, then I should be going to church to worship him and that was it
j - Jesus M. Ruiz:very simple logic
Scott Lovingier:it was like well there's a God, there's a creator
Scott Lovingier:What else?
Scott Lovingier:should I be doing this, is it?
Scott Lovingier:um, and I never stopped going to church. That was it, it was all okay that's how God grabbed your attention.
Scott Lovingier:That's how God grabbed my attention and then I'll transition into how that applies to Alycia, and then she can chime in with her thoughts on this. It might have been the same night or another within the same week, so God just showed to, showed up. He's real. You know my whole life, I like to say it was turned right side up. I'm seeing clearly there's a God. And I walked past her and I remember exactly the spot at her house. I walked past her and I just got the impression you're going to marry her Like that's your wife and you know so here I am like, ooh, God's real, I got a wife.
Scott Lovingier:Like this is going to be great. You know, like you know, everything in life is just changing for me and you know I was going through a you know, I don't want to say crisis in life, but I didn't know what my future was. I was working a job that was kind of a dead-end job and trying to find other careers that I wanted to go into. Later I got accepted to the police academy, which I ended up not going to. I went to teaching instead of police academy. So I was going through this transitional time in my life and so God shows up, shows me my wife and I'm thinking, man, this is going to be so great.
j - Jesus M. Ruiz:And then Did you tell her that, when he told you no. No, so you're one of those testimonies where the man heard oh, that's going to be my wife. And we've heard all those testimonies like oh my gosh, oh my gosh, look what happened. He didn't hear the Lord.
Scott Lovingier:So this is an interesting one. This is a positive one. Yeah, and the problem with God showing me that was at the very same time she hated me.
j - Jesus M. Ruiz:Why, like she wanted absolutely nothing to do with me, go ahead you thought he was cute, you tried to date him, yeah, and the world was in the way, and now God's got a hold of him and you hate him?
Alycia Lovingier:It it's. That's a strong word.
j - Jesus M. Ruiz:What's your word?
Alycia Lovingier:I. I mean, I think at the time God
Alycia Lovingier:turned my heart from him, that I mean, it's a nice way of putting it anyways you said, turned your heart from him. Yeah, okay, being like interested, okay, I mean, I was like what, 19 ish at the time um, yeah, maybe 20 um and I I okay, so this will sound bad. There's a couple of guys that I liked at the time I kind of was hanging out with, not like, like, hanging out like they're my boyfriends, but just you were interested.
Alycia Lovingier:In my group of friends there's a couple that were kind of like I was kind of talking to right, they were church guys they were very much in church.
j - Jesus M. Ruiz:They were like they were ahead of the game.
Scott Lovingier:They were like born and raised in church um they could sing.
Alycia Lovingier:Oh wow, yeah, talented gifted in the kingdom and you got this guy not in the kingdom uh, yeah, it's just I wasn't I just kind of lost interest and like I remember, like during this time where he was, when he was going through like this transition, like he was always at my house because my mom was like mentoring him and kind of pouring into him. Basically.
Alycia Lovingier:Like and that's what my mom does, like she, she, she likes doing that kind of stuff, which is a good thing, yeah. But like I would come downstairs and he was at the house and I'm like we're not even dating, why are you at my house? Like just those types of things. I'm like I'm just all 24-7. I feel like he was always there.
j - Jesus M. Ruiz:But he wasn't there for you. But he was not there for me, but you thought he was there for you.
Alycia Lovingier:Well, I didn't think he was necessarily there for me. I knew that he was there to, because he was going through like this mom.
j - Jesus M. Ruiz:Yeah.
Alycia Lovingier:Um, but I knew subconsciously like that there was still interest on his end and I just wasn't at that time in my life where I just I was like no, okay, um, so I was hanging out with my mom one night.
Alycia Lovingier:Um, we were just kind of talking and I kind of make the joke, like sometimes when younger girls are like oh God, like show me who I'm gonna marry, kind of type thing. You know, sometimes I mean I did that, I don't know why I did that, but, um, they didn't know that my mom, I didn't process, my mom was my mom. So, um, my mom and I were just hanging out and my mom really, like God uses her in lots of different ways and one of the ways is, just like you know, God like pours just information, gives her information and knowledge and stuff. So I kind of like made a joke.
j - Jesus M. Ruiz:... have a prophetic gifting.
Alycia Lovingier:Yeah, like gifts with the spirit type thing, and so, um, I kind of like made a joke. I was like, because we're talking about just me hanging out friends and stuff like that I was like what did God tell you who I was going to marry?
j - Jesus M. Ruiz:kind of like jokingly, like yeah, serious, and she got quiet and I'm like did god tell you who I'm gonna marry?
Alycia Lovingier:and she, she didn't say anything. I was like is it so? And so, and she was like well, no. And then she's like now, what is it so? And so she's like no. And then I mentioned Scott's name and she, quiet like grasshoppers. I was like well, good grief.
j - Jesus M. Ruiz:Why didn't you just say it?
Alycia Lovingier:if you're gonna do that, I was like really like, really that's that's and she's like that's. You know, that's what God God showed me and I was like, yeah, that's not gonna happen, because I just wasn't. That's not where I was in my life and then I kind of make the joke of you know God's not who. I was interested at the time so I don't. I'm not going to marry him, like that's not going to be the guy.
Alycia Lovingier:These are the guys.
Alycia Lovingier:This is the guys this is the guy I'm interested in. These are the guys. You need these guys, but not this guy, you know, type thing. So I just so, when that happened, and then he was always at my, and then we're all hanging out Like we had a group of friends and he was always there. So I'm like, oh my gosh, he's like everywhere.
j - Jesus M. Ruiz:Were you friends with the guy friend she was interested in? They went to different churches.
Scott Lovingier:They went to different churches.
Alycia Lovingier:They were in a different part of California. One was close, but the other one was more central California.
j - Jesus M. Ruiz:Okay,
Alycia Lovingier:so they weren't like super close, yeah.
Alycia Lovingier:but yeah, and I was definitely I'm God just like turned my heart. I think he had to turn my heart obey from him during this transitional time, in the sense of he needed God to make it need to be all about God not about me and that was, you know. It worked out for me at that time because I was kind of going for my own thing of like. I said you're not going to tell me who I'm going to marry, I'm not marrying this guy type attitude rebellious teenager yeah so you're 20 I teenager adjacent
Alycia Lovingier:um but yeah, that was kind of like that's kind of where my mind was when and he was just he was always at the house, yeah. So I was like tired of seeing him all the time. I was like why are you always here, type thing.
Alycia Lovingier:So that was kind of where my mind I mean she was
Scott Lovingier:, she was not nice to me.
Scott Lovingier:I mean like really not nice to me
j - Jesus M. Ruiz:. She wouldn't make you a PB and J sandwich or anything.
Scott Lovingier:She was not going to make me a sandwich, you know, and there was one time and this is this is kind of the testimony of how everything started coming together and one time during the summer she was just being extra, just mean, just for no reason, Like I did nothing wrong to her. So I was going to tell her off, Like as a Christian you are not acting like a Christian.
Scott Lovingier:Like you are not being a Christian right now. There's no reason for you to treat me like the way you're treating me, um, and and so I'm preparing what I'm going to say, and then I was quickened by the spirit, and the spirit said leave her alone One day. We'll just click. And I just left it alone.
Scott Lovingier:Those are the words. Those are the words. So I left it alone. So that was during the summer, and then early fall we kind of just started becoming friends again and really just friends. So we're just hanging out. I'm going to school for my master's program, so I'm not working. She's nannying, so her mornings were open, so we just kind of hang out in the morning and just as friends, um and and then. So that's throughout the fall, uh, rekindling the friendship, and then we kind of go on a date ish more. We just San Francisco, we went to a restaurant, just the two of us your parents went there.
Scott Lovingier:Yeah, yeah, I didn't count, it was like I didn't think it was a date either and we just went and we just hung out and, you know, went to this restaurant and, um, either the next day or a couple days later she was down in southern california visiting her family. And we're texting, and she sends me a text and she goes the other night something clicked and you know, God had told me leave her alone One day. It will just click Obviously. I never told her that.
Scott Lovingier:Yeah, and she texts me, something clicked, wow, using the same word, Using the same word. And then she told me and I don't remember exactly what she said after that because I'm on cloud nine, because the whole time, right, right, I'm thinking that's gonna be my wife, yeah, and you know, she's just so cold to me and you know, and um, you must have struggled oh, it was a struggle, I mean without.
j - Jesus M. Ruiz:Did you hear the lord? Because she's so mean what?
Scott Lovingier:oh yeah, I don't get this you know, and when you look back you're like, wow, that was really a small period of time that I went through, but in the moment it was very hard. I mean, there was. There were a lot of tears, there were a lot of struggle, there was a lot of.
j - Jesus M. Ruiz:Did you cry with her mom, unbeknownst to her, or let her know that you were struggling? Yeah, her mom knew. Did you tell her mom that you had had that word or no?
Scott Lovingier:I might have I told her a lot. I mean, she really did pour into me and mentored me and I like to call it she kind of birthed me into the kingdom and raised me.
j - Jesus M. Ruiz:Yeah.
Scott Lovingier:You know, and I probably did tell her.
j - Jesus M. Ruiz:Okay.
Scott Lovingier:That definitely would not have been something she would have told Alicia, because that would have just set her off even more.
j - Jesus M. Ruiz:You know, yeah, yeah, but she never. Yeah, she never said anything to me, but I guess, I guess it's. She's not here to speak, but I guess carolyn at some point heard the lord on her own. Be interesting if she heard it before you told her or after you told her. It kind of was a confirmation. Did either of you know?
Scott Lovingier:I don't know, I'm actually not sure the timeline, because one of the the early, in the first couple weeks of me, you know, discovering God and stuff um uh, Carolyn had told me I was having this weird. Uh, okay, this is what happened. I was having this weird sensation in my arms and it was almost like the only way I could describe it was like I felt like I had butterflies in my arms. Usually you have like in your stomach, in your chest. It felt like I had butterflies in my arms. It was the weirdest feeling and I just described this to Carolyn and she picked up on somehow it was some kind of something spiritual and she goes, just go home tonight and pray and pray that god will give you a dream of you receiving the Holy Ghost.
Scott Lovingier:I went home.
Scott Lovingier:I prayed um, and that night God gave me a dream of how I would receive the Holy Ghost, and it turned out later that's actually how I did receive the Holy Ghost. I just woke up in the middle of the night, raised my arms and God filled me with the Holy Ghost. So it was almost like the movie Inception.
Scott Lovingier:I had a dream and a dream, and when I'm having that dream, she wakes up and I don't know if you remember this she wakes up and calls her mom into her room and says I'm feeling this weird feeling in my arms, and so she's describing it to her mom and her mom's picking up Like that's exactly what Scott was experiencing too, and then I think you guys, probably more your mom, started praying for me. I have the dream. I wake up, I call Carolyn, in the middle of the the night it was like two o'clock in the morning, yeah, and she's like we've just been here praying for you.
Scott Lovingier:I mean, these are things that just really made god so real to me. You know that you can't, you can't just, you know, conjure that up. So just real supernatural things, really. God had to really be real to me because I had in my brain as a young man. Nobody could ever prove to me there's a God. How could you prove to me there's a supernatural creator? It's impossible, so he had to do some real things to grab my attention.
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