One Saturday morning, God woke me up at about 4:30 am. I heard Him say, in my spirit, “Go to IHOP.” He said, “There’s a lady that I want you to talk to and I want you to go right now.” I got up, put my clothes on, headed up to IHOP, and where I was seated there was an older lady, who was my waitress. When she came over to wait on me, I heard the Holy Spirit saying, “It’s her.” She took my drink order, laid a menu down, and when she left, I asked Him “What do you want me to say to her?” In that moment He (God) showed me a graphic vision of an old dog that was malnourished and looked like it had been beaten and chained to a tree. I started to dialogue with Him (God) about what the image meant and what He wanted me to say. He said, that “Loyalty was a very high value in her life. Loyalty was like the biggest value that she had in life and the relationships she was involved in had just about beaten all the loyalty out of her.” God said she’d been blaming Him for it and that I (Ray) needed to tell her, it was not God, that He still has plans for her life, and that she is amazing. 

When she came back, she said, “Can I tell you a story?” Then she proceeds to tell me a story, which made for a perfect segue. I said, “That’s awesome. Now can I tell you a story?” I said, “I like to pray with people, and this is going to sound a little crazy to you, but sometimes God will give me things to pray about. Would you like to hear what I think he’s saying about you?” She goes, “Sure.” 

“Well, I get a sense that loyalty is like a top value of yours. Like, you value loyalty above everything else.” She goes, “That’s true.” I said, “And you’re involved in relationships that have just about beat all the loyalty out of you.” And she started to cry. She said, “Yeah, it’s my husband, and my son. My son is a heroin addict and every time I open my heart up to him it just gets devalued and I get beaten down.” I said, “You’ve been blaming God for that.” She goes, “I have. We’ve been having some long conversations.” And she’s weeping pretty hard about now.

I said, “Well, He (God) wants me to tell you that’s not Him. He’s not responsible for that. He’s not causing that to happen. He’s not okay with it. He’s still got plans for your life, and He thinks you’re amazing.” By this time, she’s ugly crying and I mean, it’s snot and tears. She left and came back about three more times beyond just bringing my food, and she kept saying to me, “You have no idea how much this has impacted me today.” My bill came and it was like $8 dollars, then the Holy Spirit said, “I want you to give her a $10 tip and write on the bill that the reason that I love her so much is proven by the fact that I paid a high price for her.” I left that on her table. 

I think I got impacted more than she did. It is just amazing the specificity that God spoke to me; it was spot on and amazing. It wrecked her and it wrecked me too. To be used like that and for Him to be that dialed in on somebody’s heart, and the impact of just a stranger walking in that does not know her… that knows that kind of detail about her life. I mean that impacted her, but it impacted me as well to get used like that (by God).

 If He loves her like that, He loves me like that. He loves all of us like that! I thought about it… I bet she’s been crying out for years thinking her prayers aren’t getting any higher than the ceiling because nothing’s changing. Then some random stranger comes in, knows what she’s been doing, how it’s impacted her, and what she’s been thinking and praying. That’s crazy…and that’s God.