She Says God Guided Her $1 Million Lottery Win

Timothy Schultz:

traordinary. This was just in: 2025

Nicole:

Doing good. I feel blessed and I am blessed. Yeah, we won, he bought the ticket in January. Wow. And

Timothy Schultz:

Oh my gosh. Was this a scratch ticket or like a draw game or what exactly did you guys win?

Nicole:

Yeah, it was a scratch ticket. He went to the gas station that he always goes to and he's on and off periodically bought tickets. And he hadn't bought any in like a long, long time. And this particular day, he just seen them and honestly he said the colors of it drew his attention, you know, and so he was just drawn to it. And so he asked the gentleman that was cashing him out about them and he told him, well, that's a rip-off, you know what I mean? Don't get those. But he just was like something, you know, was just like telling him go ahead and grab it. So he told him give me three of 'em. He didn't know how much they were each either at that moment, right? He just said, give me three. So the guy tells him 1 fifty and they were so they were $50 tickets. And so at first he he says he thinks to tell him, No, keep those, but then like he just was like, Yeah, go ahead. And so he purchased them and came home to scratch them off. So he got home and scratched them. I'm on one side of the bed and he's on the other. And then he literally passed out. That's how I found out that we were winners, so It was crazy.

Timothy Schultz:

Wow. Well wait a minute. So he literally passed out and you're not just saying this as an expression?

Nicole:

It was no, I'm dead serious. It was hilarious. It's hilarious now, but it was very concerning then. Cause I honestly, I don't pay attention to lottery stuff. I I believe that God will give me according to his riches and glory within his timing. And I can say in my life, through my prayer and intercession, and then the way I believe in the Bible, right? I take it literally. So if the Bible says that if you pay your tithes and bring it to the storehouse, I'll pour out a blessing that you can't contain, then I expect that blessing later if I do this and you know, and that stood true my whole life. And through some prayer and stuff, I really knew that there was going to be not just this one, but an even larger financial blessing, depending on how I stewarded it and who I give my glory to. He was just scratching, and I'm on the other side because I honestly figured it would come another way. You know what I'm saying? I never imagined. And so he stands up like a board, really stiff, and then he fell on the floor. And my husband's diabetic, he's been diabetic since he was eight. And so I'm thinking he's either gone into some sort of key ketoacidosis or something, or possibly had a heart attack. So I threw my phone. We have a really high bed. So I threw my phone over and ran over, you know, to see what was going on. And it's about 30, 45 seconds, then he comes to and says, you know, we won, we won. He's trying to get words out. And I'm like, what are you talking about? He was like, we won a million dollars on that ticket. And he's still laying on the floor though, you know. So I just kind of stepped over him and went to the ticket, you know. Just like, okay, you don't matter right now. And so I picked it up. And he has this little app on his phone where I, you know, I seen him use it. So I looked at it and I seen it, but I was still in somewhat disbelief. So I scanned it as he's like sitting up coming off the floor, you know, and it was real. So I mean, you know, we went down the road from there as to what we needed to do, but It was shocking to say that least, so much so that he passed out and I almost was in disbelief and let him lay on the floor.

Timothy Schultz:

Oh my gosh. Well Yeah. Is is he okay now?

Nicole:

He is, but he actually did have a big bruise like around his forehead and his eye from where 'cause we have we just had wood floors put in our house prior to that. So he had, you know what I mean, a good little mark on his head because he just literally stood up like a board and fell to the floor. So, but he's obviously great now, you know.

Timothy Schultz:

Yeah. Well that is an incredible, incredible story. So when you actually looked and I want to get into your belief in God and some of these things you mentioned in a few minutes because that's so interesting, but when when you looked at the phone and saw this for yourself, I mean obviously you were worried about your husband, but when you saw this like for yourself, what were you thinking?

Nicole:

Honestly, I'm...First thing I'm saying is hallelujah, thank God, because that's who I gave the glory to for the financial blessing, right? And then it boosted my faith in that moment because I know what the promise that God made individually to me, just in the relationship and prayer and meditations. And so I was very shocked that not only did he do that, but he allowed it to happen in a way that I can a million scriptures just brought it all together. So for me, it was an awareness of, that I am who I think I am, and God is who he said he is. And now here we go. It's game time. Because when God promised me the financial blessing a while ago, I actually made a list of things that I would do with it. And my husband and I agreed upon that list about two years ago, and we put it in the Bible, and we just left it there. And so, you know, I'm thinking, like, okay, it's time to, you know what I mean, eat away at that list and do these things that we promised God that if He gave us things, then this is what we would do with it. So that was everything that's in my heart and mind. That's what I was focused on.

Timothy Schultz:

Can you elaborate just a little bit on the list? Is that something you wrote out and then you stuck it in and you believed it was going to happen?

Nicole:

A few of those things on there was one thing was I I am part of a evangelic outreach mission that started pretty much from grassroots scratch and it's called the Emerald House. And I, they needed so many things. So we had had an allocation of a donation to the Emerald House. There's a Christian school here in Canton called Heritage Christian, and they wanted me, I'm a minister, they wanted me to come in and possibly sit on their board. And I was talking with them and they took me on a tour, and I knew their heart's desire to do some upgrades in the gymnasium over there. And then God also an agreement that we made is that we would focus on some sort of business that spread love throughout the communities. And we knew it was going to be food associated, but we kind of didn't know what that looked like. So we just put evangelical outreach mission, as the Lord says. And we did all of those things, and plus, you know, obviously more. And then in our belief system and the way that we operate, there is a tithing option. So you know, ten percent of something can be a whole lot when you're looking at big numbers. You know what I mean? So that was the most difficult I think for my husband to fulfill was just like handing off tens of thousands of dollars, you know, into ministry efforts that he couldn't control. You know what I'm saying? So we fulfilled the promises that we put out. So yeah, we didn't quite have enough, obviously, to use heavenly wisdom and do everything at this point, but that'll come as time goes forward.

Timothy Schultz:

Wow. Well it's still an incredible, incredible amount. I'm so happy for you. So congratulations again. And so. And I want to ask more about this type of thing, but this list...Did you write this list? Was this in your head or you wrote this out what you would do and you put this in the Bible? Am I understanding that correctly?

Nicole:

We did. I was on a prayer and a fast for a long period of time. I could say so much, but we only have so much time. So I have been in meditations and in prayers that God has shown me myself in a highly stable financial situation, like even more so than now. However, it came with a warning every single time to never let pride come in, to never give any entity or anything but God the glory for any blessing that we had. And the Lord had been very specific with me on if we did not steward any financial blessings he gave me, what the consequences to that would be years before this happened. So all of those things were understood and it was almost a faith stand where I had mentioned it to friends and stuff over the course of time and they would just laugh until it actually happened, you know, because of those things, because of the relationship in the prayer and fasting. And so the list came in a time of prayer and fasting. And then there was a knowing and an understanding that one day this would happen and I have instructions to it. And then so I say, well Lord what would you like for us to do with it right? And over the course of a couple days there was a few things that, like I said we were able to list but I can't do this alone. So of course, I go over that with my husband, you know what I mean? And I think at that time he's thinking because I'm way more spiritual than he is when it comes to that sort of thing. And so I think he was more like I've been with her for 20 years. I know when she says this stuff it usually happens and something goes on. So if this is what she is saying that this is what the Lord wants, then yeah, this is what we'll do kind of thing. So that's how that came about.

Timothy Schultz:

Wow. Did you think that it would come about with the lottery or you just sort of put it out and believed that it would happen?

Nicole:

This was a 50-50 if I'm honest. Because on one hand, I'm trying to rationalize what the Lord has shown me and said to me. And I'm thinking the only way he can deposit that much that fast in our society would be whether with if a wealthy person donates to the true remnant ministries or if the lottery, right? Like, because that's, in our society and culture, that's usually where people suddenly wind up, you know, with large sums of money. I knew the scripture, but I thought, well, Lord will do it. He'll do it however he wants to. So, but when it happened, it solidified that part of me that said that this is probably how this is gonna happen. So I was 50-50 on it.

Timothy Schultz:

That is that is really interesting. And when it did happen, I wanna ask a a few more questions about your belief in God in a moment, but when it did happen, are you able to say the claim process or what it that is like to actually claim that?

Nicole:

Now, this is where it gets super interesting because people see that number, which is part of my Facebook thing. You let people know. People had talked about this since January, right? And in Ohio, you cannot be private. They will disclose your name or the media just files the form and they disclose it. So you can't be confidential in Ohio. So the word was spreading like wildfire. And we kept it to ourselves as much as we could, but I would comment to people that would say I was lucky. I'm like, I wasn't lucky. That, luck had nothing to do with this. And so I would make those comments, but never publicly. But just recently, like you know, on TikTok, I did that public post, you know, and part of that was to say, because a lot of people in our community, they just think we're millionaires, you know what I'm saying? Just running around millionaires, and that is not the case. So also to set the record straight, that was part of that. So in Ohio, the ticket that we bought, it was over 25 years. They would pay you out the million over 25 years. And if you did not want that, then you would get $500,000 of that money. So we had a decision to make there, right? So we consulted with financial advisor who told us that taxes go up every year, and every year you have to pay on that annuity type of thing. And so they recommended, many of them, that we just go ahead and take that, the half of it. So that's what we did. And then you actually file a paper. It takes about 30 days to receive your money, but then taxes come out of that, right? So in the state of Ohio, we wind up with close to maybe 400 of that when it was all said and done. So we of course paid off debt. God informed us that the mission he wanted was the food truck. So we purchased a food truck. We named it after two of my sons that had passed away. And we've been super successful at it. But our text line is spreading love through soulful bite. So that's what we do. We take the truck through the communities. We cook good soul food, but we also, you know, pray for people and, you know, to give our testimonies and have a prayer box, you know, we just do missionary work as we go through with our business. And it's my son, who's my surviving child and his wife now, and my husband and I, we do it together.

Timothy Schultz:

Wow. That's amazing. And so this is a food truck that you...?

Nicole:

That was the mission.

Timothy Schultz:

Wow.

Nicole:

The mission was the food truck. Remember, I told you that one thing that he said we would have to do the outreach on, but I didn't quite have the clarity of what that would be yet. I just documented it. It came to fruition. And how that played out was just, it was clear that this was the mission. So we just grabbed the ball and ran with it.

Timothy Schultz:

And it's soulful. What is it? The title?

Nicole:

Yeah, it's called MelzMoes because my first son that passed away, his name was Melvin, and the second child was Maurice. So we called it MelzMoes and spreading love through soulful bite.

Timothy Schultz:

Wow, that is so, that is so wonderful. That is really, really wonderful. And you also, you mentioned it, but you also made a TikTok video about your experience and for anyone that is on TikTok and wants to connect, are you able to say where people can find you?

Nicole:

Yeah, it's @WakeUpChosonElect. And it's you'll see a little true remnant, the true remnant, that's my ministry, my 501(c)(3), on TikTok. Yeah.

Timothy Schultz:

Okay. Amazing. You mentioned in that video, you said you can't out-do God, you can't out-give God. He will do more than we can imagine. So you've been speaking about this, but what are your real thoughts on how God is factors into any of this? Sudden wealth, whether it's the lottery or something else or just sudden...you know, our lives in general. What are your thoughts?

Nicole:

I think the human has a choice, right? So I'm one of those people, as I stated earlier, that believes in the spiritual atmosphere. And there's, I believe there's two kingdoms there. And I believe both kingdoms are very active. And it's up to our free will as to what kingdom that we refer to. And I in doing my due diligence and research, right, looked through your page. And I know a lot of people you know, talk about manifestation. For me, the difference between manifesting this and it being a blessing from God is that I consciously have a relationship where I'm obedient as best as I can. I fail all the time, but I'm as obedient as I can in building this relationship with the Lord and I have a personal relationship with him. So whenever I'm asking for blessings or anything financial, I specifically seek Yeshua through Yahweh through Yeshua. I specifically seek God, the creator of all things through Jesus, and that is who I'm talking to.

Timothy Schultz:

Would you say that your belief in God has changed since this lottery win? Or you or your understanding?

Nicole:

People would consider me a holy roller before, very spookies. I come from prison. I come from the streets. I come from trauma and tragedy. And the only thing that kept me was the Lord. And I see it now more clearly as I look back. However, my faith was strong, but now it's almost what I would say untouchable. It's like I don't even question anymore the big things that he can and will do for those that are called according to his purpose and know who they are within him. So if anything, it's just expanded it out to where I have now an expectation of greater things when before it was like a hope for those things.

Timothy Schultz:

And what advice would you give to anyone watching or listening to this today that maybe is feeling hopeless, like whether it's financially or for whatever reason, what advice would you give to someone that's that's feeling hopeless?

Nicole:

The first thing I would say is know thyself. Take accountability, look at your life and see what decisions you are making that is leading to the results that is coming. Are you, is it because you're not being a good financial steward of your money and now you found yourself in a horrible helpless situation? Or is it because you got sick and all your money had been drained and now you find yourself, right? So knowing ourselves first, like what led us to these moments of desperation, right? And start trying to figure that out along in conjunction with for me I would definitely say the Lord and there's a principle that says if you don't believe in God or you don't believe in Christianity or Jesus or any of those things a human can from their heart say help my unbelief and God says he's faithful and just to do that if we're watching and listening. So I would ask God to either help my unbelief or to help me understand how to remove myself out of this situation and then trust where he leads us to right? And I'm not saying God may not have led somebody. My husband was not intending on buying them lottery tickets. He's seen them. He was drawn to them. He asked the guy, the guy told him not to do it he overrid that guy's opinion found out they were 50 bucks each. Paid $150 for them and the whole time inside of himself, his brain is saying don't do that. But his spirit, man, was drawn to that. And I believe that's the work of the Holy Spirit to do that. I would ignore what everybody else has said and just listen to that small voice with inside yourself and believe and have enough faith in that to move into that direction and then see where that goes.

Timothy Schultz:

Oh, thank you. And what what does he think about that... About the whole thing? I mean, I'm sure he's elated with the win, I assume, but with following his intuition or listening to that inner voice and buying those tickets, does he believe what you believe?

Nicole:

Well, it was a little more shocking for him. Same thing, like I said, he's not nearly as spiritual and as deep as I get. And for him, he would be what people would consider like a baby believer, right? It's been a couple years. He's learning who God is and who he is within God. But through this, he understands that the Holy Spirit speaks to him and draws him and has good intentions for him, intentions for good and not evil. And if he would listen and be obedient, there are great things on the other end of it. So that's what he got out of it. It's just more of a wow, this is really for real. You know what I mean? This isn't something that is just fly by day. There are principles to this that are good for me.

Timothy Schultz:

And if someone watching or listening to this happens to have a similar experience and they win, say, a million jackpot tomorrow or a year from now, I mean, what, what would you tell them? Do you have any advice from your experience?

Nicole:

Yeah, I would definitely say number one, be a good steward of your money. Realize that in our society money flies like that and you could be wealthy today and very poor tomorrow if you don't steward it correctly. So be very careful with it. But the second thing is you will have to tune everybody else out because there'll be people that'll be happy for you. There'll be people that'll be jealous. There'll be people that'll be expecting things from you just because they have the same last name or, you know, things like that. And then if you're a Christian and you win that money, and you're gonna have a whole group of Christians coming for you because you're gambling or you're whatever. And so you have to just realize who you're accountable to, which is God only, where your blessings come from, which is him, and be a good steward of it, tuning out all of the negativity and doing what your heart says is right.

Timothy Schultz:

Yeah, that sounds like really good advice. And so you have had people that kind of wanted more or asked for money? Or came out of, I don't want to say came out of the woodwork, but...

Nicole:

Oh, we have, we just, it was one of my husband's family members and somebody came to the food truck the other day and said that she was at their house and they was just a friend of his. And that she began to talk about us and she said, I ain't going over there to get no food. He won all that money and didn't do nothing for his family, which we did things for people. Don't get me wrong. But this is like a third cousin. I mean, you understand what I'm saying? It was like, what do you mean? So we got a lot of that. We got a lot of people that thought they should have something just because...they...because we had it. You know what I mean? Not even knowing what our finances look like, paying off debt and you know, doing things like that. But that's just the way humanity is. I think it's human nature, you know what I mean? And the poorer you are, the more hopeful you are that somebody would just give it to you. And when you think they got it and they don't, then that sparks anger and people say stuff. So I just try to forgive it and move on.

Timothy Schultz:

Yeah, forgiveness seems really, really wise and years ago I won the lottery as well. And I experienced and have experienced quite a bit of that over the years and some other people too that I've met and interviewed. Not everybody, but some other people. So I definitely can relate to that. It seems like when people...

Nicole:

Yeah, they came for my ministry and everything. But you know, God is in control. So I'm just like, well, whatever. You know? If it was meant for you to have had it, then the Lord would have made sure that you had it. And I mean not just by somebody else, but I listened to him quite regularly. So if he'd have said, give such and such this, I definitely would have done that. So I don't know, I guess they...that's just how some people are. It hurts, hurtful, you know, when you love these people sometimes, but you just have to remember that it's not for everybody.

Timothy Schultz:

Yeah, and if you want to be financially responsible and also, you know, it sounds like you guys still I mean, you've done tons of stuff for other people and you've done a lot with, obviously with the church and its...

Nicole:

Yeah. Oh, we've stewarded it. It's so amazing. Like when I say you can't outgive God, it's because my love language I, I like to give to people. It doesn't matter, and I'll always have. Like I, I will give out of my lack, you know? Because it makes me feel better. You know what I'm saying? I tell people it's almost selfish, you know what I'm saying? Because I get something out of it. So You know, God has always honored that. I've never been with lack ever since I got with the Lord and I started honestly following the word. I did not live the life that I lived before. So it worked for me. You know what I'm saying? So that's why I say you can't outgive him, because as it's going out, it comes in. Like our food truck. Imagine a brand new food truck in a city that nobody knows nothing about, and you're banging a thousand to fifteen hundred dollars of food out of that food truck a day at a location in the city that is in the hood away from all the main streets, and people have to drive about 10 to 12 minutes, maybe maybe longer to even get to it. So those are things only God can draw people to, you know. So, you can't outgive him, you know. So I'll just keep giving and let him take care of me. As I take care of others, he'll take care of me. But you gotta be wise. Like you said, you can't just throw it all away. You have to use what I call heaven, because there's heavenly and earthly wisdom. So you, I try to use heavenly wisdom in in that.

Timothy Schultz:

Wow, well I mean it sounds like I mean you guys are truly, truly blessed and I'm just extremely, extremely happy for you. And this is yeah, and I love I love what you're doing. Is there anything that you wanna say today that I just don't know enough to ask or that you just want to say?

Nicole:

No, I just I want humanity to love one another. I honestly do. I don't care what you believe and what I believe, I don't. I don't care who you love and who I love. I don't. All I care about is you knowing that there is a big God who loves you so much that he will do anything for you if you just open your heart and start communicating with him a little bit, you know. I think we could all do better just to stop minding each other's business and focus on the relationship and the moments that we have with each other and making good exchanges. You know? Like for me it's that simple, but it's hard to do.

Timothy Schultz:

Oh, that's that's beautiful. I that is beautiful. So yeah, Nicole, thank you. Thank you very much for your time today and for coming on here and for sharing your story. It's very, very positive and inspiring and I'm so happy for you and congratulations again to you guys.

Nicole:

I appreciate you. Thank you.