HE SPEAKS THROUGH NUMBERS and clocks

From 101 Ways God Speaks (And How to Hear Him)

“Therefore, be on the alert— for you do not know when the master of the house is coming, whether in the evening, at midnight, at cockcrowing, or in the morning— lest he come suddenly and find you asleep.  “And what I say to you I say to all, ‘Be on the alert!’”  (Mark 13:35-37 NASB)

The Lord often mentions timing when He speaks of seasons, years, months, days, hours, minutes and even seconds.  When the Lord quickens numbers, sometimes they represent a period of time.   Once I saw an abacus, my fingers dividing four equal rows of seven buttons each.  I understood that to be exactly four weeks to the very day.  The detail was precise and I marked it in my journal calendar. 

I have a pastor friend who had a most interesting experience with numbers.  It all started the year before when he prayed,  “Lord, please come and pour out Your Spirit upon us. Do anything You want, I just want to know that it is You and not some deception of the enemy.”   About the same time he noticed every time he looked at a digital clock the time would consistently be 11:11 (AM and PM).  This continued for several weeks.

Then one morning when he was rushing to get ready for an appointment, he looked at the clock - 11:11.  He said, “Lord?”  Immediately he had a sense it was a scripture, but determined not to look, lest he select the one that suited him.  At the end of the day, as he rolled into bed he glanced at the clock to see what time it was.  You guessed it — 11:11.  The next morning, again 11:11.  “Lord, which scripture?”  Finally He heard the Lord say,  “Luke!”  This was the verse:  “If a son asks for bread from any father among you, will he give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will he give him a serpent instead of a fish?” (Luke 11:11)  At last he understood.

The Lord was answering his prayer by saying He had given him a written guarantee that if he asked God for something he would not get a counterfeit.  That night as he went to bed he again glanced at the clock - 11:11 PM.  The next day he shared this with his leaders and after the meeting an elder’s wife walked into her bedroom and glanced at their clock.  It was 11:11.

That Saturday he prepared a message that would end with the 11:11 message and when he went to bed that night he looked at the clock — again it said 11:11.  Smiling, he went to sleep.  Sunday, he preached the message and glanced one time at the back wall of the church.  It was 11:13 which was significant to him because the Lord had said He wanted to pour out His Holy Spirit that morning.   Luke 11:13 says, “If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him!”  That night when he went to bed the clock said 11:13!   From this, he was absolutely convinced they had received the move of the Lord which was the outpouring of His Holy Spirit!

The story doesn’t end there.  After I had heard about the 11:11 message, we had a fun confirmation to the above story.   My son said, “Hey look!!!  Our clock says 11:11!!!”  I started laughing, and said, “I gotta write this down!”  My son, knowing nothing about 11:11 asked me,  “Why? Is that another parable?”  (I am always noticing allegorical parables, and he knows that.)   I said, “Yes.”  He wasn’t satisfied with that answer and was curious.  So I told him the long story about 11:11’s.  When I finished he couldn’t run fast enough to look up Luke 11:11. 

Shortly after that, he and I started noticing 7:11’s.  It became so frequent we were both wondering what it meant, just like Pastor.  We saw 7:11 in our bedrooms, on the TV, on the microwave, on his wrist, in the car, on the computer.  7:11’s were popping up everywhere.  My son was reading the Bible through for the first time, and the first day he read the New Testament his eye immediately jumped to 7:11.  He could hardly believe his eyes!  “If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask Him!”  (Matthew 7:11)

After that, the Lord started using 11:11 and 7:11 to confirm things He was sharing.  One in particular was that He was promising the body of Christ an entire season of 11:11’s!  YES LORD!  Then one night I had a dream that many people’s journals were sprinkled with 11:11 on lots of pages.  When I woke up from the dream I heard the Lord say, “11:11.”  Immediately following, I glanced at my clock — it said 11:11.

Then an amazing thing happened.  One night in the car My son started counting 10, 9, 8, etc.  I looked at the digital clock and it said 7:10.  I realized what he was doing, so I started at 19, 18, 17. etc. After doing my countdown very methodically and in perfect rhythm, when I got to 4, I slowed and said, “fooouuurrr, thhhhrrreee...” and then it turned to 7:11.  If I had not stalled out the 4 and 3 it would have been absolutely perfect on the dot!   From that day on, I understood that we were in a season of “countdown” towards 11:11-7:11.  And of course, the Lord confirmed that understanding with more you-know-whats.

Right before I added this 11:11 story to this section, I was going through my journal to find more stories or examples that I could add to the book.  When I searched, I was happy to find 26 more tidbits.  As I sat in my car at a stop light, I thanked the Lord for giving me so many and then I was reminded that part of my promise was that I was going to be a food gatherer for the body of Christ.  I realized that was what I was doing, collecting stories for hungry people.  I was feeling kind of silly, and somewhat jokingly I said, “OK Lord, I’m supposed to gather food, so let’s gather some!”  As soon as I said “some,” I glanced up through the windshield.  There looming directly above me was a 7-11 grocery market sign.  (He had the last Word on that one!)

Between digital clocks, car odometers, wrist watches, video camera timers,  VCR’s, computers, microwaves, score boards, exercise bike timers, signs and broken calculators — for all the trouble the Lord has gone through, all I can say is THIS SEASON IS REALLY GOING TO BE GOOD!

Other than the Lord quickening clocks and numbers to cross reference with scriptures, there is another way the Lord quickens numbers to me.  Often when I see a vision or hear Him, I will glance at the clock and note the time.  This is an instinctive thing prompted by the Holy Spirit though a glance of my eyes.  The clock time is quickened to me and so I record it with the vision or Word.  Later I look up the clock time in the Greek and Hebrew numbers from the Strong’s Concordance.  This is often a wonderful confirming addition to His Word. 

The following happens to be a literal example:  I saw a vision of 19:42 on the face of a digital clock.  The 42 seconds were flashing.  Then I heard the Lord say, “Cloud.  I AM with you. Follow Me.”   The Strongs number 1942 in the Hebrew meant ‘calamity’ and in the Greek, it meant a ‘covering or veil’.  I understood the Lord was telling me He would cover me or protect me from calamity by the cloud of His Presence.  Since I also saw the number 42 flashing, I looked it up separately.  In the Hebrew it meant ‘my father is delight’ and in the Greek it meant ‘holiness’.  The Lord was affirming that He is holy and my delight, and He had indeed spoken this Word of promised protection.