Page 131 - Evidence of Things Unseen

Eights and Sevens

od delights to speak to me through numbers, and He gave us some significant ones at
Gthis time. After receiving the money from the brother in Canada, I paid our telephone
bill, electric bill and all other bills up to date, as well as buying some groceries. When I
balanced our checkbook to see how much money we had left to use for moving, the balance
came to the unusual number of $888.77. It struck me immediately that the Father had
chosen to speak to me through this number, so I went to an online site where E.W.
Bullinger’s book on the Biblical significance of numbers is located, and I was surprised to
find an entry called Eight and Seven Together. Of these two numbers together he writes:

Seven means, as we have seen, according to its etymology, that which is spiritually
complete or satisfying; while eight denotes that which is superabundant or satiating.
Hence we often find these two numbers associated with these distinctions.

I did not understand why these two numbers should be important to us at the time,
but the Lord continued to set these two numbers before us, linked together with one
another in ways that we could not ignore. On the first day that we drove out to this new
home that the Sargeants had secured for us, we turned onto the road that borders one side
of the property, which must be traversed to get to the house. When I passed the street sign,
I had to stop and ask my family, “Did you see that?” I drove back to the sign and on it was
written CR 87 for County Road 87. A further confirmation of God speaking to us through
these numbers at this time was that we officially moved into our new home, and spent our
first night there on July 8th, which is the seventh month and eighth day. Only in hindsight
have I been able to understand what these numbers signified.
My rejection by the ministers of this body, who declared my teaching to be heresy and
who told me that I would not even be allowed to partake of communion with them,
occurred the very day after I had heard from my landlord that his son was moving back and
they needed us to move out in two weeks. The temptation was present to shake the dust off
of my feet and move away from this area and never fellowship with this people again. It was
not in my heart to do these things, however, so I quickly rejected these thoughts that the
enemy brought to my mind. I truly loved this group of people, and I was not willing to give
up my hope that God would yet lead them forward into their inheritance in Christ. I hoped
that they might yet not shrink back from a walk of faith and life in the Spirit.
The morning after my meeting with the ministers, I told my family about all that had
transpired. I told them, despite the fact that I would be considered a heretic, and regardless
of my being limited from any teaching role among them, I still desired to stay and intercede
for this people. I asked my family if they were willing and desirous of staying under these
circumstances and they all said they were. As a family, we committed to continue to attend
services and to love the people and pray for them, though I knew the news would quickly
get around that I had met with the elders, and the outcome of the meeting would be noised
about.
My family and I bowed before the Father and told Him that we were willing to remain
and intercede for this body of believers, and we asked Him, that if this were agreeable to
Him, that He would let us know by opening up a suitable place for us to move into that was
in this same area. It was a remarkable thing that the first house had been available to us and