{ 2013: Great Promise & Powerful Blessing! }

Number 13 Meaning, It's a Powerful Blessing From God by Stephen Gola (06/29/08}

The number “13” in not an evil number as the devil has gotten us to believe. But rather, it is a number of great promise and blessing. The number “13” is a number of great blessings given by God. Recapping the story of Abraham, we all know how God came to Abraham and said that he would make him the “father of many nations” as well as becoming the “father of our faith.” God promised Abraham that he was to have a child, and from that child’s linage would come kings and rulers of “many nations” as well as the Messiah---“the Seed to come.” (See Geneses 16-17.) Abraham and his wife Sarah were childless and in old age at the time God gave them the Promise. Through their many years of frustration of being childless, they tried to help things along by having a child through Sarah’s slave girl, Hagar. Through this act, their son Ishmael was born. Years later God came again to Abraham and made the same Promise of Blessing. God iterated that the promised son to be born would be from his own wife. Nine months later, Isaac was born. Here is the key: Understanding what went on in the relationship between Abraham and God gives us the insight into the number “13.” How and when God gave Abraham the Promise, Abraham’s and Sarah’s struggle, the time involved in receiving the manifestation of the Promise. These are all wrapped-up in the number “13”. Therefore keep the entire Scripture story in mind as we proceed. In Genesis 16:15-17 it reveals that when “Hagar bore Ishmael, Abraham was 86 years old.” Then “when Abraham was 99 years old the Lord appeared to him” and iterated the Promise again---that He will give Abraham a son by his wife. I will bless her, and she will produce nations; kings of peoples will come from her. (See Genesis 17:1-22.) * At 99 years old, God’s Promise came. * At -86 years old, Abraham tried to bring about Gods Promise. 13 years between the Promise given and the Promise manifested. Therefore, 99 minus 86 equals 13. This is “The Number 13 Promise”. The Number 13 Promise is a “two-fold” promise. It always involves man and it always involves God. It always has seasons, times and circumstances in which God and man participate. The number “13” does not mean “evil,” but rather it is a most powerful God-given promise that will change the world for ever. Some of the aspects of the promise are: 1. The promise is always initiated by God and destined to change the world forever. 2. Concerning man, to obtain the promise is beyond hope---impossible! 3. Concerning God, the chosen opportunity to manifest His plan of blessing and change. 4. The number 13 promise always has an underlying knowing that man can’t make it happen himself. 5. The number 13 always has the underlying fact that God determined it, said it, and it would happen regardless of the circumstances. 6. The number 13 is the difference of what man can do and what God can do. 7. The number 13 is the number of (new) life. 8. The number 13 promise always has time and space between when it was first given and when its given to manifest. 9. The number 13 promise always has a season in which man tries to bring to past himself what God has promised him. 10. The number 13 promise also has the season in which God brings to pass His promise regardless of what man has tried to produce on his own. 11. The number 13 promise has such a blessing on it that it will even bring to pass what man produces from him trying to bring to pass what God has promised in his own strength. This can also have dire consequences like the situation with Ishmael and the Middle East problem today. 12. The number 13 promise always brings excitement, hope and desperation for the promise to be fulfilled. 13. The number 13 promise is always presented in the presence of unfavorable circumstances, though in time, the circumstances will give way to the birth of the promise.