LIKES FROM HEAVEN...
This post will amaze you. But even more important than that, it will show you something only GOD can do, and let you marvel at all the ways He can bless us when He chooses to.
A friend not long ago, wondered at my motivation to write like I do, when he noticed, that the posts I write seem to get very little in the way of ‘likes’ or comments. I understand. The funny thing is, as many as 175 people will read something I write on any given day, and not comment, nor leave a like. Go figure. (This has been going on for over 14 years. My original readership was largely ‘military posts’ (as shown by my ‘readership mapping’, and some ‘intelligence outfit capitals like Mountainview and Menlo Park California. These spooks never leave comments. Lol.)
What my friend didn’t know though, is that I get likes from heaven EVERY SINGLE DAY. If you read this post, you WILL see and you WILL be amazed at the unspeakable benefits of walking closely with the Lord., and doing as He bids, no matter what men may say. (or not say).
For one thing, without going into too much ‘fiscal detail’, from the day I started to work for God full time - studying His Word for hours a day, and writing articles for the benefit of others, God has met all my needs - often in miraculous ways.
FINANCIALLY - working for myself..
When we lived in Virginia, we had a thriving business in design. My company, Buon Fresco’s, work1 appeared in over 40 magazines, on HGTV twice, and was featured in a Dreamworks film (‘Head of State’ with Chris Rock). We routinely won important projects and healthy contracts - in addition to our income from my art academy. Still, we struggled to stay on top of our obligations, escaping foreclosure once in 2012, and in 2016, by a certified miracle each time, and the proverbial skin of our teeth. And we lived FRUGALLY! Sometimes with very little food between us. (The DC area is very expensive,.. and our mortgage was very high - nevertheless)..
Fast forward to NY - working for God..
So we sold our house, and moved back to New York. But our design business stopped COLD up here. No one has even heard of Venetian Plaster in this town. The architects and designers we reached out to here, have not called us in these 6 years.
But, here in NY, though I’d been writing for many years, I started working full time for God. I am finally writing for the public what He has been sharing with me for decades.
You see, I had been researching the Bible and ‘End Times’ for over 45 years, keeping voluminous journals; And though I started a blog in Virginia, it was a part time thing. But here in NY, what satan meant for harm, God used for good! All this down time, with no work, turned into working for HIM full time - writing for public consumption - what I was being taught.
NOW - Somehow we have MORE FOOD than we ever had on hand in VA with all our fancy work and achievements. Here our bills are paid on time, and we have a house with far more equity than we managed to accumulate in 22 years in Virginia.
WORKING FOR GOD HAS BEEN WONDERFUL! Not to mention the RETIREMENT BENEFITS are OUT OF THIS WORLD!
Last year, for example, when we needed to come up with $12,000 for a real estate tax bill in NY late last year, a work contract to renovate a church - that we’d proposed TWO years AGO - suddenly came through! We paid the tax bill right on time.
This sort of thing, finances coming in RIGHT when they’re needed, happens all the time. We even TITHE more than we ever did before.!
We have no savings really.. but the minute we need something it’s there. I don’t mind. It keeps me in close touch with heaven. We live sort of like George Mueller did.
SAFETY
But it’s even bigger than pecuniary perks.. my little family is always safe, we always come home from our journeys - we never have accidents - we never get sick - really! If there’s a storm here, the Lord sees to it that all the branches that fall off of our 300 year old towering 80' Tulip Poplar tree.. fall next to our cars but never ON them.. This sort of thing happens all the time. The perks of His care are incredible and never fail.
44 -The point of this post..
In addition to the financial blessings, safety and security, I get daily ‘likes’ from heaven in the form of daily- ‘44s’ that show up in banal, and also remarkable ways.
(Forty Four is a number that the Lord began to multiply to me in 2018 when I ran a Bible class for 2 local disabled men over the course of 3 months. One participant was my older, blind brother - another a young man with a bad case of MS, that he’d contracted from a flu shot). I’ve found research that says ‘44’ is an appearance - so to speak - of God; in that He appeared to man in Scripture on 44 occasions. Whatever it may be, the number routinely appears when I would imaging He’s smiling.
Over the months it took to complete that Bible class with the 2 men, I finally grasped how a ‘44’ was being multiplied to me in myriad ways.. always associated with the class and the men.
From that particular point, a picture of how the number 44 had been figuring in my life for many years, started to unfold.
Our house in Virginia was at 6442 Overlook Drive
Our new house in NY is one of 44 Historic houses in this village
This Village (Fayetteville) was founded in 1844.
Mortgage for our house here - $344.69
Mortgage payment total, whenever we buy the $1.75 money order - $346.44
Sometimes I will park my car, and return to find it surounded by vehicles with 44 on their plates. The same happens traveling. I could fill a phone book with snapshots. Just the other day near my house, all 3 cars next to me had a plate with a number 44 on it.
One time in Wegmans, I brought groceries to the check out.. The total came to $44.00.
I reached into my pocket.. I had exactly $44 on me.
NIKOLAI
This afternoon I brought my son to the airport - again. Whenever he travels overseas, we double up on prayer here. Like we did just this April when he traveled to Russia to visit his aunt.. and EVERY TIME WE TRAVEL - GOD MULTIPLIES THE 44S!!
VIZ; In April 2023, I drove Nick 5 hours to JFK International Airport for a 6pm flight to Turkey. We were supposed to get to the airport by 3pm, but traffic on the Whitestone Bridge and the Van Wyck Expressway was heavier than expected.
Nick was concerned, and watching the time, because he was concerned about his suitcase being overweight. He had a 50lb limit. If it exceeded that, he’d have to return to my car and give me some stuff to take home before he could board.
Finally we got to JFK and pulled over at Lufthansa airlines arrivals. It was 3:44pm.
Nick ran inside. I drove away - but circled for a few minutes till his call would come. His suitcase was not overweight - It weighed 44 lbs.
RUSSIA
Today he was making another trip overseas. We arrived at the Syracuse airport around 2:30. Just as I pulled over to the curb, a white SUV drove past us that had been behind us.. That’s when we saw it’s plate - 4488. A set of 3- ‘44s’. Haha. (I barely got my phone open to catch the image as the car passed. Here it is, if a bit fuzzy..)
TEXAS
Last November, 2022, Nick and I went to Texas together to visit the Living Savior Ministry’s healing school. Each of us had a special prayer request we were going to meet the Lord for in that place. The Christ began marking our journey from the start with smiles from heaven. The cost of 2 roundtrip airline tickets plus the rental car in Texas? $1,444.91.
Nick’s United Airlines boarding pass gave his seat as - #44.
At the airport, we walked a long distance to our gate; on the way to which, I happened to look out the window at one point; the cab zone outside said … drumroll…
A little further and we passed a man sitting on a bench waiting for something..
While we waited in Chicago, the screen announced a change in our arrival time. Our flight was delayed. The original travel time had us arriving at Dallas Ft Worth at 10:15 am. The new arrival time posted on the overhead screen? 10:44am.
We stayed in a hotel near the church. The healing service on that Saturday that we were there to attend, was to begin at 1pm. So, we went out to breakfast near our hotel. (The small hotel only had coffee and danish). Our breakfast check came to $24.44; We finished eating, and got into the car. When we started the engine, the dashboard clock said 11:44am.
The time to get to the church according to the GPS? 44 minutes.
NEW CAR
Later last year, we finally made up our mind to get a 2nd vehicle. All we had left between 3 of us, was a 2007 Honda, and my 1972 Chevy Suburban, (which was no good in snow, and guzzled gas). So, Nick looked on Carfax for vehicles for sale in Virginia. We preferred a southern car, and looked forward to the excuse to visit friends down south.
I went to Enterprise on the Friday, December 30th, to pick up the economy rental car we reserved for the trip.
At the Enterprise counter of the Syracuse Airport, the young lady looked up my reservation. A moment later the manager walked by, and whispered something in her ear. She looked at me with a smile and asked ‘Would I like a free upgrade’!? I said ‘Sure’. What was it? She showed me the picture of a brand new Toyota PICKUP TRUCK! (Nick and I LOVE pickup trucks!)
I gingerly asked her, ‘What kind of gas mileage does it get’?
(Not wanting to look a gift truck in the mouth, but thinking about gas economy nonetheless). She said ‘It gets the same as the economy car!”
I took the keys to the truck and went to the garage grinning all the way.
The truck was brand spanking new. The mileage popped up on the dash when I turned the beauty on. It read - 1,544 miles. (Plus it had a ‘4x4’ on the side. :>} )
When I went home to pick up Nikolai, his eyes about bugged out at the sight of the truck! It was not what either of us expected! (He drove most of the way to Virginia).
We found a wonderful car in Fredricksburg, VA, and put a deposit on it. We’d have to make another trip though to pick it up. It wasn’t possible to do a bank loan while we were there, because by the time we found the beautiful 2003 Toyota Highlander, it was late afternoon on December 31st, 2022, .. The banks were closed, and the dealership couldn’t give us a loan for an out of state car.
When we got back to NY, I couldn’t get a loan there either! Both banks we use here, wouldn’t give a loan for a car over 20 years old! The Toyota was a 2003, and we were now in 2023’. Was I going to lose my $500 deposit? I was troubled about that and was thinking about it later that evening, when I saw this car in front of me ..
The next day Nick had the idea to try Pentagon Federal Credit Union, who he had a credit card account with. HE GOT THE LOAN! We rented another car to return to Virginia and pick up our new Toyota. (Well, not exactly ‘new’, but the 2003 vehicle is in mint condition!) We arrived the 2nd week of January 2023, with the new rental.
We picked up the car in Fredricksburg around 4pm, and signed all the paperwork. Nick got to drive the ‘new’ Toyota, When I climbed back into the rental it was 5:44 - and 44 degrees out.
We followed each other to drop the rental off at Reagan National Airport in Arlington, Virginia.
After I dropped the rental, I got into our ‘new’ Toyota Highlander; It was 6:44 pm.
Somewhere along the long drive back to NY, we pulled over for gas. When we found a gas station and pulled into it, our trip set said we’d traveled 144.4 miles from the dealership.
FAST FORWARD TO TODAY - AUGUST 5TH, 2023
Before taking Nick to the airport today, I went out to gas up the car, and noticed we were late for our oil change. When I snapped a photo of the dashboard warning, that we’d driven 44 miles past the recommended oil change point.. I saw my phone charge was at 44%.
Nick flew out this afternoon around 2:30 pm. Later in the evening I got his text.. ‘I’m in Chicago’. I heard the ‘beep’, and picked up my phone. It was 6:44pm.
I was busy writing a Substack post today at the time that he texted. A little while later, I took a break to go hike with the dogs, and get some fresh air before the sun went down. When I got to the trails, and got out of my car - it was 7:44 pm.
It has been a typical day, I kid you not. I’ve hundreds of pictures of the chance glances at clocks when the time is 1:44, 4:44, 9:44 etc, not to mention 44s on cars in front of me, a 44 where I happen to pause a video, and on and on and on. It’s pretty relentless. Even my SCREEN SHOTS frequently display the glorious number..
The reason I like them, is from the day I ran the Bible class, I realized the appearance of the number 44 has been as a ‘smile’ from heaven. A ‘like’ if you will.
I have seen them in profound ways and many times, following a praise and prayer session in the park - YESTERDAY in fact, I was out praying, and on the 1/2 mile drive home from the trail I was treated to the number 44 NINE TIMES! One car was even a 4488!
But, friend, I REALLY told you about the 44s to tell you about the 11s…
That’s the number that is of concern and interest for all. The sightings have been even more remarkable than the 44s if such a thing were possible - and they have everything to do with encouraging us to recognize that this ‘HOUR OF DARKNESS’ is coming to its denouement - and its conclusion in our lifetime.
God bless you, Victoria
www.BFresco.com