Ordered Lists using the “start=” option

I am creating a page of Ordered Items that are broken into various paragraphs. I am wanting to start the ordered list at 1 at the top of the page and then continue numerically throughout the document even if the list is broken by another paragraph.

I can use <ol start=”3″> in regular php but it doesn’t seem to work in my WP page. Is this feature not supported or is my theme blocking it or is there another way to do this?

Thanks!