Love Not Sleep

^“Give no sleep to your eyes, nor slumber to your eyelids. Deliver yourself as a roe from the hand of the hunter, and as a bird from the hand of the fowler. How long will you sleep, O sluggard? When will you arise out of your sleep? Yet a little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to sleep: so shall your poverty come as one that travels, and your want as an armed man.” - Proverbs 6:4-11

It's been an interesting weekend of transitioning into the New Year 2012, and presented a great many things to consider, but finally today, all I did was sleep. I awoke, ate breakfast, and watched a little bit of the Annual Tournament of Roses Parade, then went back to bed. There were certain things I had hoped to be able to accomplish, so I kept popping back up and down for an hour or so, but then finally surrendered to sleep, which I physically needed. A couple of weeks ago, I had fallen off my front porch from the second step onto my hands and knees, injuring almost every part of my body. I especially fractured my left foot, which I didn't know for the first week, until my pcp Dr. Woods called me back, said he misread the xrays and referred me to a specialist, Dr. Campbell. But sleeping today was primarily about just stopping the pain meds and getting them out of my system, so I could stop walking around in a fog. But I did need them, and had to take them repeatedly whenever they were due, because the pain was that bad. It seems I really needed  the sleep as well, because when I finally fully awoke again it was 7pm.

Proverbially Speaking: Proverbs 1

Proverbs 1 - JTMV

1 The proverbs of Solomon the son of David, king of Israel;

2 To know wisdom and instruction; to perceive the words of understanding;

3 To receive the instruction of wisdom, justice, and judgment, and equity;

4 To give subtlety to the simple, to the young man knowledge and discretion.

5 A wise man will hear, and will increase learning; and a man of understanding shall attain unto wise counsels:

6 To understand a proverb, and the interpretation; the words of the wise, and their dark sayings.

7 The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge: but fools despise wisdom and instruction.

8 My son, hear the instruction of your father, and forsake not the law of your mother:

9 For they shall be an ornament of grace unto your head, and chains about your neck.

10 My son, if sinners entice you, consent you not.

11 If they say, Come with us, let us lay wait for blood, let us lurk privily for the innocent without cause:

12 Let us swallow them up alive as the grave; and whole, as those that go down into the pit:

13 We shall find all precious substance, we shall fill our houses with spoil:

14 Cast in your lot among us; let us all have one purse:

15 My son, walk not you in the way with them; refrain your foot from their path:

16 For their feet run to evil, and make haste to shed blood.

17 Surely in vain the net is spread in the sight of any bird.

18 And they lay wait for their own blood; they lurk privily for their own lives.

19 So are the ways of every one that is greedy of gain; which takes away the life of the owners thereof.

20 Wisdom cries without; she utters her voice in the streets:

21 She cries in the chief place of concourse, in the openings of the gates: in the city she utters her words, saying,

22 How long, you simple ones, will you love simplicity? and the scorners delight in their scorning, and fools hate knowledge?

23 Turn you at my reproof: behold, I will pour out my spirit unto you, I will make known my words unto you.

24 Because I have called, and you refused; I have stretched out my hand, and no man regarded;

25 But you have set at nought all my counsel, and would none of my reproof:

26 I also will laugh at your calamity; I will mock when your fear comes;

27 When your fear comes as desolation, and your destruction comes as a whirlwind; when distress and anguish comes upon you.

28 Then shall they call upon me, but I will not answer; they shall seek me early, but they shall not find me:

29 For that they hated knowledge, and did not choose the fear of the LORD:

30 They would none of my counsel: they despised all my reproof.

31 Therefore shall they eat of the fruit of their own way, and be filled with their own devices.

32 For the turning away of the simple shall slay them, and the prosperity of fools shall destroy them.

33 But whoso hearkens unto me shall dwell safely, and shall be quiet from fear of evil.

Happy New Year 2012 - Part Deux

Last year I was short circuited from the least things that I wanted to accomplish, so this year I want to double up daily.

I was pleasantly surprised in church this morning to find that the pastor was preaching from the same text as the Lord had put upon my own heart.

Happy New Year 2012

Happy New Year 2012… What does that mean to you? There is always some expectation of change with the coming of each New Year. That’s the reason we make resolutions about things in our lives we hope to change with a little more focus and effort. Only, we always need to remember the words of Jesus, declaring, “Without me you can do nothing”. James further tells us, “You have not because you ask not”. So the most realistic place to begin the New Year is on your knees in prayer, seriously asking and believing for what you need from the source of all things, which includes situations, experiences, and relationships.


Greetings Beloved, In the Precious Name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

I’m Rev. John McFarland, and I’m excited to welcome you to the second year of our blog, and invite you to a further experience of Wonderful Counselor’s prophetic outreach and apostolic empowerment through symposium ministry events offered to establish and settle your faith in God’s purposes in our lives individually as well as collectively as “members in particular of one another” in the Body of Christ. We are seeking God’s matchless grace to be able to effectually meet your needs during New Year 2012, whose biblical numeric value of "twelve" is symbolic of the perfections of "divine government”. We believe this year will be the one in which we see the Kingdom of Heaven by the intervening hand of God setting in order those things we have not previously been able to establish and accomplish for ourselves in the past. 

Now 2011 is finally over, what do you remember about the biblical symbolism of the number 11, and how did your personal experience during the past year correspond to that expectation, whether as a victim of circumstances or as an over-comer because you knew what to expect and how to be prepared to side step the pitfalls. What about the number “eleven”? If ten is the number that references the continuity of divine order, then eleven adds something to it. Only, what it adds, actually subverts and takes away from that alignment, by creating an imbalance; giving you something, but not quite everything you need. It is an odd number, rather than even, and there is always something left over, or left out, to distract us. So then, if twelve is the number of divine government, then eleven falls short of it. Whether we regard it as being 10+1=11 or 12-1=11, we are faced with a number which is marked by ongoing disorder, disorganization, disintegration, and imperfection. 

So what about the number "twelve"... Work In Progress

Ending And Beginning Right Here And Now

Where, When, And How To Begin Again?

Preparing For The Journey