OTD's BSSM Weekly: Planted and Pruned
Week 6 of Semester Two at the Bethel School of Supernatural Ministry
Hello friend!
What? Let it not be heard that I missed sending in the updates for a week in my BSSM journey! Haha. The last two weeks have been incredibly full and also, good. Practising good time management is a priority for me now and I am looking forward to how I master my time this year.
For one, I have cut out excesses and I find it easier to say no to people. The fear of missing out and the fear of what people will say have been placed under the hammer of God’s love which pounds it daily. This is a season for depth and growth. There is a dire need to be planted in one ground and be intentional about growing roots that are sturdy. If you have been planted, it is important to focus on watering and monitoring for weeds and prey.
I’ll start my update for week six on that note as both of the classes I am reviewing had analogies using plants. They were taught by father and son, Bill Johnson and Eric Johnson. As always, they were both profound and challenged me to keep stretching and giving it all up for God. My update will be as short as I can make it because I want you to be able to hold on to one thing that you can immediately put to practice. Also, I’ll be sending out my updates for Week 7 later today once I’m done taking the classes.
Eric taught about our fundamental perspectives of God and how it influences how we live our lives in obedience to Him. What we say about God is not as important as what we do because of who we know that He is. I could recite that God is good every hour but still live in fear. That negates my claim about God.
Our perspective of God will determine how much we are willing to let go off to be with Him. If God is still in a neat box that you can control, you’ll find it difficult to trust and live a life completely given to Him.
Bill shared on the subject 'More than your gifting'. One of the most interesting things he mentioned revolved around a topic I'd just been discussing with a friend. We spend a lot of time trying to figure out what gifting or calling we are to walk in. People want to have a title or be able to hold on to a particular office or gift as theirs. While this may be good for organizational purposes, we run the risk of boxing ourselves from other expressions that God would like to show through us. God wants us to be open to being challenged, allowing Him to work His strength through us.
As I like to do, I’ll do a list of keynotes from both classes, because they are intertwined. However, I will also drill down on one point in particular.
People who only do what they think they are gifted at doing will miss out on the most exciting part of life. None of us is that good to know just what God has gifted us at. You only see the tip of the iceberg. You do not see the future or the big picture. If you only do what you think you are good at, you will never tap into the unknown feature with God and never know who you really are.
Having a title (Prophet, Teacher, Politician, Doctor, Writer, etc) is not as important as knowing your function. Identity goes deeper than the name and into the attributes and actions of the name. Self-image and branding are too often overrated.
The worst thing that can happen to you is to be placed in an easy position that you can handle. When you get placed in a position that has you way over your head, you will learn to be dependent on God and get stretched. You will pray more and grow exponentially.
Allow God to transplant you into His own environment. It may look too big, too small, too hard, but when you know that God is the one bringing the increase, you’ll enjoy your relationship and partnership with Him.
If you have the right perspective of God, you will understand what it means to give yourself completely to Him. You’d understand that Jesus is in the business of stripping down all your options to just Him and His desires for you.
Pure discipleship will cost you everything, for life. It will cost you your time, your resources, your emotions, your relationships. It will cost you everything. It will even cost you your idea and expectations of all the prophetic words you’ve received.
There are more layers to you than you realize. Give God the permission to do with you as He likes. You can trust that it will be much better than you imagine.
Planted and Pruned
I found the explanations of the early verses in John 15 quite profound. Why are we pruned? I took some minutes to check what the pruning of vines entails. I’ll post a video just below these three notes on why you need to get pruned and what the benefits are.
In summary, you are pruned in order to bear much fruit and also to allow others to have room to bear much fruit. When you are planted and engrafted into the true vine, He will ensure that you are fit for the job of producing only the best fruits for the new wine He is releasing.
A branch is pruned when it gets too long or too heavy. When it grows too long, it bears lots of fruit bunches that are small and not as great for eating. Basically, you don’t need to be everywhere and do everything because it will lead to small dents in many places as against a big impact in a few places that you can be fully committed to. This is because you overextend yourself and cannot give the best of who you are.
Also, when a branch is too long, it grows lots of leaves that makes it heavy and prone to drop. The leaves also cover other younger shoots and keep the sunlight from reaching them. When you overextend yourself, you end up shading other people, especially those just coming up and keep them from getting the sunlight needed to grow. God will take the shears to your unnecessary leaves and stems, keeping you healthy and giving others the room to grow.
Every week, I am stunned by how much there is to learn. I am also incredibly grateful for the opportunity to be able to hold on to one key lesson and put it into practice immediately. This week, I will continue to allow God to prune my activities to only what He desires, even if what He desires may seem too big for me. Haha.
I’d like you to take a moment to think about one thing you’ll start to do differently from now. Bless you!
Wait!! Before I go, a testimony on my fees!! I got $696 donated anonymously to the school last week! This was just hours after I was able to get dollars at N550 naira and pay the $1000 I had in Naira for a few weeks now. I remember looking at the payment tiles on my dashboard and wondering why I haven’t kept on asking for funds. I immediately spoke up and declared that all of the funds will come with ease and in abundance. It has begun and it will continue.
God bless the latest member of the anonymous family and God bless you too.
Info on donations:
Access Bank (Naira)
0060467531
Temitope Damilola Oyewusi
Narration (Tuition)
Access Bank (USD)
1505086878
Temitope Damilola Oyewusi
Bank Address: 87 Awolowo Road Ikoyi Lagos Lagos State
SWIFT CODE: ABNGNGLA
Routing Number/Sort Code: 044151711
Narration (Tuition)
For direct payment to the school, you can send an email to shawn.cowgill@bethel.com saying you’d like to make a donation to Temitope Oluwadamilola Oyewusi.
Thank you!
Love and love,
OTDamilola
For King and Kingdom