Gordon Goh
In the year 2015, at 61 years of age, after working for 30 years in a company, I was retrenched. I was fit and still good till seventy to eighty years, the Lord willing, but suddenly I was without a job. I began to have an identity crisis. Whenever I was asked what I was doing, I did not know how to respond.
Thankful to God for having already built a strong foundation in my walk with Him, I began to posture my heart to trust Him and discover Him in wonderful ways all over again. To motivate myself to use my time fruitfully, I began seeking God wholeheartedly. God led me to different kingdom people and projects to help me to draw deep into His Word and grow in intimacy with Him.
One of the kingdom people God sent me was Pastor Henson Lim, the founder of Archippus Awakening, an eleventh-hour message to awaken saints that they may know and fulfil their God-given kingdom assignment (Colossians 4:17). After reading his book “Say to Archippus”, I discovered that like Archippus, I am a fellow soldier (Philemon 2) in the army of God who is awakened, aligned and assigned for His kingdom purposes.
I decided to enrol in MAP (Mentoring Aligning Process), a six-month initiative of Archippus Awakening, to learn about the Alignment Check framework. There were misalignments in my life that I was not aware, creating issues in completing projects as well as in relationships. Understanding how to check alignment helped me realign with God and His kingdom purposes. One aspect of the A-R-E-A framework that I learnt is Empowerment, resting in Christ.
After MAP, I encountered a situation to apply what I had learnt.
During the circuit breaker, my Bible School friend and I decided to organise a webinar “Transformation of the Heart” to bless many. We prayed for the right timing and our target audience was 50 people. I relied on my own understanding in publicity effort and naturally gathered our mailing list and broadcast to an audience of 500, hoping for a response rate of 10%. It was a major misalignment to rely on my own strength and wisdom. When the response failed to measure up, I was getting anxious. I sought the Lord for direction.
In a gentle way, the Spirit whispered in my heart to “invite” people personally. He impressed upon me the names, faces and groups to invite. By obeying the prompting of the Holy Spirit, I witnessed 50 people signing up for the webinar within two weeks. The” invite” way was better than the “broadcast” way because it was the Spirit’s way. When I found strength and wisdom in the power of God and His grace, I learnt to work from a posture of rest. God then did His part to bring the webinar participants. That was one assignment I learned to obey the Spirit’s prompting which yielded outstanding results.
Being task orientated may not achieve the results we want. We must wait upon the Lord for His instructions and assignments, and not be caught up with activities. Kingdom assignments cannot be achieved through our own might or understanding, but by the empowerment of the Spirit of the King.
My journey as an Archippus is one of a posture of thanksgiving as I keep finding purpose and aim in my assignments. I no longer have an identity crisis. I am Archippus, awakened, aligned and assigned.
Dear Archippus…
What does it mean to work from a posture of rest?
Ps Henson writes in Alignment Check, “To rest is to trust God. Too often, we commit the mistake of thinking that without us, the ministry will stall and God’s work will not be done. In reality, we trust our own abilities and efficiency more than God.”
When our faith is securely rooted in the Lord’s sovereignty, power and provision, we will be able to rest from our effort and also restedness in our work.
About Gordon
Gordon is a proud father of two daughters and proud grandfather of three grandsons. Like Caleb in the Bible (see Numbers 14:24), Gordon desires to follow God wholeheartedly.