Imm Sim
Interviewed by Lay Leng
In your Christian walk, have you ever felt a ‘holy discontent’ that there must be something more? Have you, like Imm, also asked God if you had missed out something but did not quite know what?
Over the years of her Christian walk, it had seemed enough to Imm to obey God and serve Him through the endowed giftings. But something was nagging in her heart. She began a period of intense self-examination. Yet, the nagging in her heart refused to go away. She checked in with God if He had wanted her to do something and she might have missed it and not doing it. This was both frightening and frustrating, Imm said, to know that something was wrong but not know how to correct it because you did not know what was wrong.
Little did Imm expect that God was setting her up to be awakened! Before the awakening moments, He was depositing into Imm’s heart phrases like “discern the times”, “intercession” and “kingdom agenda”.
The turning point happened in May 2018 at her church camp, where Ps Henson was the invited speaker. He presented the Archippus Awakening message in light of knowing and fulfilling our God-given kingdom assignments.
Through Archippus Awakening, an eleventh-hour message, Ps Henson exhorted his listeners to wake up, know the urgency of the times and find out what God has asked us to do, and go do it. Imm could not believe what she was hearing! All her heart’s frustrations were answered. She began to understand why she had felt the sense of urgency but had not known what to do about it. The confusion cleared as she knew what she had to do.
“It all came together,” she said.
There is something unexpected about her kingdom assignment, though. For the most part of her Christian life, prayer had been a drudgery for Imm. At best, it was a duty. She confided, “I never saw myself as an intercessor. I often could not persist nor linger in prayer and felt that my prayers reached the ceiling and bounced back to me.”
Yet the stirring in her heart to respond in obedience to God only got stronger. She knew that it was God who had invited her. At the church camp, when Ps Henson issued the invitation to obey God and receive His given kingdom assignment, she responded in obedience.
Out of that step of obedience, one of the immediate things that happened was the nagging in her heart lifted. A deep sense of purpose in God’s kingdom replaced the feeling that she was useless. An alignment to His will took place and joy crept in. Perspectives shifted. Like a gear that shifts another when one aspect of her life is aligned to God, Imm found that when she aligned one aspect of her life, another aspect got aligned as well.
These days, whether it is listening to a message, reading a book or being engaged in a conversation, she thinks kingdom: how does this line up with God’s timetable and His kingdom purposes? It is no longer what she could get out of situations but how she could be praying and what they have to do with her kingdom assignment. And she experiences almost daily now how God miraculously provides the instructions, training and resources needed.
While these are celebrations to thank God for after being awakened, aligned and assigned, Imm was forthcoming in sharing her struggles too.
“It can be very lonely to be an Archippus,” she shared openly, “and when it gets lonely, it can get discouraging. Sometimes you invite people to pray or you try and influence them to pray, and it can take a little more work to convince them and get things moving.”
So how does Imm draw strength to press on? She said two things kept her going. Ps Henson had told her that Archippuses do not quit easily. In fact, they dare not quit easily because we recognize that our assignments come from the King. “You don’t ‘suka-suka’ (at your own whim and fancy) tell your King you don’t want to do it anymore,” Imm said candidly.
Those words impacted her so much she hides them in her heart and reminds herself often to press on because when Jesus comes back, we will see the purposes behind all the struggles and it will be worth the sacrifices. Imm also thanks God for the community of intercessors whom she prays with. They keep her accountable and sharpen her.
“They encourage me and allow me to do what the King has asked me to do.”
Dear Archippus…
We will battle against being misunderstood and the feelings of aloneness as we strive to remain faithful in our assignments. Ps Henson writes in Alignment Check, “Whenever we feel like giving up on our kingdom assignments, we look to the example of Jesus and remember where would we be if Jesus had not fulfilled His kingdom assignment? He loved much and thus He fought hard.”
In the same way, if we claim that we love much, we must also fight hard for the ones our kingdom assignments will impact.
About Imm
Imm loves good food shared with good company because that is when good conversations flow.