Testimony of Lunminthang Haokip

Lunminthang: the country-side settler
TESTIMONY OF LUNMINTHANG HAOKIP

Background: I was born and brought up in a very nominal Christian family. My father was a Pastor who left his flock midfield, yielded o the lure of greener pastures and made a U-turn to the sheepfold at the flag-end of his life. Daddy’s years of backsliding saw me graduate from an obscure country- ‘wolf’ who didn’t even bother to put on a sheep’s clothing to an insecure social- climber who was good from far but far from good. There was no sin i didn’t commit and no commandment i didn’t break. The more enslaving among them were habitual fixation to cinema, sexual immorality, greed, deceit, drinking, self-seeking and bribe-taking. Motivated by the spirit of materialism, i was driven down to depts. Of degrading depravity by the seemingly insatiable desire to equal my betters and better my equals.

Nose-Diving Take-Off: Heaven in its goodness wedded me to a simple God-fearing lady who kept praying for my conversion. My better half packed me, her bitter half, up to stay put fully in one of Rev. Khaizakham’s revival camps in 1985. There and then, the spirit of God convicted me of my awfully sinful indulgences and the dire need to be saved. Weeks passed, and due to lack of proper guidance and follow up work. I became a spiritual weakling battling a declining impulse. Liquor appeared all the most irresistible. Soon my resistance crumbled and I stumbled in getting sizzled with a vengeance. Like a beast on the prowl, I got myself embroiled in street-growls and brawls that ended up in a crawl in stinking gutter water.

Candid To A fault: A restless wretch, I, in a bid to bargain for vain gains, saw myself pandering to the whims and fancies of junior civil servants of the IAS-cadre I couldn’t get into. I was flattered with tongue-in-check platitudes as long as I kept my tongue unchecked in revealing candour. But it hit hard where it hurt most when I realised that although the brainy clan were doting on me individually in private, in public, the place they reserved for me in the charmed circle was no better than that of the “Tulsi” plant –outside the ‘house’. Their high-brow bruising signalled a clear message that being caged under the leverage of a subordinate state service, to the professionally privileged, was a disparaging disadvantage. Things came to a head when an autocratic wife of a bureaucrat told her hubby’s democratic colleague that he was lowering his prestige- percentage in being seen together often with a small-time ‘brat’ like me.

The Clamour to Restore : Came 1993.unprecedented human butchery rewrote Christian history in blood in Manipur. God sent His servant, Joshua Daniel to my town. Among other exposures of the abominations that plagued the land, the international preacher launched a charged diatribe on bribery (“Your crores will crush you and your children”). And mixing Christianity with tribal traditions (“The murderous spirit of your forefathers is still operating in your midst”). The powerful word of God shattered the stronghold of false pride in me. I penned down every word of the heavenly prescription meet for regeneration of a degenerated soul like mine. Meeting the Evangelist, I sought prayer for an incurable stomach pain. He first asked me to stop taking bribe and prayed. I agreed to ; and was instantly healed.

The Entreating Retreat-94 A ten-day battering by heart-searing massages of uncle Joe in a scorching Madras Retreat further scotched me in spiritual tenterhooks. The stirring impact of the divinely revealed gems of spiritual truths, at the end of the day, tenderly hook me to the Book of life- the Bible. In the foggy flight back home, the aerial bumps heightened the fear of a possible crash—and death. Sadly stranded in Silchar, I confessed all the sins I could recall to a man of God with a broken resolve to restitute. There God gave me the assurance of salvation from John 5:14, “Behold, thou art made whole: sin no more, lest a worse thing come unto thee”. In the next day’s Silchar-Imphal flight. I was sailing on cloud nine. My heart was pleasantly warmed. I thought I wouldn’t swap occupational places even with His Excellency, the Governor of Manipur, ho was in the same flight, if the joy of salvation was t be made a part of the deal.

Visual Filth: REACHING HIME I delinked and disposed off the erstwhile source of visual delights—the TV and dish antenna—and managed to throttle the inflow of inter-continental filth inside my living room. Volumes of stolen official books were returned with due apology. By His grace, I could reconcile myself with brothers estranged from and embittered by me following self-centric show-downs and face-offs. Whereas it wasn’t humanly possible to restitute every misused penny, I made a lump-sump estimate of things that pricked my conscience through sale of possessions, ancestral property and withdrawal of savings. My lord rewarded me with a heart sprinkled from the feeling of guilt. “....Because in his forbearance God had passed over the sins that were previously committed (Romans 3:25)”.

Built Up In Faith : Living off filthy lucre while setting past accounts wasn’t easy. Denying oneself all the comforts one got used to over the years was unbearable at times. But whenever afflictions in Canaan tempted to take me back to Egypt, the prayer-popped pincer-grip and burden-laden corrective measures of Dr. S.V. Job put me back on the right course. The astute Evangelist’s disciplining during the hassle-prone austere struggle helped me build up myself in faith. His focussed chastisement developed in me spiritual muscles strong enough to endure a faith-shattering barb-wire-piercing bloody bicycle accident that tore five inches of my head and bloodrenched me from tip o toe.

Resisting Sin: Momentarily depressed, I pressed the panic button in passionate prayer. Heaven answered from Hebrew 2:4 “You have not yet resisted to bloodshed, striving against sin” and verse 6, “For whom the Lord loves He chastens, and scourges every son whom He receives”. I learned it the hard way that in His crucifixion, my Lord had away the sting of punishment due to me and only chastened me softly as His child, of and on.

Insulated Suffering : Conversion certainly isn’t a roller-coaster ride for ever. Emotional Ups were spoiled by depressional downs and seasonal downs, quelled by Ups. Friends and relatives seized opportunities to tear me down to shreds. I left no stone unturned to tell them how Christ’s atonement brought an about turn in me. Some were moved to tears but others turned taciturn and left no turn of mine unstoned. My firm stand to defy unbiblical traditions was responded with resentment resulting in reckless notional derecognition on my humble credentials in social and ecclesiastical circles. However my God attached old habits, unlatched new doors, fetched new folks for me and matched them with new attitude. He even took special care of spheres of my pair concern like children’s studies and spiritualities.

The Promise: Whenever my faith was rocked by kindred’s expectation and the sinking feeling of the necessity to settle the imposing monthly family accounts, the promise in the following verse checked and balanced my trust in my living God. “If you take out the precious from the vile, you shall be as my mouth. Let them return to you, but you must not return to them (Jeremiah 15:19)”.Today, God’s spirit insulates me to rather joyfully suffer indignities i low-cost living than guiltily enjoy sinful pleasures i high-cost socialising. Having chosen to live a righteous life, when I land up in dire straits, favoured kinsmen, who live to please self and men, would distance themselves in pregnant silence.

The Succour: Suckered sadists, they are keen as kids, to see my faith collapse. But divine mercy frustrates such wily wishes. Needs are there always. Yet, His grace is sufficient for me. In bad times, it’s His promise in Isaiah 33:15 & 16,, that keeps me going. “He who walks righteously....despises the gain of oppressions, who gestures with his hands refusing bribes... He will dwell on high...Bread, will be given him, His water will be sure”.

BETTER IAS : looking back, i came a long way from a clumsily craven upstart with a brazen IAS—hand-up. God not only earthed petty earthly ambitions, but reinvented my entire outlook and gifted me a new heart and a much better IAS- I AM SAVED. In the Ministry of spiritual affairs, His Almightiness, over and above mundane responsibilities, issues a new order decreeing a life-long service “My son, do not be negligent now, for the Lord has chosen you to stand before Him to serve Him, and that you should minister to Him and burn incense (II Chronicles 29:11)”.