O How He Loves Us!
From a troubled teen, to knowing Christ, God started to change his life.
When I was
born, my mother was very weak and in danger of losing her life. While my dad was pacing around
anxiously, the doctor gave my dad a choice, "Your wife or the baby, make a
choice." My dad
obviously very worried about my mother chose my mother to live and I do not
blame him. I have thought many times if I was in his place, I would have
done the same. Through the
grace of God, however, I did not die as expected as I too was very weak when I
was born on that rainy day in monsoon, the 4th of July in Kohima,
Nagaland. I had an elder
brother at that time when I was born. The
next year, on my birthday, when I was one-year-old, my mother, who was very
ill, sadly, passed away. Perhaps
God kept her alive for that one year to take care of me and took her
away. My grandparents took
care of me and my brother after that.
I was five
years old when I was sent to a boarding school in Dimapur, Nagaland. Soon after, I had a new step
mom. We as a family were
not close to the Lord. We
were a broken home with a lot of tension and unrest in the home. Over time, I had two new step brothers
and a step sister, in total there were five of us. I was often confused and soon became
an angry little boy, lonely and hurt. I
took comfort in nature sometimes. I
remember a little stream near our house, rolling green hills of Kohima and tall
trees surrounding our home. The
hills looked a glorious sight in the night, glittering with tiny lights and the
clean fresh cool air always refreshed me, while I even saw fire flies dancing
around in the jungle areas and sparkling stars in a clear dark sky at night.
Guns and Goons
Soon, as a
young boy, I got into the "bad stuff." I had young uncles who took me along
with them and taught me how to drink wine. Eventually I started drinking wine
regularly, which got worse and worse. Later, in Nagaland, I got to associate
with some people who introduced me to guns. I soon learned how to shoot guns
well. I got into many
fights with guys twice my size and got bashed up badly many times, but that did
not stop me. I wanted to
join the mafia and be the don and fight for the good of the society due to the
corruption in society! All
intentions were good, but everything in my life was a big mess during those
early teenage years. I am
very grateful to God that He saved me from committing mega crimes and protected
me from going to jail for even at one time, I out of great fury, thought of
killing my parents. I just
stopped in time, I know now today God stopped me because at that time, I had
access to guns and bullets and I would have killed or fought more because I had
a lot of anger and unrest raging inside me at that time.
Great
Unfathomable Love!
When I was 18
years old, I used to go for tuition to a place where I go just below public
ground, called Nepali ground in Kohima. There
were some girls attending the tuition who were my friends. As I was mischievous, I enjoyed
disturbing them just for kicks, and when they were studying, I would distract
so they would not be able to study. That summer, there was a big healing
crusade held in Kohima by Cross Wonder Church, an inter-denominational
church. This was going to
be held for three nights. Some
of these girls who were my friends were leading the worship in the
crusade. I decided it would
be fun just to go to the crusade and distract them while they were
singing. So, I went. The crusade started. The speaker was powerful and the Word
of God was convicting, but I did not give myself to God, nor was I
convicted. The second night
was the same and I was basically untouched. On the third night of the crusade, the
powerful preacher was speaking about the Love of God and I was suddenly hit
with a deep conviction of my sins. I immediately felt the Love of God and His
overpowering mighty presence. This
was an amazingly new experience for me and I broke down, ran to the altar,
knelt down, deeply aware of my state of sinfulness overwhelmed under the power
of conviction. The wonderful supernatural Love of Jesus was powerful! Such love is beyond human words and understanding!. I with my whole soul sang along the song that was being sung
by the worship team:
I stand
amazed in the presence
Of Jesus
the Nazarene
And wonder
how He could love me
A sinner
condemned, unclean.
How
marvelous!
How
wonderful!
And my song
shall ever be
How
marvelous!
How
wonderful!
Is my
Savior’s love for me!
I felt that
God's love was so marvelous. I
felt overwhelmed that I was not even fit to be put in a dustbin, but He loved
me! I felt forgiven and
deeply loved by God. I was
a new person inside now, clean and forgiven. Some miraculous changes happened after
that night. I gave up
drinking alcohol instantly even though I had been addicted to drinking. I found I could no longer relate to
old thoughts and old friends. It
was like a new person was inside me. It
was amazing! One struggle I did have occasionally sometimes was anger. I was not always angry, but if I did
get angry, it would be with fire and fury and I found that I needed a gun or a
knife in my hand at that time. In
this struggle, I would go to a friend whom I would trust and ask for prayer for
me and their prayers helped me.
My family did
not understand my salvation, because I was the first to be born-again in my
family and my faith and love for God irritated them. They would even scold me for going to
church. I had to sneak out
to go to church. I did struggle asking God "Why does it have to be so hard
just to get close to You?
The Call
For the first
year of my born-again experience, I had no close friends and my greatest friend
was God, and I had good fellowship with Him. Cross Wonder Church built my faith on
a rock. One night, the
pastor was preaching from Matthew 9: 37: Then He said to His disciples, “The
harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; 38 therefore pray earnestly to
the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest.” This verse convicted me of God’s
calling to serve in His field, and that night I committed myself to serve the
Lord.
When I told my
dad I wanted to go to Bible College, he was not pleased and responded
negatively that he would not support me if I went because of his poor financial
position. So, by faith,
through the grace of God, I managed to go without his help. My church, Cross
Wonder Church showed up to sponsor me right when I needed help. After class 12,
I went to Kohima Bible College, complete B.Th. I am now doing my masters in theology
at Evangelical Theological Seminary of Asian Christian Academy, Tamil Nadu.
God gave me a
special love and burden for children. I
believe children are precious and deserve to be loved. This is possibly because as a child, I
was depressed many times and felt neglected and forsaken. Right after my born again experience,
I started working with children in Cross Wonder Church, Kohima. At that time, I was in class 11,
around 18 years old.
When I finish
Bible College, I would like to go back to Kohima and help the church with the
youth and children. I am
praying to start a ministry for children, especially lonely, rejected children
even if they have parents as sometimes parents can be too busy to have time for
their children. God has brought
in my life an amazing girl (I call her Eva) who has the same vision and heart
for children, and we are praying to be married and serve the Lord together.
The wonderful
miracles continue. My
parents are no longer the same. My
step mom gave her life to Jesus after I was saved and she loves me like her own
son. Her love for me is
more than ever. My dad gave
up alcohol, and he has accepted Christ and he has changed. At first when I wanted to go to Bible
College, he vehemently disliked the idea and was angry with me for my choice,
and I went without his support. He
later visited me in Kohima Bible College in the 3rd year. He left with tears in his eyes. Now he supports me for my master’s
degree in Bible College in ACA. He
encourages me to for ministry, and to church. We are still learning and climbing
uphill, we may stumble sometimes, but now we are learning together, holding
hands, which is a marvelous miracle. I
can only say, "Jesus is
amazing. His grace is
overwhelming."
The love of Jesus and His gift of eternal life is the reason for Christmas...My experience of that amazing love is what Jesus wants to offer us with the gift of eternal life when we believe in Him...
The love of Jesus and His gift of eternal life is the reason for Christmas...My experience of that amazing love is what Jesus wants to offer us with the gift of eternal life when we believe in Him...
For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten
Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.
John 3:16
Imtipokyim
About
Imti: Imti has a wonderful gift with children and draws children
to him like a magnet and all the children love him. He has a special anointing on his life
and is a very gifted and caring person. When
he leads the worship service, there is clearly a blessing on the worship and people
can see the hand of God on his life and God is using him in marvelous ways. He is presently studying his
Only God is the true converter of a human soul. No human can convert anyone. It is God's Spirit to a human's spirit that converts.
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