It was the latter part of February, and I crossed through the border of Litan Village, Manipur, to attend a Retreat Camp at Pilgrims Prayer Mountain. As we came closer towards the village, there were several women at the checkpoint inspecting the nearby cars as I got closer to the combat area. They did inquire, “Where are you two heading?” We said that we are attending a Bible camp, they grinned and asked, โCan we examine your car?โ Of course. After a quick check, they grinned and said, “Okay, go, go.”And as we passed through that place, I could see the pain the land has endured and borne for the foolishness of humanity. Witnessing several houses being burned down completely along the way was such a devastating experience. For any normal human being, building a house is such a significant accomplishment. It required long-term planning. Unfortunately, a single torch can ignite or root years’ worth of labour and investment in an instant. Without any guilt, they destroyed all the resources they had added to create that permanent home during their lifetime. How much will it cost to construct a new home? while many are having difficulty meeting their fundamental needs. How could that property have perpetrated such a horrible act in front of humanity? The agonising land yearns to communicate to humanity the message of peaceful, abandoned disarray and loneliness.
While I took the route back to Imphal from the camp, there I stopped over, walked towards the middle of the bridge holding a Bible in my hand, looked towards the destroyed houses and prayed for the healing that my people have endured. At that moment, I ardently cherish calling on the believers to raise their hands towards heaven, cry out loud and resist the devil that dwells amongst us. We know one thing for sure: โWHEN WE OVERCOME THE SPIRITUAL BATTLE, WE WILL SURELY OVERCOME THE PHYSICAL BATTLE.โ I can see how we have run away from His Grace. The cross seems futile in the midst of war and conflict. Seems like our faith lingers on situational belief. We are running away from God so far that we begin to lose sight of eternity. We run away; therefore, we know how to lie, write distorted history and share misinformation. We forgot WHO WE ARE IN CHRIST, our IDENTITY. We have stopped becoming human. I question myself; will we stop loving Christ and call ourselves as Christian? How will the message of Christ be reached when we learn how to lie?
Humanity has lost to love God in the midst of the crisis. With no guilty feeling, we claimed what belongs to others as ours, we are not scared to murder, kill or destroy. It is a sobering reflection of our gross mindset. We have proudly celebrated centennial Christianity in tears, in exchange for GUNS in broad daylight. And took pride in G2, G-3, HK, LMG, MACHINE GUN, AK-47, SNIPER, INSAS, M 16, publicly, we have traded our emotional depth for hatred and violence. We have reached the zenith point of technological height. Reached the stars, galaxies, mastered information exchange and extended human life. Yet, the dark constant exposure to global violence has turned humans into mere spectators where tragedy becomes content, a space of enjoyment in sharing on social media. We have perfected the art of othering; we justify aggression as an act of defence, losing the ability to see the LIGHT. We become a species that no longer feels the weight of our neighbourโs grief. Hatred has become a modern architectural shift. Weaponisation of narrative and distorted history becomes relevant. We donโt share information; we share ammunition. Social media algorithms exploit this by prioritising โjuicyโ or spicy stories of conflict. And hence, misinformation is often created intentionally to manipulate public opinion or promote specific agendas. Oftentimes, it erodes public trust, making people sceptical of all news and further isolating them in โecho chambersโ. We believe in absurdities, hence, convinced ourselves that our violence is righteous, whether portrayed as self-defence, a just war, frame aggression as a moral necessity. The digital world has cloaked anonymity, frees humanity from social responsibility, and hate speech is finally accepted as normal. We moved to this year, 2026, with intensified social unrest and destruction. A hidden inside story to project as right. To win is more important than the truth. We should stop calling ourselves as Christian. The urge to consume, the greed for possession, the greed for land has carried us nowhere. We donโt feel guilty about lying because it is termed as the NEW HEIGHT of DIPLOMACY.
But despite all this generational stupidity and moral degradation What is our role as Christians? How will we react to it? How will we march forward? The OUTCRY of true Revival Crusade and Prayer rings true in every believerโs heart, I hope. It is my earnest desire that if believers would come together, lift up their hands in unison towards heaven for the redemption of the region from the grasp of the devils. Surely the scheme of the evils shall be shattered. The liars shall be disillusioned to lay hands again on what does not belong to them. A clarion call on the believers to walk like a true Army of God to shun these societal evils. Make your enemies tremble to put their feet on your land. Your land shall never become their footstool, nor will it have the capacity to claim it. Because disasters and calamities shall run over those false witnesses. Therefore, they shall have no potential to claim that โTHIS BELONGS TO ME OR TO USโ. If only we come together before the Lord with this cry, we are determined to bless your name in spite of all the circumstances that we faced; we chose to surrender at your feet. We choose the blessing over the curse. We choose to know you, and we choose to honour your name above all other names. Because the battle belongs to God, not to us, and so God said to Jehoshaphat, โTHE BATTLE BELONGS TO MEโ. Therefore, my dear people, we are moving without God; we are ahead of Him. We are running out of time. Our lives are momentary; we live for a short moment on earth. Humanity should stop blaspheming God in the name of shedding innocent blood and writing distorted history to suit oneโs own interests.
If we are lying then we need to stop lying. If we have shared the concocted information, we need to stop it. If we have threatened our neighbours with guns, time to surrender to the Cross. Thou threatened with guns, so shall our fate be. One day, surely it shall consume us. Thou sheddest innocent blood, so shall thy blood be upon thy head. The cries of the innocent blood shall never be forgotten in heaven.
Pf Manini
Former President, Naga Welfare Manipur University (NWMU),
Junior Advisor, Manipur University Evangelical Fellowship (MUEF)
Email: pfmanini2017@gmail.com
(The views and opinions in this article are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official stance of Rural Post)
