“Finding the True Light” - Mike Shreve - AlongTheWay 116 - AlongTheWay

Episode Transcript
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Mike Shreve (00:01):
Two miles away from where I stepped out on the road
hitchhiking, one of the membersof the prayer group was walking
into a laundromat. He was acollege student wanting to wash
his dirty clothes. And God spoketo him and said, Don't go in
there, get back in your band andstart driving. I've got a job
for you to do. That's all Godtold him. God didn't tell him.

(00:25):
The Guru that you've beenpraying for for a month is two
miles down the road, and you'regoing to pick him up and win him
to the Lord. God just told himget in your van and start
driving. And a lot of peoplewait to get all the instructions
before they act on what Godtells them to do. It doesn't
work that way. One step at atime.

John Matarazzo (00:44):
But we'll do along the way. I'm John better
as your host and fellowtraveler. Thank you for joining
me along my way as I try tobecome more like Jesus every
day. In this episode, I'msharing with you the journey of
a former Yogi guru, who well inhis 20s with a growing number of
followers decided to dedicatehis life to the search for the
true light. One day while he washitchhiking along the highway,

(01:06):
the true lead of Jesus and a manwho was just trying to do his
laundry to drive out of his wayand pick up the young yogi. That
encounter changed Mike Shreeveslife forever. In this episode,
you'll hear how he finallyreached the authentic spiritual
awakening that he was searchingfor. I'll get to our
conversation in just a moment.
But as always, I want to thankyou for listening to along the

(01:27):
way. I hope that you like whatyou hear and you subscribe.
Please rate and review along theway on Apple podcasts or
wherever you're listening. Allof my socials and contact links
are in the show notes. And youcan check out all of my episodes
and join my email list throughmy website along the way dot
media, I would love to hear fromyou. I also have a Patreon page
if you want to help me tocontinue to put up these along

(01:49):
the way episodes. If you'd liketo become a patreon supporter,
simply go to patreon.com/alongthe way and select the level.
The link to become a supporteris also in my show notes. And
now here's my along the wayconversation with Pastor Mike
Shrieve.
Well, with me today is PastorMike Shrieve. He is one of our

(02:12):
podcasters with the charismaPodcast Network, and we
connected a little while ago.
And his story, I just got tohear a brief explanation of
that. But it is an amazingjourney of somebody that has
gone from literally darknessinto light. And now he's helping
people understand coming out ofEastern religions and new age

(02:33):
and things like that. But PastorMike Shrieve It is great to have
you on along the way on mypodcast, and I'm looking forward
to hearing your along the wayjourney.

Well, I'm very, very excited about being with
you, John. And I've appreciatedthe experience of working with
you on developing our podcastson the charisma Podcast Network.
And I've really been lookingforward to having this session
with you where I share my heart.

Amen, amen. Yet, Pastor Mike is a he's a
podcaster. He's got a coupledifferent podcasts, but the one
that we're going to really focuson and this whole, the whole
theme of this podcast is thetrue light project. And he's got
a book to go with that in searchof the true light. And then his
podcast is revealing the truelight. And it is it is pretty

(03:23):
powerful. I mean, we're going totalk about Mike's story in just
a moment about how God broughthim from a place where he was
leading people astray withoutrealizing it to now he's leading
people into as a pastor intoJesus's marvelous light. So,
Pastor Mike, I just want to getright into your story. How did

(03:44):
you come to know Jesus, butlet's back up quite a ways
because you were pretty far fromJesus at a at a certain point in
your life. I want to hear yourstory right

now. I was, well, I was raised Roman Catholic. And I
never met Jesus, I never wasborn again. I never developed a
personal relationship with him.
And all those years, I was analtar boy. I was very fervent,
probably in church four to fivedays a week, and serving under
priests and go into parochialschool, where we were taught by

(04:13):
nuns. I never had any badexperiences though. All the
priests and nuns I served underwere wonderful people, kind,
gentle, Meek individuals whowere really concerned about
serving God and serving others.
So even though I had thatwonderful character building

(04:38):
example in front of me, it wasinsufficient to really meet the
need in my heart. Andconsequently, I guess that was
part of the reason I driftedaway from Catholicism all
together as a teenager, and Ibecame a rock musician. That's a
huge leap admit. Yeah, and endedup having a near death

(04:59):
experience. At the age of 18,because of my lifestyle, and I
literally felt my soul leavingmy body and going out into a
throbbing tunnel of void anddarkness. And my soul felt like
it was speeding up at thisincredible speed as I was
transitioning from this worldinto the next world, and that

(05:21):
was a very, very frighteningexperience, because I knew I was
not ready. I had not devotedanytime at that point in my life
to developing any kind ofworldview that dealt with
eternal things. I had kind ofleft that all behind. But
because of that experience, Idecided I'm going to start

(05:44):
searching. And right about thattime, an Indian group visited
Florida State University, a mannamed Yogi Bhatia, who came from
India to teach a sect of yogacalled Kundalini yoga. And I
really resonated with what hewas teaching, which was a very

(06:05):
extreme, disciplined yogiclifestyle that would usher you
into experiences like Godconsciousness, which would be a
conscious awareness of God. Ofcourse, in that particular
worldview, it means a consciousawareness that you are God in
manifestation. And so it's theantithesis, the total opposite

(06:28):
of the truth. But anyway, Ibecame very devoted, I dropped
out of college, to study yoga ona full time basis, and joined an
ashram. And we were involved insome kind of yogic discipline,
whether it's breathing exercisescalled pranayama, or physical
exercises called asanas, ormeditation, or reading the Vedas

(06:52):
and the Bhagavad Gita, etc. Wewere involved from 330 in the
morning till five o'clock everynight in the ashram, wow. And
then at night, we were teachingyoga classes locally. And then
eventually I started my ownashram in Tampa, Florida. And
that's where I finally had anencounter that changed the
direction of my life alltogether. And I'll summarize it

(07:16):
in a few key happenings. Sure,the main thing that shifted me
was an article in the newspaper,the Tampa Tribune, K, send a
reporter out to one of my yogaclasses did an interview with
me. And they talked about mybeliefs and how I was teaching
in four universities in the areaand had about 300 students who

(07:38):
consider me their quote,unquote, guru. But the word Guru
comes from two root words Gu andRue. That means out of darkness
into light. And so a guru issomeone who's supposed to lead
you out of the darkness into thelight, but there was a huge
problem. I was not in the lightyet. So how can I lead anyone

(07:58):
else there? I didn't know it. Ithought I was but I wasn't. I
figured that that article in thenewspaper, it was a half page
article, a larger article, Ithought it would increase my
class attendance. Yeah. And itwouldn't bump up over 1000
people for sure. Instead, italerted a local prayer group to

(08:21):
start praying for me. Yourprogram is called along the way.
There was a huge amount ofspiritual activity going on
along the way to my discovery ofChrist. I didn't know that there
was about 30 people who had a 24hour prayer chain, that had

(08:41):
somebody appointed to be fastingand praying for me every hour of
every day. So me up to God. SoI'm being soaked with
intercession. How can he escapethat right? And, and then some
key events happen. Totally outof the realm of my control, I

(09:03):
didn't know that the Holy Spiritwas causing these converging
things to come in to grip me andbring me into a kingdom
experience. But I got a letterfrom an old friend of mine. And
he and I had left college at thesame time for the same reason
and that was to study yoga, andhopefully achieve God

(09:24):
consciousness or selfrealization or Christ
consciousness or self awareness,that love names for But anyway,
he wrote me and said he hadwalked into church and heard an
audible voice. They said, Jesusis the only way and he said he
felt the Spirit of God fall onhim, and he was born again.

(09:44):
Well, I pondered his letter fordays until finally I decided,
well, you know, I wrote him backinitially and told him I
couldn't handle the idea thatChristianity was the only path
that all paths would take peopleto the same ultimate reality.
Today, but I finally concludedI'm a truth seeker. So if I

(10:05):
dismiss this and don't try it oropen my heart to it, I might be
excluding the very thing from mylife that would be the answer to
my need and my the cry of myheart. So I decided to dedicate
one day to Jesus. And I decidedthat I would do no yoga, no
meditation, I would read nothingbut the Bible. And I decided the

(10:30):
two books I would read were theGospel of John and the book of
Revelation. And the book ofRevelation is a pretty heavy
book to start out with for yourinitiation. Yeah, it really is.
And then I prayed all day long,Jesus, if you're the answer,
give me a sign. Come to me showyourself supernaturally. And
then I would read the Gospel ofJohn read the book of
Revelation. And nothing happenedall day long, I was somewhat

(10:53):
disappointed. I was expecting avision and an audible voice,
some kind of supernaturalphenomenon.
But that afternoon, I washitchhiking to University of
South Florida. I had tohitchhike everywhere, because I
owned no material things. It waspart of my discipline.

So you really did say you really did forsake
everything to become a yogainstructor or a yogi or a guru.

Let me interject here, John, that I'm glad you
said that because it quick inthis to my mind. I believe the
Holy Spirit was working on me along time before I became a
Christian. After that bad neardeath experience I had, I felt
what later on as a Christian Iwould discover is called

(11:39):
conviction. Because Jesus said,that it's necessary for you that
I go away, because if I go notaway, the Helper will not come
to you. But it becomes he will.
Different versions say adifferent ways. He will reprove
the world, he will convince theworld He will convict the world
of sin and of righteousness andof judgment. And I believe the

(11:59):
Holy Spirit began convicting meof sin. I didn't know anything
about being born again. I'dnever heard that term. So I
didn't know to turn toChristianity. But I felt
terrible about my lifestyle. AndI withdrew from the things I
used to indulge in. After thatnear death experience. I never
used drugs again, I never smokedpot, I never drank alcohol, I

(12:23):
never date. For the period oftime where I was involved in
yoga, I never dated, I neverwent to a movie. I never watched
TV. I didn't involve myself inany entertainment. I withdrew
from all of those things, andwas concentrating completely on
connecting with God. And again,I believe that was God moving in

(12:46):
my life before I recognize thatas God,

amen. Before we go any further, I just have a
question about your near deathexperience. I am curious, I got
to know what you were in rockand roll. And you just mentioned
about drugs and alcohol andstuff. What triggered this near
death experience?

Well, I took some LSD that apparently was cut was
some kind of poison. And as Iremember, several people in the
community that were into drugsdied that night. And I think it
was probably the same batch. Butonce I had that experience, I
thought never again, I'mthrowing my life away. This is a

(13:27):
waste. I'm not going to takethis kind of chance. This is
Russian roulette. You never knowwhen what you do may be the last
thing you do so

so how did you get pulled out of the near death
experience?

I don't know. I don't know. Unless it was the
fact that when I was a baby, mymother who was not saved at the
time, in fact, I was blessed towin her to the Lord. She was one
of my first converts. She I wasdying at six months old. And she
lifted me up before the Lord.
And she said, God, I don't evenknow if I know you. But if

(14:01):
you'll spare my child, Idedicate him to the ministry.
And I'm the only one of all mysiblings involved in ministry,
like and, and so I have afeeling that prayer stuck. And
it probably thinks it protectedme from some very stupid choices

(14:22):
I made in life. Wow.

Wow. Okay, so now we gotta go back up to where
you're being involved in yogaand everything. I do want to
ask, like, what is actuallygoing on because it's Yoga is
not just exercises that you seepeople doing in the park
somewhere or tai chi or whateverit is. It's there's a lot more
to it that people are justunaware of. Can you kind of

(14:46):
paint the picture of what'sactually going on and how
spiritual this actually is?

The word yoga means yoke in Sanskrit. And the
implication is you're beingyoked with If ultimate reality
or the oversoul, called Brahman,in Hinduism, and ultimate
reality in Hinduism is not apersonal God, it's an impersonal
force. Now, a little over 50% ofHindus believe that some Hindus

(15:16):
believe in a personal God beingultimate reality. But I believe
the majority are of the othermindset. And people don't
realize it. But even thephysical exercises and the
breathing exercises are allattuned toward one goal. And the
aim is the awakening of theKundalini. And the word

(15:38):
Kundalini means serpent power,it's a coiled energy at the base
of the spine, in the form of acoiled serpent. And they teach
that through meditation throughthe physical exercises, through
the breathing exercises, throughmeditation, all these things
work together to awaken thatKundalini. And then that energy

(16:00):
in a serpentine kind of way,goes up your spine to your third
eye, and I don't believe theThird Eye exists, I believe it's
just imaginary, that it goes upthe spine to the third eye, and
then to what they call the crownchakra. And that's when you
merge with the oversoul, withBrahman, and you become one with

(16:21):
God. And so the whole goal isspiritual in nature. I tell
Christians not to practice yoga,not to go to a yoga studio not
to do yoga lessons anywhere,because it's walking too close
to an area of great spiritualdeception. In fact, on my
website, the true light.net Ihave an article and a video

(16:46):
teaching, where I teach on thegods, the various deities that
different yoga poses arededicated to, and how when you
assume those poses, and they'rejust physical poses, like
Warrior Two is a certain poseyou take during a yogic exercise
regimen. But you're invoking acertain day AT T and inviting

(17:11):
that day at T to manifest inyour life. And it's an open
portal to the demonic world.
Wow.

So is there an alternative for the exercise
benefits, there's the stretchingand things like that, that you
would recommend?

There is, I have two friends. And both of them
were formerly yoga teachers thatwere enlightened about this. And
they formed groups that are verypopular one is called holy fit,
W H, O L Y, Holy fit.org. Andthe other one is praise moves,

(17:46):
and is praised moves.com. And infact, the latter one is a lady
who was a hatha yoga teacher forabout, I don't know, probably
close to 20 years. And then shegot saved and quit teaching yoga
all together, and decided thatafter two years, she felt like

(18:08):
God spoke to her to offer aChristian alternative. And so
she is she does, and they areboth very strong and speaking
out against yoga. So they're notjust cloaking yoga in biblical
terminology. I feel there'sanother group called holy yoga
that I believe merge tries tomerge Eastern beliefs, New Age

(18:29):
beliefs with Christianity, and Iencourage people not to do holy
yoga.

Okay, so I just had to ask about that. Because I
mean, I know a lot of peoplethat do it, I've, I've done a
few, you know, yoga videos,myself, just because I thought,
Oh, these are good stretches.
But I definitely need to lookinto some alternatives that you
just mentioned there. So thankyou for that. Because there's
there seems to be there's ahealth benefit to the
stretching, but it's I don'twant to play around with fire.

(18:55):
Well, I

will send you a copy of this booklet. I have a
booklet called seven reasons Ino longer practice yoga. And it
really summarizes it would be awhole podcast just to go into
this.

But I might have to do that. I might have to do
that.

I think you're probably safe. Just watching a
video on a TV screen orsomething. You're probably not
in a as dangerous a position.
But when you actually go to ayoga studio and participate in
the class I've had for instance,some Christians tell me that
when they start chanting ohm inthe class, I just start speaking
Jesus inwardly. Well, I don'twant to be around the chanting

(19:36):
of ohm. Because that word ohm isan invocation to three deities
is actually three syllablesmerged together as one, a U M,
the A represents Brahma,Brahman, or Brahma rather the
Creator God. And the yourepresents Vishnu, the preserver

(19:57):
God and the M represents Shivathe Destroyer God. And so when
you are chanting the word ohm,you're invoking those three
gods, which are the main Gods atthe head of the Hindu pantheon.
Wow. And that would be likegoing to an idol Temple to
worship God, I'm not going towalk in a temple where they've

(20:18):
got idols, and try to worshipJesus, I'll go there to witness.
I've been in Hindu temples, manytimes to witness, I go there to
talk to them, but I'm not goingto worship in that atmosphere.
And if they're focused onawakening the Kundalini, what
really happens when theKundalini is awakened, is a
person becomes demon possessed.

(20:41):
And if you're in an atmosphereof the demonic like that, you're
in a very dangerous positionwhere you could become
contaminated to with demonicmanifestation. And I have people
call me from all over the world,literally from all over the
world, begging me to pray forthem, because they were

(21:01):
participating in yoga classesand started having these
spontaneous Kundaliniawakenings, this energy purging
are flowing through theirbodies, and they can't control
it is keeping them awake, it'srunning them, nearly insane.
Wow. And so it's nothing to beplayed with by any means.

Okay, so you've just painted a really good
picture of all the spiritualstuff, or not all of it. I mean,
I'm sure there's a lot more toit. But you just painted a
really good picture of just thegeneral things of what people
don't normally know about yogaand the life of a guru or a
yogi. But we haven't picked upon your story yet of how you,
you were in that life. And thenhow God brought you out of that.

(21:45):
You have this group of peoplethat are praying for you around
the clock that are fasting.
Let's finish that story.

So all these things are working together. As I
mentioned, the near deathexperience. And then that grew
on me. And through that grew on,I moved from Tallahassee,
Florida, to Daytona, Florida,where I lived in my first ashram
and then I went to Tampa,Florida, where I started an
ashram and taught in the fourUniversity. So it was my

(22:14):
involvement in that group thatpositioned me in Tampa, Florida,
where the prayer group was notthat God authored that
particular journey. But Ibelieve he used it and was
positioning me for therevelation of who He really is.
So what happened is, thisarticle appeared in the

(22:35):
newspaper, the prayer group waspraying for me, I get a letter
from an old friend of mine, allthese things weave together. And
then one day I dedicated day toJesus want to do nothing but
seek His face and read theBible. That afternoon, I was on
the road hitchhiking. And twomiles away from where I stepped
out on the road hitchhiking, oneof the members of the prayer

(22:58):
group, was walking into alaundromat. He was a college
student wanting to wash hisdirty clothes. And God spoke to
him and said, Don't go in there,get back in your band and start
driving. I've got a job for youto do. That's all God told him.
God didn't tell him. The Guruthat you've been praying for for

(23:19):
a month is two miles down theroad, and you're going to pick
him up and win him to the Lord.
God just told him get in yourvan and start driving. And a lot
of people wait to get all theinstructions before they act on
what God tells them to do. Itdoesn't work that way. One step
at a time. But anyway, he gotinto his van and started driving
and whenever it felt an impulsehe would turn and he saw me
hitchhike and he told me lateron, he lived by a cardinal rule

(23:42):
that he never picked uphitchhikers, but felt compelled
he said it was almost likeinvisible hands, grabbed the
wheel and forced him over to theside of the road. Wow, I opened
the door and remember, I'm stillpraying while I'm hitch I can
Jesus, this is your day. Show meif you're the only way. I opened
the door to his van and lookingat my heart jump, because on the

(24:05):
ceiling of the van was a pictureof Jesus. And I knew it was my
answer. Wow. And I was sittingon the edge of my seat. A few
minutes later, he popped thequestion. He said friend can ask
your question. I said yes. Hesaid, Have you ever experienced
Jesus coming into your heart? Isaid no. But when can I? And I
surprised him I was so positiveand my response immediately. He

(24:28):
said the you can come to ourpermitting tonight. I said, I
don't want to wait for a permit.
If I can find Jesus. I want tofind him now. So he pulled his
van over to a parking lot. AndI've always thought it was quite
amusing that God was working inhis behalf as well as my behalf
because he happened to pull intothe parking lot of another

(24:51):
laundromat. Wow. So he grippedhis dirty clothes and said I'll
be back in a minute and he wentin and put his clothes in and
came back It led me to the Lord.
And I knelt down with him in theback of the van and prayed and
accepted Jesus. And it was soreal John, it was so powerful
and undeniable that I finallyfound the truth. That That

(25:14):
afternoon, can't the guy whowanted me to the Lord came with
me. And I went back to my classat University of South Florida
and told them that it would bedismissed from that day forward.
I was shutting down my ashramand canceling all my classes.
And we went to all my classesthat we can said the same thing.

(25:34):
Jesus is the only way. And mostof them were in total shock,
that their guru had become aJesus freak. Overnight. What
year was this? That was back in1970, the fall of 1970.

So was this a hippie van that pulled up and
picked you up? It was

kind of a hippie band. He was kind of a hippie
van. Yeah, he wasn't a fullfledged hippie.

Yeah. Yeah, he wasn't a full fledged hippie. So
I was just he was, yeah. So I'mjust, I'm just picturing this
scene. Here you are. You'vededicated a day to the Lord, to
Jesus to say, prove yourself,and you read John and
Revelation, and you're notgetting anything from that. But

(26:20):
God literally sends somebody outof his way. He had other plans,
but he was obedient. And he thenpicks you up. But he had been
one of these people that hadbeen praying for you, Brian, how
long into him picking you up?
Did he realize that you were theguy that you had had been
praying for? Well, I don't

remember exactly how long it took for him to make
that connection. But I've alwaysmarveled and so has he, at the
impossible odds of thathappening. Oh, yeah. Oh, that we
would be at the same place atthe same time, within about a
five minute window of time, outof over a million people in that
region. For him to pick me uppitch I can, and I, and this is

(27:04):
even more intense. I had heardabout him, because he was
supposedly the only person inTampa that was more deeply
involved in yoga than I was. Andhe had come out and become a
follower of Jesus. And I'd heardabout it through the grapevine
and wondered how he could everopt for a lesser path like

(27:25):
Christianity. And so I had heardabout him, and he had heard
about me, the genius of God hadto set all of that. The
invisible one on the mayor'sroom was the one who was
invisibly working behind thescenes to set that.

Amen. So you then shut down your classes,
which I would say you had fourdifferent schools, about 300
people, you're pretty successfulin that. But you thought you
would go up to 1000 and stuff.
So like, but you shut everythingdown. I mean, that's, that's
quite an immediatetransformation.

Yeah. And it was not easy. What happened to you
next? Well, I never charged formy classes, but I left a little
basket at the back. And thatgave me enough money for rent.
And the people that lived in theashram with me supplied rent
money, too. Well, that all driedup immediately. So I had no
place to live. Thankfully, oneof my yoga students owned a

(28:20):
barber shop. And he told me, Icould sleep on the floor of this
barber shop until I found aplace so for about two weeks in
a sleeping bag, I slept on thefloor of a barber shop. And I've
often told people that wasreally a hairy experience.

scenario, a horrible joke, horrible

joke. I'm sorry, I apologize. But it really
happened. I really did. And thenI heard about a Christian
commune over in Central Florida.
And I went and join thatcommunity. And, you know, it
really fits in with the theme ofyour program to show how God
gets involved in our lives andvisibly, and how he's so
watchful in every event. Becauseshortly after, I joined that

(29:03):
Christian community in CentralFlorida, I started feeling this
longing, this deep desire to getcloser to God and being a former
Catholic, I thought the way todo that was to become a monk.
And so I was on my way to themonastery. There was one
particular monastery outside ofAtlanta called Monastery of the

(29:26):
Holy Spirit that was supposedlycharismatic and they believed in
the gifts of the Spirit. So Ithought I was going to go there
because they were more of thesame mindset. Because I believed
in the gifts of the Spirit. Soanyway, I stepped out on the
road hitchhiking and I'm goingto weave together two stories
here, okay. God kept me fromreligious deception to more

(29:48):
times, and this is one of thetwo he brought me out of one
false religion, but almost wentback into two other false
religions, but he prevented it.
So I'm on my way to join thismonastery to become a monk and
to embrace Catholicism, becauseat the time, I did not realize

(30:10):
there were so many unbiblicalbeliefs in Catholicism. This God
picked me up hitchhiking. Andlong story short, before I knew
what was happening. He pulledoff the road into a field and he
went out in the middle of thisfield at a high rate of speed.
Not, you know, I'm verysuspicious. I'm wondering what
the world's going on. And atfirst he told me it was he

(30:32):
wanted to show me a place thatthe construction crew he was
working with, was working on.
Then he started speeding upgoing over these, I guess it was
rose where corn used to be sothat okay, back into the car was
just bouncing real bad. And hegot out to this little grove of
trees in the middle of thefield, slammed on his brake,
pulled out a knife and proceededto tell me he was going to rape

(30:52):
me, rob me and killed me. Oh mygosh. He told me to look over in
the bushes that there was a deadbody of a man he killed three
days ago laying over there and Iwas next. Well, two words went
through my mind, the first wordwas run. But I thought that's a
stupid choice. Because he's gota car, he could run me down in
this huge field. The next wordthat went through my mind was

(31:15):
preach. Well, I've neverpreached a sermon, I've only
been saved about four weeks,four or five weeks. But I'd
heard plenty of sermons. So Ilaunched into a sermon. I mean,
full blast, I said, buddy,you're gonna face God on the day
of judgment and give an accountfor every deed done in your
body. And apparently, you'regonna split hell wide open, and
you better repent of your sinsand get right with God. I didn't

(31:36):
even breathe. I just keptpumping out the words, hoping to
just shocked the guy in thelistening. And finally, much to
my surprise, he broke downcrying, and said, You sound just
like my mama. and handed me theknife, turned around, knelt down
on the floorboard, and said,Pray for me, I need to be prayed

(31:59):
for I cast the demons out tohim, and prayed for him. And
Jesus saved him. And forget hissins. Oh my God. The devil sent
him to destroy me. But God,knowing about all of that,
behind the scenes, orchestratedit, where instead of him
destroying me, I would be usedof God to destroy the whole of

(32:22):
Satan in his life. And about

no weapon formed against me shall prosper. Oh, my
gosh, that's amazing.

And that was not the only reason I think God
intervened like that. Because Itook that as a sign that I
wasn't supposed to be a Catholicmonk. And so I decided not to go
that direction. So God used thatincident to steer me back to a
pure biblical worldview. Andboth of my kids have told me

(32:53):
they're very glad I did notbecome a monk.

I'm sure they are. Yeah, they tell you.

But I told you, I would mention to Yeah, please.
The other thing I did notmention a while ago, is that my
friend, and this is confusing tosome people. And I don't have
time to really back it up withall the information I need to.
But the man who wrote me aletter that told me walked into

(33:21):
church and her to audible voicewas a Mormon. And he and he had
left college that same time, Ihad to study yoga, and he'd
walked in a Mormon church. Andyou heard the voice say that
Jesus is the only way in theMormon Church is the only true
church. And so not only did Ipray that Jesus would give a

(33:43):
sign, but if a few days beforethat, I actually went and
visited a Mormon church. And Ihad long hair, and past my
shoulders, and a long beard. Andso I looked the part of Easter
mystic. And I was sitting in thelobby of this big Mormon church,

(34:04):
and people walk past me over andover again, and never bothered
to ask me why I was there. And Iwas a very withdrawn person. So
I never tried to converse withany of them. I was waiting for
one of them to converse with me.
But it was like that was ashield. And God prevented me
from coming out of one cult andgoing into another, because
Mormonism is a cult. And Ibelieve the voice that spoke to

(34:27):
my friend was not the voice ofGod. And I don't know if he had
a genuine born again, experienceor not. That's kind of a mystery
to me. And because Mormons don'tbelieve in the same Jesus that
we believe in, it's completelydifferent concept. Jesus had a
beginning point, he was thespirit son of our Heavenly
Father and our Heavenly Motheris so weird, weird and

that Jesus and the devil are brothers and

yeah, it's crazy.
Mormonism is not compatible

with To close, and it looks the same from the
outside. But once you get in,you realize this is very
different.

Yeah, very different. But anyway, God kept
me from becoming a Mormon. AndGod kept me from becoming a
Catholic. So I came out of onecult. And God prevented me from
just coming out at one and goingback into another. And again, I
didn't understand it at thetime, but I can look back and
now see how God was protectingme.

Wow. So what happened next? I mean, you're,
you've just been saved fromthese two different cults and
saved from murder to whateverhappened to that guy, you go to
jail? How did he

you know what, I would deal with it differently
now, but I was a new Christian.
And you know how when you'refirst converted, you're confused
about how to act and react tocertain situations. Because
you're always wondering, wouldthis be what God wants me to do?
center and center? And Ithought, if God forgave him, and
if God delivered him, who am Ito turn him into the police, so

(35:59):
I never pursued that. He justtook me back out to the road. He
told me, he said that he hadthreatened many people, but I
was the first person who neverfollowed up on his threat to and
he drove off and I never heardfrom him again. Now, if, if
something like that happened tome now, I would say, Hey, fella,

(36:21):
let's go to the police stationtogether. I'll help you through
this. You need to turn yourselfin. But I didn't really have
that understanding back then.
Sure.

Sure. You were only a Christian at that point,
like four weeks. So that'sunderstandable. Yeah. What else
happened after that?

Well, about a month or two after that. Yeah, I'd say
about a month, I was sittingaround a campfire with one. I
was sitting at a campfire alonewith one other brother in the
Christian community I was partof, and he was all excited. He
was just on top of his game, soto speak, he was just so excited

(37:01):
because he'd gotten somerevelation that day. And he
said, Oh, man, I've been readingthe Gospel of Luke today. Look
at this scripture. And he showedme that discipleship call in
Luke chapter 14, where Jesussaid, Except a man for say,
call, he cannot be My disciple.
He said, You know anybody doingthat? I said, No, I don't. He
said, Let's do it. I said, Okay,I'm game. Let's do it. And of

(37:24):
course, I didn't have a wife anddidn't have a family. So I quit
my job. The next day, I had aconstruction job. And he and I
both gave away all our materialpossession. By that time, I had
acquired some material thingsand I gave them all away. We
gave all our money to the poor,because Jesus said except a man
forsake all he can't be mydisciple. We did feel a little

(37:47):
condemned, over fudging, andhaving one change of clothes.
But we found out later on havingthat change of clothes was real
helpful when you had to washyour first change clothes. Very
true. We get one change ofclothes and a Bible. That's all
we allowed ourselves. Okay. Andwe had a little cardboard sign

(38:07):
that said, going for Jesus. Andwe stepped out on the road
hitchhiking to go from Orlando,Florida, to Bloomington,
Indiana, where I preached myfirst sermon on a street corner.
My first sermon besides tellingyou God, that was murder me need
to get right with God. But thefirst full sermon was on a

(38:28):
street corner to about 70hippies in Bloomington, Indiana.
And that's a story withinitself. That would take about 10
minutes.

Why why Bloomington?

Well, if you want me to go into it, I will. We're
there. Let's do it. We had aninvitation to preach at a, an
old time Pentecostal church upin Bloomington, Indiana, that
was out in the woods that wasattended by the same little
group of people that had kind ofa hard nose, fundamental

(39:02):
approach to religion. And if wehad preached there, I don't
think we'd have reached anybodyHartley. But when we got to
town, we hitchhiked 500 Mileswent days without food, because
we had no money. And every nowand then someone would give us
an offer and we'd buy a littlefood. But we get out there and

(39:24):
the pastor sent one of hisdeacons to us and said, I've
changed my mind. We're not goingto hold the revival. And that
discouraged me to give upeverything you own. go days
without food, sleep in thewoods. There were times we
slept, kids run that journey,and then have your first revival
canceled before you evenpreached the first sermon.

(39:46):
That's discouraging. But Bob hadbeen a Christian longer than I
had and he slapped me on theback and said, Mike, we came to
Indiana to preach so we're goingto preach and I thought, Okay,
I'm with you, but I'm not happyabout And so we took off walking
down the road. And we came to afield near the University of
Indiana, that the yuppies hadbought. The hippies were hippies

(40:11):
that got politically orientedand were political activists
and, and they had bought thatfield and then it was called the
People's Park is still there tothis day. You can look it up
online, the People's Park inBloomington, Indiana, and there
was a great big billboard in themiddle of the field. That said
it was the for the free use ofall the citizens of Bloomington.

(40:34):
And it was a statement forsocialism and communism.
Everybody owning that together.
And so Bob looked at me andsaid, that's our church. That's
our church. And I thought, well,there's no big steeple, no
beautiful carpet, but we gotlush green grass for a carpet
and starry dome overhead of theuniverse for a ceiling. So I

(40:57):
thought, what better place soand I told Bob, I said, if we're
going to have church, we gottahave advertisement. So he said,
Follow me as I follow Christ.
And he walked across the roadand bought a, I don't know how
much it was 10 cent neck MagicMarker. He had a few coins in

(41:19):
his pocket. And then he walkedover to a Pizza Hut kind of
restaurant. And he said, Mike, Ifeel led for you to climb up in
the dumpster. And that's a youfit. For me. Well, he was a
bigger guy. So it would havebeen harder for him. I was a
little skinny guy back then. Andhe said, I feel bad for you to
climb up in the dumpster and getsome old pizza boxes. And I

(41:44):
pulled out several white pizzaboxes, and he bent them over and
wrote revival, old fashionedstreet preaching in the name of
Jesus miracles, signs andwonders, casting out devils
healing the sick, raising thedead every night at 730. And
then down at the bottom, it saidno snakes, references making

(42:04):
lean churches, you know, and westuck those at each of the four
corners of the field. And also,he said, Mike, we got to have
something for people to sit onor there'll be sitting on wet
grass. So I climbed back up inthe dumpster and got a bunch of
Pabst Blue Ribbon boxes,cardboard boxes that we broke

(42:25):
down and lay them on the groundso people could sit on the
cardboard. So I've often toldpeople that communist bought my
first church and a beer companysupplied the first pews.

Oh, my goodness, that's funny.

And about 70 Hippies showed up and preached
my first sermon. And I rememberthe text to this day, except a
man lose his life for my sake.
And for the Gospels. They shallnot find it as something Jesus
said. And I gave an invitationand almost every one of them
gave their hearts to the Lord.
Wow. And that was my beginning.
And from there we We hitchhikedaround. Uh, well, it was shortly

(43:02):
after that, that Kent, the guywho picked me up hitchhiking
joined us, and he had a band andwe started traveling around the
country. In that van preachingon college campuses during the
Jesus movement era. It was anamazing time. Yeah, you could
walk on a campus and stand upand start preaching and 1000
people would sit down and listento you. And it was just amazing

(43:23):
what God did during those years.

Yeah. Wow. So I mean, you're you're now a
pastor, and you're an author?
How did you go from literallygiving up everything to you
know, now earlier, you had alittle bit of a, a different
outlook on life, I guess, like,how did God lead you to where
you are now from there?

Well, after about two months, traveling around the
way we did, I walked into a tentmeeting conducted by Pentecostal
evangelists. And the move of theHoly Spirit was really something
attractive to me, I'd never seenGod moved quite the same way. So
I prayed for seven days, thatGod would make a way for me to

(44:09):
travel with that evangelist. Andthe seventh day was the last day
of the tent meeting. And byfaith, I packed my satchel and
brought it with me to the tent.
And he called me out and gave mea word of knowledge and said,
God has spoken to him. I wassupposed to travel with him. I
said, I got my bag with me, I'mready to go. And so for about 20
years, I worked with a tentministry. And we traveled all

(44:31):
over the US, and little, andthen about a year later, I
started a youth group. And ouryouth group was different than
youth groups are, for the mostpart now. Not all I'm like YWAM
gets pretty intense and someothers, but in our youth group,
the kids would travel togetherall summer long for three

(44:53):
months. They would live in puptents and camping tents and
campers on the back of a truckor Something like that. We were
very strict, they were notallowed to date the whole
summer. And all we did, we neverhad basketball or swimming or
any of those kind ofentertainment things. All we did
was have a Bible study everymorning. And then after lunch,

(45:13):
we would go out on the streetswitnessing. And then after,
every night, we had church inthe tent. And then after church,
the older ones would go out tothe local bars and drug
districts and witness to some ofthe more down and out people.
And we shook some cities backthen it was incredible,
incredible what God did. Andthen little by little churches

(45:36):
started opening their doors tome. And then pretty much self
taught in the Bible. But Ieventually became a teacher with
a Bible college called ChristianLife School of Theology. And I
earned a bachelor's degree. Andthen I was awarded a Doctorate
of divinity degree later on,because of my, the book that I

(45:57):
mentioned a while ago, in searchof the true light, the study of
over 20 religion, because of mywork in the area of comparative
religion, I was awarded thathonorary doctorate. And so I
have, I am no longer justfocused on St. Ministry, not by
any means, because I've done alot of open air crusades over in
India and Guyana, South Americaand Africa. And so we, we've

(46:20):
seen tremendous results overover in India, especially, we
build some open air crusadeswhere it was common to see 1000
people get saved every night.
Wonderful thoughts, because theycould relate to me, they could
relate to me when you told themI once embraced Hinduism and
studied under one of theirgurus.

Yeah, so Miko something that I'm seeing as
we're talking here is that youreally have a heart now for
people that have been deceived.
You talk about comparativereligions, and you came from a
new age background. There'speople that are really searching
for truth. They're searching forthe true light as your book is
called, you know, I just want totake this opportunity to ask you

(47:02):
to, you know, share about thattrue light and how people can
receive that true light ofJesus?

Well, it's very simple, and I believe God made
us simple on purpose. Just likewhen he gave a design for an
altar in the Old Testament, Hesaid, just pile up a pile of
dirt. Don't use chiseled rocks,don't use something ornately
designed by craftsmen. Just pileup a pile of dirt, and offer
your sacrifice there because Godwanted to be accessible to the

(47:32):
simplest people with thesimplest understanding. And so
some people think it's toosimple to have a prayer of
salvation. Now, I personallybelieve it worked this way for
me. Some people say invitingJesus into your heart and
praying a prayer of salvation orit has been called the Senator's
prayer is not biblical. Iunderstand where they're coming

(47:54):
from, but also see scripturesupportive of it, where Jesus
said, Behold, I stand at thedoor, knock, and if any man hear
my voice and open the door, Iwill come into him. And I
believe that inviting the LordJesus Christ to come into your
heart is a fulfillment of thatinvitation he talked about in
Revelation chapter three. Andthen Ephesians 317 says, Christ

(48:18):
will dwell in your heart byfaith. And so if you believe and
if you repent, and that's a keyfactor, because repeating a
prayer is not what will saveyou. Because 1000s of people
have repeated the prayer, andeven maybe even gone and gotten
baptized that weren't genuinelyBORN AGAIN yet. So there has to

(48:38):
be a true sincere commitment, adiscipleship commitment that
takes place, but I encouragepeople to just focus their heart
on the Lord Jesus Christ andsay, Jesus, receive You as my
Savior, come into my heart, washme in the blood you shed on the
cross for the sins of humanity,fail me with your Holy Spirit.

(49:01):
By faith, I received the gift ofeternal life. And I asked to be
born again. May the Spirit ofGod dwells in me from this point
forward, and I will serve youall the days of my life. If
someone prays a prayer likethat, and it says it was
sincerity, and humility. Andthey really intend to commit

(49:21):
their lives to God. That can bethe beginning point.

Amen. Amen. And if you want to do that, I just
want to make sure that you knowthat you can reach out to me and
to Pastor Mike, for moreinformation about that decision
that you've just made. And wewant to make that available. I'm
gonna put links in thedescription so that you can
communicate with us, because wedon't want to leave you just out
there. We're going to we'regoing to help you the best way
that we can. But Pastor Mike, Iwant to hear about your along

(49:49):
the way moments with Jesus werejust like the disciples on the
road to Emmaus. They werewalking with Jesus but had no
clue that it was him. Here comesthis traveler. That it, they're
just they're having thisdiscussion and I hear he comes
in, he's explaining things tothem. And they finally sit down
at a table, Jesus blesses thefood breaks the bread, their

(50:09):
eyes are opened, and then poof,he's gone. And then Luke 2432,
they turn to each other and say,weren't our hearts burning
within us along the way, as hewas revealing the Scriptures to
us? You know, basically, weshould have seen that we should
have realized that this wasJesus here this whole time. But
you know, hindsight is 2020.
Where do you now look back atyour life and you say, You know

(50:31):
what, I didn't see at themoment. But Jesus really was
right there with me.

Well, I believe in every stage of my journey, that
Jesus was there behind the veil.
It was needful for me to gothrough the stage of being a
Roman Catholic. Because wheneveryou come out of a certain kind
of darkness, you earn the rightto deliver someone else from the
same darkness, knowledgeably,and compassionately. And so I

(50:58):
can reach a Catholic the way aProtestant can. And in like
manner, I believe God was withme all the years, I went through
Edgar Casey prayer groups andNew Age meetings and yoga and
meditation, because now I canreach back and deliver someone
else from the same darkness.

(51:18):
Because I've earned the rightand they can resonate with what
I have to say, because Iunderstand where they're at. And
I can relate to a rock musician,I can relate to an overdose
victim, I can relate to thosekinds of people. So God is an
amazing genius at taking all thenegatives in our lives and
turning them into positives. He,well, I love to put it this way.

(51:43):
God doesn't always call thequalified, but he always
qualifies the call. And one ofthe main ways he does that is
through life's experiences. Andso I think it's intriguing when
I look back to my days as aCatholic, and remember, I won an
award for a paper that I wrote,on fulfilling your vocation. And

(52:06):
it was all about a conversationwith God, and with the devil and
with myself over all the excuseswe make, in not fulfilling our
vocation and a vocation is aCatholic term, meaning your
calling. And, and so I had thispaper that I got an A plus on
and didn't know the Lord yet,and didn't know I had a calling

(52:28):
yet. And yet I wrote a paperabout it. And that's just
another way of identifying amoment I think we're invisibly
subliminally God was moving onmy heart and given me insights.
I go back and read that paperthat I wrote, and it's full of
wisdom that I now embrace. And Ithought, Where did that come

(52:51):
from? It must come from the HolySpirit.

Amen. Amen. You know, my follow up question to
that is, Mike, if you could goback in time, and visit your
younger self, somewhere alongyour journey. What advice would
you give yourself? And what'sgoing on in your life that you
would want to receive thatadvice?

Oh, wow, what a question. What a question. What
a question. It's hard to say, ina nutshell, I would tell myself
to be even more radical, inbeing a disciple, to separate
myself even more completely fromthe world, and to always obey

(53:30):
the voice of the Lord. Some ofthe hardest things to deal with
other times, I believe I missedGod's voice. I'm not talking
about ramping terrible sin. I'mtalking about times I could have
had a real outbreak of revivalor a real move of God and miss

(53:51):
the voice of God. And have youknow, my mom beats me up about
those times for decades since.
And, and I would tell my youngerself, pray until you get more
sensitive to immediate responseto the voice of the Lord, even
when he tells you something youdon't anticipate. Thank God for
the man who didn't walk in thelaundromat and wash his clothes

(54:13):
anyway and say, Oh, that'scrazy. God doesn't care about me
washing my clothes. Well, he didcare, because there was
something more that God wantedto do than just get a batch of
dirty clothes clean. Andsometimes we do God's thinking
for him. And I think we need toact in obedience even when it
doesn't look logical. Even whenit doesn't seem we have enough

(54:34):
money to do it. Even when itdoesn't seem we're qualified to
do it. If God says, do it, jumpin the fray, fight the battle
and advance the Kingdom of God.

Amen. That's great wisdom right there. Pastor
Mike, I do have another questionfor you that it just I've been
wanting to ask this fromwhenever you said this earlier
on, was that you used to get upwhen you were a yogi at 330 The
morning and meditate and doeverything till five and then
you had classes in the eveningand everything after you came to

(55:09):
Jesus, what happened that nextday that your body just want to
get up at 330? And then what didyou do instead of what you had
been doing?

Well, of course, I quit doing all yoga practices.
Instead, I started reading theBible and praying, as I learned
how to pray, I didn't reallyknow how to pray. But I read the
Bible a lot. But my schedulechanged, eventually. Not too
much. But within a few weeks, Igot a construction job. So I had

(55:40):
to be up about 530 to go there,and of course, work all day. And
then we had the community Ilived in. We were all radical ex
hippies, ex druggies, ex, NewAgers, etc. And we were all
minded toward being radical inour commitment to the Lord. And
so we had church seven nights aweek, we would eat dinner after

(56:03):
we got home from work and startchurch about seven o'clock, and
never end till after midnight.
Oh, wow. And, and consequently,we didn't sleep much, but we
didn't need sleep, we'd get sofired up, but the presence of
God the power of God. So Icontinued in a discipline life
within a different kind offramework, etc. But it wasn't
mechanical. When when meditationwhen a person's attempt to reach

(56:28):
God is to mechanical, ormindless, or mundane or
monotonous, like the repetitionof a chant over and over again,
it's not the right approach.
Because even Jesus said, use notvain repetitions like the

(56:50):
heathen do, you would notapproach a fellow human being by
chanting the same phrase 1000times, to try and communicate
what you want to a fellow humanbeing that turn you off after
three or four times. And God's alot more intelligent than that.
And so chanting mantras to himis an absurd way of approaching

(57:11):
God.

Yeah, that's, that's, I'm just blown away at
the, the the amazing change thatyou went through, because you
were searching for God, you'researching for that true light.
And then the true light foundyou. Jesus found you. And I love
that now you're helping peopleunderstand? How about how they

(57:33):
can find the true light of JesusChrist, and you have the true
light project? Can you just tellus about that, and how people
can get a hold of thoseresources?

Well, as I mentioned a while ago, I have,
actually I have severalwebsites. One is our ministry
website, which is Shreeveministries.org. But we have an
outreach website called the truelight.net. Be sure to put the
article th e at the beginningthe true light.net. And on that

(58:04):
website, we have stories ofpeople who have been converted
from other non Christianreligions, primarily Eastern
religions, or New Agespirituality. We have video
stories, we have writtenstories, we have articles, we
have podcasts, we have TVprograms, and all geared toward
this theme of comparativereligion. We've had hundreds of

(58:26):
1000s of hits from all over theworld. And I'm very excited,
I've got a downloadable bookletcalled the highest adventure,
encountering God that tells mystory in greater detail than I
even shared with you today. Andit's on the second panel on the
homepage, when you scroll down,you'll see the highest adventure

(58:47):
encountering God in eightdifferent languages other than
English, it's there in Spanishand Hindi and traditional
Chinese and simplified Chineseand Japanese and Portuguese and,
and polish. I don't know if Icovered all of them, but it's
there. And oh, also German. Andwe get a lot of visitors to the

(59:08):
website from Germany. But many,many 1000s of people have
downloaded that booklet is free.
And it tells the story of myjourney out of Eastern religions
into becoming a follower ofJesus. And so I invite all your
listeners to come to the truelight.net and download that mini
book. It's a mini book about 64pages long and is yours free of

(59:29):
charge. Share it with somebodythat needs Jesus.

Amen, amen. I'm going to make sure that I put
links to all that stuff in theshow descriptions attached to
this episode so that everybodycan find it really easily. Just
click the link and it'll takeyou right there. Pastor Mike,
before we wrap up here, thisnext stage of your journey along
the way with Jesus, what is Godusing to encourage you right now

(59:55):
in this next phase of yourjourney?

Well, I plan on getting more involved in media
work than I ever had. I'vetravelled for over 50 years. And
I don't feel as compelled totravel all the time as I used to
my inner impulse now is to go aspassionately as I can into
television production, I wouldlove to have a weekly show up,

(01:00:21):
not a daily show in India, andin Pakistan, and it's called The
show is called In Search of thetrue light. And I've got a
couple of examples on thewebsite. And that really, would
be the focus I would like totake in my journey right now.
And of course, I'm intopublishing too. I'm about to

(01:00:43):
publish a book, as I mentionedto you called the beliefs and
practices of the CatholicChurch. And the subtitle is 25
Questions from a former Catholicwho loves Catholics. And I hope
to send that out free to 1000sof Catholics across the country.
That's awesome. I've got a bigvision that keeps me awake at

(01:01:06):
night. And pushes me along theway.

John Matarazzo (01:01:10):
That's wonderful Pastor Mike, you know, I really
appreciate your story about howGod has brought you to where you
are today and how he's met youalong the way. And it is super
encouraging just to hear that,no matter how far away from the
Lord that somebody can be, thatGod can send a hippie in a van,

(01:01:31):
to go pick them up and divertthe, you know, divert their
laundry day a little bit, to gopick up somebody whose life is
going to be changed forever, sothat your life can affect other
people. Anytime that I hearstories like that, I'm just
encouraged. With my faith, Iknow that God really is all
along the way with the journeyfor us. He's all in the journey

(01:01:54):
with us. And so I just want tothank you for allowing me to
join you along your way.

Mike Shreve (01:01:59):
Well, thank you very much for allowing me to
participate. And I just praythat your podcasts will reach an
impact many, many 1000s ofpeople, John, I believe that's
your heart. That's your heartcry. And I certainly pray God
will open doors you neverexpected.

John Matarazzo (01:02:18):
I hope that you enjoyed my conversation with
Pastor Mike Sree. I'll beproviding his information in the
show notes. Thank you forlistening to along the way. If
you've enjoyed joining me alongmy way, please share this with a
friend who you think will beencouraged by this podcast.
Also, please rate and reviewalong the way on iTunes. That
helps more people discover alongthe way. And subscribe to this

(01:02:39):
podcast wherever you'relistening. You can follow me on
Facebook, Instagram and throughmy website along the way dot
media. I hope that you'veenjoyed this part of my journey.
And may you realize when Jesusis walking with you along your
way. Along the way is honored tobe part of the charisma Podcast

(01:02:59):
Network. You can find tons ofspirit filled content from the
vast catalogue of podcasts,including my Monday through
Friday news stories for thecharisma news podcast. Go to CPN
shows.com To see the full listand latest episodes

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“Finding the True Light” - Mike Shreve - AlongTheWay 116

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}“Finding the True Light” - Mike Shreve - AlongTheWay 116