February 25, 2024 • 30 mins
As a New Age guru, Mike Shreve decided to give Jesus one day. Then this happened...
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Episode Transcript
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(00:00):
Hello. My name is Mike Shreeve. I'm from Cleveland, Tennessee. I
was saved born again during the JesusRevolution in nineteen and seventy and for over
fifty years, I've been traveling worldwidesharing the truths of God's Word that transformed
my life. And that's what Iwant to share with you on this presentation,
(00:24):
the things that have been miraculous inbringing wholeness and understanding and peace and
joy to my life that I knowwill work the same in you. I
was raised Roman Catholic and I wasvery fervent. I was very committed.
My family was very passionate about beingat church every Sunday, and I was
(00:48):
an aultar boy at one point andactually on my way to the monastery later
on in life. So I understandthat worldview in its depth. And in
the Catholic Church, when a childis sprinkled, they teach that certain things
happen. That child is born again, that child receives the unfeeling of the
(01:11):
Spirit of God, that child isaccepted and brought into the church, receives
the gift of eternal life, andoriginal sin is canceled. But none of
those things happened that's just a ritualof the church. Infant baptism does not
bring forth any of those five things. And consequently, I had an empty
(01:34):
heart that needed to be filled,and there was still a vacuum inside of
me that would not be satisfied withanything but a real, true, valid
encounter with the creator of the universe. So as I became a teenager,
I grew disenchanted with Catholicism and wentoff in another direction that was far worse
(01:57):
and far darker than anything I'd beenin my life up to that point.
I became a rock musician, andI was traveling all around the Southeast with
a rock band, and the lifestylethat that develops into is not a good
thing. And consequently I almost diedat the age of eighteen. And it
(02:23):
was a bad thing, but itwas a good thing. It was a
negative thing, but it was apositive thing. I felt my soul or
I had the impression of my soulleaving my body and going out into this
throbbing, black void, and itwas just pulsating, and my soul felt
(02:43):
like it was speeding up a credible, incredible rate of speed, and I
knew I was transitioning from time toeternity. I knew I was leaving the
earth and going somewhere. Thankfully,though, I came back from that harbor
experience and I realized how shallow mylife was. I realized I was living
(03:06):
for things that had no value,and that I was a very egotistical person,
and it put me on a journey. I at first turned my gaze
back toward Catholicism, but that neverfulfilled me. So I thought I need
something deeper, and at the time, there was a megatren going through our
(03:28):
Western culture of people turning to yogaand Eastern religions, studying under gurus and
swamis, and I got intrigued withthat. Of course, I was a
fan of the Beatles, and theBeatles were all involved with Maharishi Mahesh Yogi
and his brand of yoga, andso that helped influence me that direction.
(03:53):
Then I met a man named YogiBajan who ran a group called Kundalini Yoga.
I got very enthralled with it becauseit was an extremely disciplined path of
spirituality. When I got into theheat of it, we were getting up
at three point thirty every morning,starting the day with two to three hours
(04:14):
of different kinds of meditation and yoga, and then going into hatha yoga,
which is the physical usnas and thenreading various scriptures like the Baghabad Gida for
an hour or two, and thenback into meditation, back into hatha yoga
exercises all day long, for twelveto fourteen hours a day, I was
(04:36):
involved in some kind of discipline thatwas geared towards this elusive experience that they
called God consciousness. But let meinsert right here that in that worldview,
in that belief system, god consciousnessmeans a conscious awareness that you are God,
(04:59):
which is the antithesis of the truth. It's the absolute opposite of what
the Bible teaches. I'll never beGod, and I don't aspire to be
God. God in himself is apersonal God, not an impersonal life force,
which we were taught that on anultimate level, God is referred to
(05:23):
in Hinduism as Brahmin, which isa non personal being, an energy,
a life force that flows through theentire universe. And you have to use
the right kind of mantra channing inorder to tap into this power called Brahman
(05:45):
or the right kind of yogic meditativedisciplines, and it's all about stirring up
something called the kundalini. Now,I know that's a foreign term to a
lot of people, but it's notforeign to Hindus and to New Agers.
The word kundalini means serpent power,and according to Hindu teaching, there is
(06:09):
a dormant power at the base ofthe spine that needs to be unleashed,
and that dormant power is referred toas the kundalini, the serpent power.
Now that should have been a redflag to me being raised immediately, because
I learned enough in Catholicism to knowthat a serpent is a symbol of evil,
(06:30):
a serpent is a symbol of somethingsatanic. But in New Age spirituality,
a serpent is a symbol of esotericwisdom. And it is taught by
some that the serpent was actually afriend to Eve and to Adam, who
enlighten them concerning their own divine nature. So it's flipping what the Bible teaches
(06:57):
altogether. Basically, the teaching isthat win through meditation, through pranayama,
which are the breathing exercises, andasanas which are the physical exercises, and
through various Yogic disciplines that Kundalini powercan be raised up and it travels like
a serpent through the spine through somethingthey call chakras, and chakras are supposed
(07:25):
energy centers, seven of them inthe human body along the spine, seven
energy centers from the base of thespine all the way up to what most
Westerners are familiar with, something calledthe third eye, and the final one
is the crown chakra. But thesedo not exist. They've never been proven
(07:46):
to exist scientifically, and the guruI've studied under ironically said that they were
imaginary, that they did not exist, they were just aids in meditation.
But supposedly this power travels up tothe crown chakra, and that's where a
(08:07):
person merges with the Godhead and entersinto self realization. Christ consciousness, God
consciousness. There's a lot of namesgiven to it, but it's erroneous.
It doesn't happen. I had strangeexperiences. I had out of body experiences
into what they call the astral realm, or what seemed to be an out
(08:28):
of body experience. I even wentinto brilliant, intense white light one time.
But now I believe all of Thesewere deceptive experiences given to me not
by God, but by another poweraltogether, a dark power, the Prince
of darkness himself. But let meshow the difference by telling you how I
(08:52):
finally found the Lord Jesus Christ.When I was teaching yogen universities University of
Tampa, University of South Florida,Florida, Presbyterian University, and a school
called New College down in Sarasota,Florida. The Tampa Tribune newspaper heard about
(09:13):
what I was doing and the ashramthat I was running there in Tampa,
and they got intrigued with my stories. So they sent a reporter out and
they did about a half page articleon my yoga classes and my yoga ashram.
And I thought it would increase myclass attendance. Little did I know
(09:35):
it would also alert this Christian prayergroup in town to start praying for me
on an ongoing basis. And theyhad a twenty four hour prayer chain,
and they assigned somebody to be fastingand praying for me every hour of every
day. Now, how do youescape intercession like that? Right? Because
(09:56):
they knew I had a heart fortruth, a heart for God, I
was passionate about seeking ultimate reality.But I was deceived. I was looking
in all the wrong places. AndJesus made a very bold statement in John
fourteen, verse six. He said, I am the Way, the Truth,
and the life, and no onecomes to the Father but by me.
(10:22):
That was a statement that was eithermade by a self deluded religious maniac
or who he claimed to be Godincarnate in human flesh. And of course
the latter is the truth. Hewas the Way, the truth, and
the life, and he is theway, the truth and the life.
And no one can come to theFather but by him. I don't care
(10:43):
if you spend your entire life meditatingand doing yoga. You have to go
through God's designed pathway to restoration.See, because Jesus is different. He's
completely different than any other religion justapproach. All religions are man's effort to
(11:03):
reach God. But Jesus is theFather's effort to reach man. Because well,
just a couple of examples. Buddhadied of food poisoning when he was
about eighty, but Jesus died amuch worse death than food poisoning. He
was crucified, yet three days laterhe arose from the dead and proclaimed to
(11:26):
his disciples, I am alive,and I'm alive forever more. There's something
much different about Jesus. Mohammad toldhis followers that he wasn't sure where he
was going at death, and yetJesus told his disciples exactly what was going
to happen. He said, I'mgoing away, but he said I'm going
(11:48):
to come again and receive you undermyself that where I am, you may
be also. So follow Jesus.He's a much more credible path. And
his truth, the only truth thatworks in restoring human beings to a relationship
with God, is the one thatwill set you free, because Jesus said,
(12:11):
you will know the truth, andthe truth will set you free.
But let me tell you how ithappened to me. So anyway, this
article came out in the newspaper,I thought my classroom attendants would mushroom.
I thought there would be hundreds andhundreds begin to attend my classes. Instead,
it alerted this fur group to startpraying for me, and for about
(12:35):
three weeks four weeks, they soughtGod in my behalf, and then things
started happening. God got involved.Nothing in this world happens without God's involvement
and without prayer appealing to Him forhis involvement to take place. And so
the first thing, the first andmost important thing that triggered the whole process,
(13:00):
I got a letter from an oldfriend of mine. He and I
had dropped out of college for thesame purpose to study under different gurus and
to search for God and search fortruth until we found those two things.
Well, I get this surprising letterfrom him, and Larry said, Mike,
you'll never find God through the yogicdisciplines you're involved in. He said,
(13:24):
I walked into a church, andas I walked through the door of
the church, I heard an audiblevoice say, Jesus is the only way.
And he said, when I heardthose words, the spirit of God
fell on me and I was bornagain. Well, as a Catholic,
God never heard that phrase being bornagain, and certainly that was not something
(13:48):
celebrated in New Age spirituality or yogaor Hinduism. So that phrase intrigued me
to begin with, what is thisspiritual rebirth? And then he said the
spirit of God came upon him andfilled his heart up. And I thought,
that's a completely different approach than whatI was teaching my students as a
(14:11):
yoga teacher. They considered me theirguru. And the word garu simply means
a teacher, but it comes fromtwo root words gu and ru that mean
out of darkness into light. Butthere was a big problem. I couldn't
be a quote unquote guru because Iwasn't in the light yet. I was
(14:31):
still in darkness, groping my waythrough religious and spiritual darkness, trying to
find the truth. And the Biblesays Jesus is the true light, implying
that there's a false light too.Jesus is the true light that lights every
man who comes into the world.So that intrigued me that the spirit of
(14:52):
God came into Larry and he wasborn again. And in Eastern religions they
teach that God is all ready insideof you. There's a spark of divinity
within every human being. So tofind God, you look within. But
Larry said, no, he's external, he's outside of you, and he's
a personal God, and that shouldbe in capital letters, a personal God,
(15:16):
not an impersonal life force. Thatcaught my attention, and then he
talked about the cross, the crucifixionof Jesus, how Jesus took upon himself
the sins of the whole human raceand canceled out our indebtedness. That because
of our sin, we deserve eternaldeath, physical death, spiritual death,
(15:37):
death in every area of our being, mentally and emotionally. And yet Jesus
took that upon him and canceled itso that we could be free, and
so that the life of God couldbe deposited in us. I thought,
I don't know if I believed thator not. I tried Christianity, but
see, I misjudged Christianity by whatI'd been exposed to as a young person,
(16:00):
and I was very fervent. AsI mentioned, we went to church
all the time. I was anultar boy. Thankfully, the priests I
served under were good men. Theywere actually great role models of christ like
character. They were very devoted,very loving, very gentle, very kind
individuals. But still they didn't knowhow to have a personal relationship with Jesus.
(16:26):
They didn't know how to be bornagain, and never trained me.
And so I had misjudged Christianity bywhat I'd been exposed to. I thought,
maybe there's something about the Bible thatI haven't encountered yet. Maybe there's
something about the Bible that would changemy life radically. So I decided to
(16:48):
dedicate one day to the Lord JesusChrist, just one day. He was
very gracious and very kind to condescendto my fleece, so to speak,
that I set before him. Isaid, Lord, if you're real,
if you're the savior of the world, if you're the only way to heaven,
and if you were really God incarnatein human flesh. Hindus would say
(17:14):
he was an avatar among many avatars, but the Bible says he was the
only incarnation of God. And Isaid, if that be true, then
give me a sign today. I'mgoing to dedicate this day to you.
And I decided not to do anyyogic disciplines, no asanas, no pronayama,
no reading of the Baghabad Gida orthe Vedas or anything else. All
(17:37):
I did was read the Bible andpray to Jesus alternately all day long.
I'd read the Bible for an hour, then pray for a half hour.
Then I'd read the Bible for anhour and pray for a half hour,
whatever combination I chose. And themain books I read from were the Gospel,
of John and the Book of Revelation, And when I read the Book
(18:00):
of Revelation, it stirred me.Even back in nineteen seventy, I could
see these things are unfolding, theseare the last days prior to the coming
of Jesus back to this world.I could see the signs of the times
even then. So I prayed allday long, expecting a vision, an
audible voice, some kind of supernaturalmanifestation, because that's what happened to my
(18:25):
friend. He felt this supernatural realnessof the presence of God in his life.
But God had a different way plannedfor me to come into that encounter.
That afternoon, I was on myway to a yoga class to teach
at University of South Florida, andthere was going to be I don't know,
(18:45):
twenty or thirty students there that night. I had to walk everywhere because
I'd made a commitment not to ownany material things that was part of my
spiritual discipline. And if I wasrunning a little late, i'd have to
hitchhike. So I was hitchhiking,and it was really important that i'd be
hitchhiking that day because two miles away. Now God's setting this up miraculously.
(19:07):
One of the members of the prayergroup was walking into a laundermat. He
was a college student named Ken Sullivan, and he had to wash his dirty
clothes, a very mundane task,and as he walked through the door of
the launder met the Holy Spirit spoketo his heart and said, don't go
in there, get back in yourvan and start driving. I've got a
(19:30):
job for you to do. That'sall the instructions God gave him. And
see, a lot of people waituntil they have all of the information in
place before they step out to dosomething for the Kingdom of God. But
God doesn't always give you all theinformation at once. You've got to do
what He says to do, andthen as you obey, he fills in
(19:52):
the blanks. So Kent started driving, and whenever he fell an impulse,
he turned pray, God, wheredo you want me to go? Why
have you told me to do this? And then you feel lead to turn
again. He drove about two milesand saw me HITCHI King, not knowing
I was the yoga teacher that hisprayer group had been praying for for almost
(20:17):
a month. He pulled over topick me up. I opened the door
to his vehicle, and my heartjumped because on the ceiling of the vand
he had taped a picture of Jesus. Now, remember, I've been praying
all day long, Jesus, ifyou are the answer, show me today,
show me today. And that wasmy answer. That was my sign.
(20:41):
I knew when I saw the picture. So I'm sitting there in high
anticipation and Kent, in a fewminutes, clears his throat and says,
Mike, can I ask your question? I said yes, and he said,
have you ever experienced Jesus coming intoyour heart? And I surprised him
with my response. I said no, but when can I and he did
(21:03):
a double take. He looked atme like, you're not supposed to give
him that quick. He said,you can come to our per meeting tonight.
I said, I don't want towait for a prayer meeting. I've
been praying to the Lord Jesus allday long. I want to encounter him
now. So Kent pulled over tothe side of the road and I knelt
down with him in the back ofhis van and we started talking, and
(21:27):
I found out that he had beenmore deeply involved in yoga than I had
so he could communicate to me inmy language. What an incredible set up
by the Holy Spirit. The rightperson at the right place, at the
right time, within about a fiveminute window of time. That's usually how
long it took me to get aride hitchhiking. God brought that person into
(21:52):
my life that could lead me tothe truth. And I stumbled my way
through a prayer. I thought,this is so simple, it's too simple.
But he shared with me how topray, and I said, Lord
Jesus, I believe that you diedon the cross for the sins of humanity.
I believe you rose again. Ibelieve you're the savior of the world.
(22:12):
And I invite you to come intomy heart and be the lord of
my life. I repented my sins. I repented my involvement in the occult
and in false religions. I askedyou to cleanse me in your precious blood,
and I asked you to give me. I received by faith the gift
of eternal life. And suddenly Ifelt this warm sensation in the deepest part
(22:37):
of my being, and I knewI was being spiritually reborn. I knew
I was being born again. Andit was such a real encounter such an
undeniable witness of the reality of Jesusthat I knew I had found the truth.
And I asked Kent to go withme to my yoga class, and
he did joyful, was very joyfulto join me in that class. And
(23:03):
I mentioned to the people that unknowinglyI had misled them, that the classes
were canceled. From that point forward, I was shutting down my yoga ashram
and that I had finally found thetruth. Most of my followers became Christians
also and became followers of Jesus instead. And one girl, one college student,
(23:26):
got so confused she told me shedropped out of college. It messed
her mind up so bad that herguru it turned into a Jesus freak,
that she just couldn't handle life anymoreand took off hitchhiking, and two years
later she landed in a Christian communein California where they finally led her to
the Lord. And then about fouror five years ago, she contacted me
(23:48):
on Facebook and she said, thankyou for your witness. I finally found
the truth. And so that weekI did the same thing in all of
my classes, and many of themwere very responsive to what I had to
share. I launched a project calledthe True Light Project around the turn of
the millennium because I felt very passionatelythat I needed to reach out to people
(24:15):
of my former mindset, because Iknow how to communicate truth to them.
I built a website called the TrueLight dot Net and posted my story on
the website and began posting the storiesof other people on that website, and
thousands and thousands of people. We'vehad about four million hits from all over
(24:36):
the world, people who have cometo that website and found out the truths
of Biblical Christianity as compared to Easternreligions. And there's a market difference in
many different areas that are vitally vitallyimportant. For instance, as I mentioned
(24:57):
a while ago, God is envisionedto be in many Eastern religions and New
Age spirituality just an impersonal force thatflows through everything. It's based on an
idea called pantheism, and pantheism isthe concept that the universe is not a
(25:18):
creation of God. The universe isan emanation of God. So everything at
its core is divine and it's adivine manifestation. And for that reason many
new Agers and Hindus believe the universeis God and God is the universe because
(25:38):
it was a manifestation, not acreation, separate from Him. And if
you say everything is God, pantheismmeans all is God pan theos two words
joined together, all is God andGod is All, then it's no quantum
leap of logic to say we areGod. Unfortunately, though, that becomes
(26:00):
a huge theological hurdle because if yousay we are God, that little word
we includes the worst of the humanrace like an Adolf Hitler, or the
most excellent of the human race.And you can imagine the best, most
moral, most kind and good individualsyou know, and you're saying we are
(26:22):
God. So the next step oflogic you have to take is if we
are God and that includes the eviland the good. And this is what
the yin yang symbol represents, thedark and light teardrops fused together in one
circle. Then on an ultimate level, God must be both evil and good.
If a manifestation of God results inevil and good, God must be
(26:47):
both darkness and light. But theBible refuses that. The Bible says God
is light and in him is nodarkness at all, and the only way
that can be true is if Godexis this apart from the physical universe,
which is actually the correct interpretation ofthe nature of God, and that therefore
(27:10):
He is all good, he isall love, he is all beauty and
kindness, and he is a holyGod, untainted by sin and untainted by
the evil that's in this world.Well, I learned those lessons, and
I also learned a lot after Ibecame a Christian. A year later,
I was baptized in the Holy Spirit, and I spoke in tongues, and
(27:34):
I knew that I'd finally received thesame experience the apostles did in the Upper
Room and in Catholicism. I wastaught as an eleven year old boy that
I received the Holy Spirit when Iwas confirmed, But all I received was
a new name of a patron saint. I was supposed to pray to the
(27:55):
rest of my life that I wassupposed to have a personal relationship with which
I believe it's biblically incorrect now,But when I was baptized in the Holy
Spirit, it happened, just likeit did to the early disciples. I
was filled with the Holy Spirit,and I spoke in tongues. I've opened
up a website for Catholics also calledto Catholics with Love dot org, and
(28:19):
I invite you to visit that website. I've written a book too, called
The Beliefs of the Catholic Church,and also another book called In Search of
the True Light. In Search ofthe True Light is a comparison of all
world religions and the beliefs of theCatholic Church, inspects twenty five major doctrines
(28:40):
and beliefs of the Catholic Church andresponds with Biblical Christianity. I invite you
to search both of those out andcome to our websites, and hopefully we'll
be able to even share more truthsthat will bring freedom and wholeness to your
life. Let's pray right now.If you have never received Jesus into your
(29:00):
heart, this is a great timeto do so. And he's waiting.
He's knocking on the door of yourheart, saying, if you'll just open
the door, I'll come in toyou. And that's a promise given in
Revelation three, verse twenty one.So let's pray right now. Just say
these words after me, Lord Jesus, I give you my life. I
(29:23):
believe you died on the cross formy sins, and I claim your blood
washing my sins away. I repentof my sins, and I ask you
to be lord of my life.I believe you rose from the dead,
(29:47):
and I believe that you're coming backagain, and that I will rise from
the dead to meet you by acceptingyou as my savior. Thank you,
you, Jesus, for saving mysoul. In your name, Amen.
Hello. My name is Mike Shreeve. I'm from Cleveland, Tennessee. I
was saved born again during the JesusRevolution in nineteen and seventy and for over
fifty years, I've been traveling worldwidesharing the truths of God's Word that transformed
my life. And that's what Iwant to share with you on this presentation,
(00:24):
the things that have been miraculous inbringing wholeness and understanding and peace and
joy to my life that I knowwill work the same in you. I
was raised Roman Catholic and I wasvery fervent. I was very committed.
My family was very passionate about beingat church every Sunday, and I was
(00:48):
an aultar boy at one point andactually on my way to the monastery later
on in life. So I understandthat worldview in its depth. And in
the Catholic Church, when a childis sprinkled, they teach that certain things
happen. That child is born again, that child receives the unfeeling of the
(01:11):
Spirit of God, that child isaccepted and brought into the church, receives
the gift of eternal life, andoriginal sin is canceled. But none of
those things happened that's just a ritualof the church. Infant baptism does not
bring forth any of those five things. And consequently, I had an empty
(01:34):
heart that needed to be filled,and there was still a vacuum inside of
me that would not be satisfied withanything but a real, true, valid
encounter with the creator of the universe. So as I became a teenager,
I grew disenchanted with Catholicism and wentoff in another direction that was far worse
(01:57):
and far darker than anything I'd beenin my life up to that point.
I became a rock musician, andI was traveling all around the Southeast with
a rock band, and the lifestylethat that develops into is not a good
thing. And consequently I almost diedat the age of eighteen. And it
(02:23):
was a bad thing, but itwas a good thing. It was a
negative thing, but it was apositive thing. I felt my soul or
I had the impression of my soulleaving my body and going out into this
throbbing, black void, and itwas just pulsating, and my soul felt
(02:43):
like it was speeding up a credible, incredible rate of speed, and I
knew I was transitioning from time toeternity. I knew I was leaving the
earth and going somewhere. Thankfully,though, I came back from that harbor
experience and I realized how shallow mylife was. I realized I was living
(03:06):
for things that had no value,and that I was a very egotistical person,
and it put me on a journey. I at first turned my gaze
back toward Catholicism, but that neverfulfilled me. So I thought I need
something deeper, and at the time, there was a megatren going through our
(03:28):
Western culture of people turning to yogaand Eastern religions, studying under gurus and
swamis, and I got intrigued withthat. Of course, I was a
fan of the Beatles, and theBeatles were all involved with Maharishi Mahesh Yogi
and his brand of yoga, andso that helped influence me that direction.
(03:53):
Then I met a man named YogiBajan who ran a group called Kundalini Yoga.
I got very enthralled with it becauseit was an extremely disciplined path of
spirituality. When I got into theheat of it, we were getting up
at three point thirty every morning,starting the day with two to three hours
(04:14):
of different kinds of meditation and yoga, and then going into hatha yoga,
which is the physical usnas and thenreading various scriptures like the Baghabad Gida for
an hour or two, and thenback into meditation, back into hatha yoga
exercises all day long, for twelveto fourteen hours a day, I was
(04:36):
involved in some kind of discipline thatwas geared towards this elusive experience that they
called God consciousness. But let meinsert right here that in that worldview,
in that belief system, god consciousnessmeans a conscious awareness that you are God,
(04:59):
which is the antithesis of the truth. It's the absolute opposite of what
the Bible teaches. I'll never beGod, and I don't aspire to be
God. God in himself is apersonal God, not an impersonal life force,
which we were taught that on anultimate level, God is referred to
(05:23):
in Hinduism as Brahmin, which isa non personal being, an energy,
a life force that flows through theentire universe. And you have to use
the right kind of mantra channing inorder to tap into this power called Brahman
(05:45):
or the right kind of yogic meditativedisciplines, and it's all about stirring up
something called the kundalini. Now,I know that's a foreign term to a
lot of people, but it's notforeign to Hindus and to New Agers.
The word kundalini means serpent power,and according to Hindu teaching, there is
(06:09):
a dormant power at the base ofthe spine that needs to be unleashed,
and that dormant power is referred toas the kundalini, the serpent power.
Now that should have been a redflag to me being raised immediately, because
I learned enough in Catholicism to knowthat a serpent is a symbol of evil,
(06:30):
a serpent is a symbol of somethingsatanic. But in New Age spirituality,
a serpent is a symbol of esotericwisdom. And it is taught by
some that the serpent was actually afriend to Eve and to Adam, who
enlighten them concerning their own divine nature. So it's flipping what the Bible teaches
(06:57):
altogether. Basically, the teaching isthat win through meditation, through pranayama,
which are the breathing exercises, andasanas which are the physical exercises, and
through various Yogic disciplines that Kundalini powercan be raised up and it travels like
a serpent through the spine through somethingthey call chakras, and chakras are supposed
(07:25):
energy centers, seven of them inthe human body along the spine, seven
energy centers from the base of thespine all the way up to what most
Westerners are familiar with, something calledthe third eye, and the final one
is the crown chakra. But thesedo not exist. They've never been proven
(07:46):
to exist scientifically, and the guruI've studied under ironically said that they were
imaginary, that they did not exist, they were just aids in meditation.
But supposedly this power travels up tothe crown chakra, and that's where a
(08:07):
person merges with the Godhead and entersinto self realization. Christ consciousness, God
consciousness. There's a lot of namesgiven to it, but it's erroneous.
It doesn't happen. I had strangeexperiences. I had out of body experiences
into what they call the astral realm, or what seemed to be an out
(08:28):
of body experience. I even wentinto brilliant, intense white light one time.
But now I believe all of Thesewere deceptive experiences given to me not
by God, but by another poweraltogether, a dark power, the Prince
of darkness himself. But let meshow the difference by telling you how I
(08:52):
finally found the Lord Jesus Christ.When I was teaching yogen universities University of
Tampa, University of South Florida,Florida, Presbyterian University, and a school
called New College down in Sarasota,Florida. The Tampa Tribune newspaper heard about
(09:13):
what I was doing and the ashramthat I was running there in Tampa,
and they got intrigued with my stories. So they sent a reporter out and
they did about a half page articleon my yoga classes and my yoga ashram.
And I thought it would increase myclass attendance. Little did I know
(09:35):
it would also alert this Christian prayergroup in town to start praying for me
on an ongoing basis. And theyhad a twenty four hour prayer chain,
and they assigned somebody to be fastingand praying for me every hour of every
day. Now, how do youescape intercession like that? Right? Because
(09:56):
they knew I had a heart fortruth, a heart for God, I
was passionate about seeking ultimate reality.But I was deceived. I was looking
in all the wrong places. AndJesus made a very bold statement in John
fourteen, verse six. He said, I am the Way, the Truth,
and the life, and no onecomes to the Father but by me.
(10:22):
That was a statement that was eithermade by a self deluded religious maniac
or who he claimed to be Godincarnate in human flesh. And of course
the latter is the truth. Hewas the Way, the truth, and
the life, and he is theway, the truth and the life.
And no one can come to theFather but by him. I don't care
(10:43):
if you spend your entire life meditatingand doing yoga. You have to go
through God's designed pathway to restoration.See, because Jesus is different. He's
completely different than any other religion justapproach. All religions are man's effort to
(11:03):
reach God. But Jesus is theFather's effort to reach man. Because well,
just a couple of examples. Buddhadied of food poisoning when he was
about eighty, but Jesus died amuch worse death than food poisoning. He
was crucified, yet three days laterhe arose from the dead and proclaimed to
(11:26):
his disciples, I am alive,and I'm alive forever more. There's something
much different about Jesus. Mohammad toldhis followers that he wasn't sure where he
was going at death, and yetJesus told his disciples exactly what was going
to happen. He said, I'mgoing away, but he said I'm going
(11:48):
to come again and receive you undermyself that where I am, you may
be also. So follow Jesus.He's a much more credible path. And
his truth, the only truth thatworks in restoring human beings to a relationship
with God, is the one thatwill set you free, because Jesus said,
(12:11):
you will know the truth, andthe truth will set you free.
But let me tell you how ithappened to me. So anyway, this
article came out in the newspaper,I thought my classroom attendants would mushroom.
I thought there would be hundreds andhundreds begin to attend my classes. Instead,
it alerted this fur group to startpraying for me, and for about
(12:35):
three weeks four weeks, they soughtGod in my behalf, and then things
started happening. God got involved.Nothing in this world happens without God's involvement
and without prayer appealing to Him forhis involvement to take place. And so
the first thing, the first andmost important thing that triggered the whole process,
(13:00):
I got a letter from an oldfriend of mine. He and I
had dropped out of college for thesame purpose to study under different gurus and
to search for God and search fortruth until we found those two things.
Well, I get this surprising letterfrom him, and Larry said, Mike,
you'll never find God through the yogicdisciplines you're involved in. He said,
(13:24):
I walked into a church, andas I walked through the door of
the church, I heard an audiblevoice say, Jesus is the only way.
And he said, when I heardthose words, the spirit of God
fell on me and I was bornagain. Well, as a Catholic,
God never heard that phrase being bornagain, and certainly that was not something
(13:48):
celebrated in New Age spirituality or yogaor Hinduism. So that phrase intrigued me
to begin with, what is thisspiritual rebirth? And then he said the
spirit of God came upon him andfilled his heart up. And I thought,
that's a completely different approach than whatI was teaching my students as a
(14:11):
yoga teacher. They considered me theirguru. And the word garu simply means
a teacher, but it comes fromtwo root words gu and ru that mean
out of darkness into light. Butthere was a big problem. I couldn't
be a quote unquote guru because Iwasn't in the light yet. I was
(14:31):
still in darkness, groping my waythrough religious and spiritual darkness, trying to
find the truth. And the Biblesays Jesus is the true light, implying
that there's a false light too.Jesus is the true light that lights every
man who comes into the world.So that intrigued me that the spirit of
(14:52):
God came into Larry and he wasborn again. And in Eastern religions they
teach that God is all ready insideof you. There's a spark of divinity
within every human being. So tofind God, you look within. But
Larry said, no, he's external, he's outside of you, and he's
a personal God, and that shouldbe in capital letters, a personal God,
(15:16):
not an impersonal life force. Thatcaught my attention, and then he
talked about the cross, the crucifixionof Jesus, how Jesus took upon himself
the sins of the whole human raceand canceled out our indebtedness. That because
of our sin, we deserve eternaldeath, physical death, spiritual death,
(15:37):
death in every area of our being, mentally and emotionally. And yet Jesus
took that upon him and canceled itso that we could be free, and
so that the life of God couldbe deposited in us. I thought,
I don't know if I believed thator not. I tried Christianity, but
see, I misjudged Christianity by whatI'd been exposed to as a young person,
(16:00):
and I was very fervent. AsI mentioned, we went to church
all the time. I was anultar boy. Thankfully, the priests I
served under were good men. Theywere actually great role models of christ like
character. They were very devoted,very loving, very gentle, very kind
individuals. But still they didn't knowhow to have a personal relationship with Jesus.
(16:26):
They didn't know how to be bornagain, and never trained me.
And so I had misjudged Christianity bywhat I'd been exposed to. I thought,
maybe there's something about the Bible thatI haven't encountered yet. Maybe there's
something about the Bible that would changemy life radically. So I decided to
(16:48):
dedicate one day to the Lord JesusChrist, just one day. He was
very gracious and very kind to condescendto my fleece, so to speak,
that I set before him. Isaid, Lord, if you're real,
if you're the savior of the world, if you're the only way to heaven,
and if you were really God incarnatein human flesh. Hindus would say
(17:14):
he was an avatar among many avatars, but the Bible says he was the
only incarnation of God. And Isaid, if that be true, then
give me a sign today. I'mgoing to dedicate this day to you.
And I decided not to do anyyogic disciplines, no asanas, no pronayama,
no reading of the Baghabad Gida orthe Vedas or anything else. All
(17:37):
I did was read the Bible andpray to Jesus alternately all day long.
I'd read the Bible for an hour, then pray for a half hour.
Then I'd read the Bible for anhour and pray for a half hour,
whatever combination I chose. And themain books I read from were the Gospel,
of John and the Book of Revelation, And when I read the Book
(18:00):
of Revelation, it stirred me.Even back in nineteen seventy, I could
see these things are unfolding, theseare the last days prior to the coming
of Jesus back to this world.I could see the signs of the times
even then. So I prayed allday long, expecting a vision, an
audible voice, some kind of supernaturalmanifestation, because that's what happened to my
(18:25):
friend. He felt this supernatural realnessof the presence of God in his life.
But God had a different way plannedfor me to come into that encounter.
That afternoon, I was on myway to a yoga class to teach
at University of South Florida, andthere was going to be I don't know,
(18:45):
twenty or thirty students there that night. I had to walk everywhere because
I'd made a commitment not to ownany material things that was part of my
spiritual discipline. And if I wasrunning a little late, i'd have to
hitchhike. So I was hitchhiking,and it was really important that i'd be
hitchhiking that day because two miles away. Now God's setting this up miraculously.
(19:07):
One of the members of the prayergroup was walking into a laundermat. He
was a college student named Ken Sullivan, and he had to wash his dirty
clothes, a very mundane task,and as he walked through the door of
the launder met the Holy Spirit spoketo his heart and said, don't go
in there, get back in yourvan and start driving. I've got a
(19:30):
job for you to do. That'sall the instructions God gave him. And
see, a lot of people waituntil they have all of the information in
place before they step out to dosomething for the Kingdom of God. But
God doesn't always give you all theinformation at once. You've got to do
what He says to do, andthen as you obey, he fills in
(19:52):
the blanks. So Kent started driving, and whenever he fell an impulse,
he turned pray, God, wheredo you want me to go? Why
have you told me to do this? And then you feel lead to turn
again. He drove about two milesand saw me HITCHI King, not knowing
I was the yoga teacher that hisprayer group had been praying for for almost
(20:17):
a month. He pulled over topick me up. I opened the door
to his vehicle, and my heartjumped because on the ceiling of the vand
he had taped a picture of Jesus. Now, remember, I've been praying
all day long, Jesus, ifyou are the answer, show me today,
show me today. And that wasmy answer. That was my sign.
(20:41):
I knew when I saw the picture. So I'm sitting there in high
anticipation and Kent, in a fewminutes, clears his throat and says,
Mike, can I ask your question? I said yes, and he said,
have you ever experienced Jesus coming intoyour heart? And I surprised him
with my response. I said no, but when can I and he did
(21:03):
a double take. He looked atme like, you're not supposed to give
him that quick. He said,you can come to our per meeting tonight.
I said, I don't want towait for a prayer meeting. I've
been praying to the Lord Jesus allday long. I want to encounter him
now. So Kent pulled over tothe side of the road and I knelt
down with him in the back ofhis van and we started talking, and
(21:27):
I found out that he had beenmore deeply involved in yoga than I had
so he could communicate to me inmy language. What an incredible set up
by the Holy Spirit. The rightperson at the right place, at the
right time, within about a fiveminute window of time. That's usually how
long it took me to get aride hitchhiking. God brought that person into
(21:52):
my life that could lead me tothe truth. And I stumbled my way
through a prayer. I thought,this is so simple, it's too simple.
But he shared with me how topray, and I said, Lord
Jesus, I believe that you diedon the cross for the sins of humanity.
I believe you rose again. Ibelieve you're the savior of the world.
(22:12):
And I invite you to come intomy heart and be the lord of
my life. I repented my sins. I repented my involvement in the occult
and in false religions. I askedyou to cleanse me in your precious blood,
and I asked you to give me. I received by faith the gift
of eternal life. And suddenly Ifelt this warm sensation in the deepest part
(22:37):
of my being, and I knewI was being spiritually reborn. I knew
I was being born again. Andit was such a real encounter such an
undeniable witness of the reality of Jesusthat I knew I had found the truth.
And I asked Kent to go withme to my yoga class, and
he did joyful, was very joyfulto join me in that class. And
(23:03):
I mentioned to the people that unknowinglyI had misled them, that the classes
were canceled. From that point forward, I was shutting down my yoga ashram
and that I had finally found thetruth. Most of my followers became Christians
also and became followers of Jesus instead. And one girl, one college student,
(23:26):
got so confused she told me shedropped out of college. It messed
her mind up so bad that herguru it turned into a Jesus freak,
that she just couldn't handle life anymoreand took off hitchhiking, and two years
later she landed in a Christian communein California where they finally led her to
the Lord. And then about fouror five years ago, she contacted me
(23:48):
on Facebook and she said, thankyou for your witness. I finally found
the truth. And so that weekI did the same thing in all of
my classes, and many of themwere very responsive to what I had to
share. I launched a project calledthe True Light Project around the turn of
the millennium because I felt very passionatelythat I needed to reach out to people
(24:15):
of my former mindset, because Iknow how to communicate truth to them.
I built a website called the TrueLight dot Net and posted my story on
the website and began posting the storiesof other people on that website, and
thousands and thousands of people. We'vehad about four million hits from all over
(24:36):
the world, people who have cometo that website and found out the truths
of Biblical Christianity as compared to Easternreligions. And there's a market difference in
many different areas that are vitally vitallyimportant. For instance, as I mentioned
(24:57):
a while ago, God is envisionedto be in many Eastern religions and New
Age spirituality just an impersonal force thatflows through everything. It's based on an
idea called pantheism, and pantheism isthe concept that the universe is not a
(25:18):
creation of God. The universe isan emanation of God. So everything at
its core is divine and it's adivine manifestation. And for that reason many
new Agers and Hindus believe the universeis God and God is the universe because
(25:38):
it was a manifestation, not acreation, separate from Him. And if
you say everything is God, pantheismmeans all is God pan theos two words
joined together, all is God andGod is All, then it's no quantum
leap of logic to say we areGod. Unfortunately, though, that becomes
(26:00):
a huge theological hurdle because if yousay we are God, that little word
we includes the worst of the humanrace like an Adolf Hitler, or the
most excellent of the human race.And you can imagine the best, most
moral, most kind and good individualsyou know, and you're saying we are
(26:22):
God. So the next step oflogic you have to take is if we
are God and that includes the eviland the good. And this is what
the yin yang symbol represents, thedark and light teardrops fused together in one
circle. Then on an ultimate level, God must be both evil and good.
If a manifestation of God results inevil and good, God must be
(26:47):
both darkness and light. But theBible refuses that. The Bible says God
is light and in him is nodarkness at all, and the only way
that can be true is if Godexis this apart from the physical universe,
which is actually the correct interpretation ofthe nature of God, and that therefore
(27:10):
He is all good, he isall love, he is all beauty and
kindness, and he is a holyGod, untainted by sin and untainted by
the evil that's in this world.Well, I learned those lessons, and
I also learned a lot after Ibecame a Christian. A year later,
I was baptized in the Holy Spirit, and I spoke in tongues, and
(27:34):
I knew that I'd finally received thesame experience the apostles did in the Upper
Room and in Catholicism. I wastaught as an eleven year old boy that
I received the Holy Spirit when Iwas confirmed, But all I received was
a new name of a patron saint. I was supposed to pray to the
(27:55):
rest of my life that I wassupposed to have a personal relationship with which
I believe it's biblically incorrect now,But when I was baptized in the Holy
Spirit, it happened, just likeit did to the early disciples. I
was filled with the Holy Spirit,and I spoke in tongues. I've opened
up a website for Catholics also calledto Catholics with Love dot org, and
(28:19):
I invite you to visit that website. I've written a book too, called
The Beliefs of the Catholic Church,and also another book called In Search of
the True Light. In Search ofthe True Light is a comparison of all
world religions and the beliefs of theCatholic Church, inspects twenty five major doctrines
(28:40):
and beliefs of the Catholic Church andresponds with Biblical Christianity. I invite you
to search both of those out andcome to our websites, and hopefully we'll
be able to even share more truthsthat will bring freedom and wholeness to your
life. Let's pray right now.If you have never received Jesus into your
(29:00):
heart, this is a great timeto do so. And he's waiting.
He's knocking on the door of yourheart, saying, if you'll just open
the door, I'll come in toyou. And that's a promise given in
Revelation three, verse twenty one.So let's pray right now. Just say
these words after me, Lord Jesus, I give you my life. I
(29:23):
believe you died on the cross formy sins, and I claim your blood
washing my sins away. I repentof my sins, and I ask you
to be lord of my life.I believe you rose from the dead,
(29:47):
and I believe that you're coming backagain, and that I will rise from
the dead to meet you by acceptingyou as my savior. Thank you,
you, Jesus, for saving mysoul. In your name, Amen.
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