Sid: Hello. Sid Roth here with Mike Shreve. And we’ve just found out that if you have a good counterfeit it must be a good counterfeit of something authentic. The authentic of God based on the Bible is the supernatural, miracles, healings, wonderful things of God. But there’s something that looks so close that many people are being deceived and it’s called the New Age. Now Mike Shreve was an instructor of yoga at four universities in the Tampa, Florida area. And they read a big newspaper article about him and a prayer group got a hold of this and they started praying for him by name, every hour, 24 hours a day, seven days a week. And a friend of his had just had an encounter with Jesus that was in the New Age, like he was, and wrote him a letter. And he said, “I’m not paying any attention to that, but just in case, I’m going to take one day and pray and find out who this Jesus is.” And so he takes that day and he is hitchhiking. And guess who picks him up? Someone from that prayer group. How in the world? That’s a needle in a haystack, Mike. How did they do that?
Mike: It was amazing. It was absolutely amazing the way the Holy Spirit orchestrated the whole thing. One of the members of the prayer group who happened to be a former yoga student himself, now that doesn’t like coincidence, it sounds to me like a God instance. He was walking in a Laundromat and the Holy Spirit fell on him and said, “Don’t go in there. I’ve got a job for you to do. Get in your van and start driving.” He had no idea where God was going to lead him. But he started driving and every time he felt an impulse he’d take a turn. He didn’t know that two miles away I was standing on the side of the ride hitchhiking. I had been praying all day long from 3:30 in the morning until that afternoon that Jesus would reveal to me if he was the truth. And now I’m going to teach a yoga class. And he never picked up hitchhikers, but he said he felt this compulsion again to pull over the side of the road and pick me up. And when I opened the door and looked in my heart just started leaping inside of me.
Sid: Why?
Mike: Because he had taped a picture of Jesus to the ceiling of his van.
Sid: And you’re praying, Jesus if you’re real, show me.
Mike: And that’s the first thing I saw when I got in the van. I looked up and there’s this picture. So I’m sitting on the edge of my seat in expectation. And a few minutes later, he turned around and said, “Friend, can I ask you a question?” I said yes. He said, “Have you ever experienced Jesus coming into your heart?” I said, “No, but when can I?” And he gave me this surprise look like I wasn’t supposed to respond so quick.
Sid: I mean, you pray and pray, and pray and then he says, “Can I?” And you say, what?
Mike: He said, “You can come to our prayer meeting tonight.” I said, “I don’t want to wait that long.” If I can find Jesus I want to find him now. And so he pulled the van over to the side of the road, left it running, we knelt down in the back of the van, we talked a little while, and then I prayed a simple prayer that I thought was too simple to bring me into contact with God, but it worked.
Sid: But it revolutionized his life. In fact, then he goes back to those hundreds of students at the four universities. And what did you tell your yoga students?
Mike: Well I told them that the classes would be dismissed because unknowingly I had mislead them and that I found out Jesus was the only way. And see, what I had taught them, Sid, which is a new age belief, is that there’s a spark of divinity within every human being, and to find God you look within. And that’s a universal opportunity. It doesn’t involve one particular religion, according to new age philosophies. But I had discovered when I invited Jesus into my heart that the Holy Spirit came into me from without. So God was external prior to a salvation experience, or an experience of union with God instead of inside. And that just jarred me to the core of my being, realizing that I had instructed them wrong.
Sid: How did they react when you told them this?
Mike: Most of my main students became Christians also. And we stopped the classes from that very point.
Sid: By the way, just for my interest, there are many Christians involved in yoga today. Is that wrong?
Mike: I counsel people not to involve themselves even in the physical aspect of yoga. There’s five main reasons I give that people should…
Sid: Give me your strongest.
Mike: Well my strongest reason is number one, if you go to a yoga studio where there’s pictures of Krishna and statues of Buddha and there’s a prevalent belief system that all religions are different paths to the same God, it’s similar to walking into an idol temple, because it’s acknowledging false gods and goddesses as being real. Even if you only involve yourself the physical yoga, the Hatha Yoga, you are in an atmosphere that is not going to be blessed of the Holy Spirit. And I tell people just not to involve themselves.
Sid: Okay. So there are least five reasons. That was just one. I’m reminded of myself. Before I knew the Messiah, I didn’t know my left from my right spiritually. I get involved in the New Age. In my case it was a meditation course. It was the Silva Mind Control course. And I was told that I controlled everything. I invite this counselor into my head. I thought it was all imaginary. The Bible calls it a familiar spirit and that I control this familiar spirit. But I found out that when I was exposed to the belief that Jesus was my Messiah this friend, as they called it, became my enemy, started cursing. And in fact, it reminds of the Harfouch’s. Tell me that story real quick.
Mike: Robin Harfouche has a chapter in the book, “Truthseekers”. It’s an amazing, amazing story. She, from an early age, was exposed to the psychic realm and she had experiences with spirit beings, and then eventually met what she thought was a spirit guide that step by step introduced her to key people in Hollywood and orchestrated events supernaturally so that she became a rising star in Hollywood.
Sid: But she was hand-picked.
Mike: Yes she was.
Sid: … to be a spokeswoman. As a matter of fact, the same manager of Shirley MacLaine was her manager and she was hand-picked to be supernaturally elevated in Hollywood to be a pied piper for the new religion called the New Age. And when she wanted to take a break this spirit tried to kill her.
Mike: Actually, the spirit caused an accident to take place where she was crushed under this very heavy door and it was a paralyzing affect. She was paralyzed and destined to be a cripple the rest of her life. But that just set her up for a miracle.
Sid: Of course. As a matter of fact, at one point she saw her spirit guide and it looked just like Marilyn Monroe. Except she saw it change shape and become a demon. We’ll be right back after this word.
