Waking Up to the Spirits
Hi guys! My name is Vera. I’m interning for Mike Maeshiro. I’m so excited to be part of his world and also be able to share my insights from my first hand experiences! Mike and I will be working together this year to get more content out in written form and I’m really excited for some projects we have coming up!
To give you an idea of how I got plugged into Mike’s world, I have a funny story to tell you. Well, it’s funny now but at the time...well, you’ll see.
Attending Bethel School of Supernatural Ministry in the 2nd year program, I was choosing my Advanced Ministry Training classes when I saw “Discerning Spirits” by Mike Maeshiro on the list.
I thought to myself “Yes, that’s for me. I’m a feeler.”
In the first class Mike talked about what a spirit is and he explained how they operate. He described in a situation what it looks like when a spirit is trying you to agree with it. I found myself sitting there with my mouth wide open. All of a sudden my life made sense. All of a sudden I understood myself so much more. I could relate to what Mike was talking about because I experienced the exact same things he was describing. In that moment, “discerning spirits” made so much more sense.
The day before class, I was watching a movie with my friends. There was a scene in the movie that I didn’t understand. I was confused and I asked one of my friends what had just happened. It was not a complicated scene in the film and it was actually easy to get. When I realized what I couldn’t understand I started feeling bad about myself. I honestly felt dumb. I thought to myself, “How could I not get that?” and “Why are there so many other movies where I don’t get what is happening? Something must be wrong with me. Movies are not designed to be hard to follow, they’re made for any audience. It can’t be the movies - so it obviously MUST be me!”
Mike explained that spirits have access to our memory when we agree with them. Right then, I knew what was up!
I started to believe that I was dumb FIRST because I didn’t understand something. THEN I remembered all of the other moments when I didn’t understand scenes in movies.
I could see the difference between what I always thought was me and what was actually a spirit trying to invade my life. I realized that I had been discerning spirits before but I didn’t know that I was doing it.
Mike had a lot of answers and he seemed to have it all together. I was amazed at his knowledge and his gifting. Here’s where things get weird. Mike was very confident and authoritative in the way he taught. It was intriguing and inspiring.
All of a sudden Mike seemed very confident to me – maybe a little too confident.
“Who does he think he is? He’s just a human. He’s not allowed to be that sure of himself.”
“People often think I’m full of myself.” Mike said.
Right then I realized that I thought the same thing. I thought, “How can he be so convinced about what he is teaching and how in the world is he so confident?” I noticed how I started looking for flaws in Mike. I got offended by his maturity.
I knew that that was not right but it made my pain dissolve. In that moment, I realized what I was doing. I chose to diminish Mike in order to feel better about myself. That was an agreement with a spirit. When I came to that awareness, I chose to disagree with it. I said to myself “No, I’m going to let it hurt.” I chose truth and not denial.
I woke up to a different realization of reality in that class, my life was changed forever. Not because I learned something I’ve never heard before but because I learned to communicate in a language that I’ve always been speaking.
I’m so passionate about helping people wake up to what’s really going on in and around them and I’m honored to be on Mike’s team. The work he is doing is valuable and necessary for people. There’s so much for us to learn and I’m excited to be right in the thick of it!
-Vera Danzeisen