From Dailymail · · 3m
Jesus walked into my operating room
A Tennessee construction worker says a ruptured appendix nearly killed him, and what he saw next rewrote his life.
In brief
A Tennessee construction worker says a ruptured appendix nearly killed him, and what he saw next rewrote his life. McKinsey came out of a near-death experience convinced Jesus is not a distant figure but a friend anyone can speak to directly. Originally reported by Dailymail.
A burst appendix
In 2004, Mike McKinsey was a construction superintendent in Tennessee when his appendix ruptured. The infection was severe enough to need emergency surgery.
Life hanging in the balance
On the operating table, McKinsey says he was close to death. That is when, he claims, the room changed.
A visitor in the room
McKinsey says Jesus walked into the operating room in physical form, took his hand, and carried him to a hill looking out over what he understood to be heaven.
Not the face he expected
He describes darker skin, green or blue-green eyes, and shoulder-length wavy brown hair. A short beard, a white robe. Nothing like the pictures he grew up with.
Six words
Before anything else happened, McKinsey says Christ held out a hand and spoke to him directly.
“I want to answer your prayer.”
Known on sight
What stayed with him was not the appearance but the recognition. He describes a gaze that went straight through him and found someone already familiar.
“As soon as our eyes met, he knew me. He was the brother I never had, the perfect father.”
Then came pneumonia
The experience did not end in surgery. While recovering in hospital, McKinsey developed pneumonia, and he says the presence returned for three hours.
Felt, not seen
This time he could not see anything. He says he sensed a chair being pulled up at the end of his bed and simply knew who was sitting there, invisible to the nurses coming and going.
“I just knew he was there but I couldn't see him.”
Flat on your back
McKinsey says the message was that the illness itself was the point, a way to strip out the noise so he would finally listen.
“I had to get you flat on your back away from all the distractions so you could hear me.”
I'm not Billy Graham
Told he was being called to spread the message, McKinsey pushed back hard. He says the response was a laugh, the only time he heard one.
“I'm not Billy Graham. I can't do that.”
A warning about attacks
He says he was told that anyone who spreads the word would face more from the enemy: doubt, criticism, fear, setbacks designed to make them stop.
Losing both parents
After 12 days in hospital he went home. Within a couple of years he lost his mother and father within six months of each other, and read it as one of those attacks.
“I could feel God's presence and Jesus holding me up.”
Not aimed at him
He later changed his mind about that. He came to see the losses as what a broken world does to everyone, not Satan singling him out for talking.
Access to the throne
McKinsey now writes about it all, arguing the crucifixion gave ordinary people standing to speak to God without a middleman.
“We have direct access to the throne. I think of him as a friend now.”
The one thing
McKinsey came out of a near-death experience convinced Jesus is not a distant figure but a friend anyone can speak to directly.
