A Tennessee construction supervisor who says he survived a near-fatal medical emergency believes he encountered Jesus—and now recalls in striking detail how he says Christ appeared.
Mike McKinsey was working as a superintendent in 2004 when a ruptured appendix triggered a life-threatening infection. His condition deteriorated so rapidly that doctors rushed him into emergency surgery.
As surgeons fought to save his life, McKinsey said Jesus appeared in the operating room in human form. He claimed the figure took his hand and carried him to a hillside overlooking a place he understood to be heaven.
McKinsey’s description differs from many traditional Western portrayals of Jesus. He said the figure had a darker complexion, green or blue-green eyes and wavy brown hair that fell to his shoulders.
He also recalled a neatly trimmed, short beard and a white robe. According to McKinsey, Jesus reached toward him and said, “I want to answer your prayer.”
Speaking on the BearFruitWithChrist podcast, McKinsey described the encounter as overwhelming love. “When his eyes looked into mine, it felt like he looked straight into my soul,” he said, explaining that Jesus seemed to know him instantly. He likened the experience to meeting “the brother I never had” and “the perfect father.”
McKinsey said the experience continued beyond the near-death episode he associated with the surgery. While recovering in the hospital and battling pneumonia, he claimed Jesus returned and remained with him for roughly three hours, speaking to him.
The former construction professional, who later became an author, said that conversation gave him what he understood as a spiritual mission: to share Jesus’ teachings with people on Earth.
Mike McKinsey (Pictured) later became an author after saying Jesus urged him to share his account and spread the word of God
A man who describes surviving a near-death experience in 2004 says he saw what he believed was the face of Jesus (Stock Image)
“I felt a holy presence enter the room, and it was as though the near-death experience began again,” McKinsey recalled. He said he sensed Jesus pull up a chair and sit at the foot of his bed, even though he could not see him.
McKinsey said the presence told him: “I had to get you flat on your back, away from all the distractions, so you could hear me.” He recalled being given a direct calling to do more “for my kingdom,” along with the message that millions would eventually hear their story.
In multiple interviews, McKinsey has stated that he believed the presence of Jesus sat by his bedside as nurses came to check on him during his bout with pneumonia – a spirit only he was able to feel.
He compared the experience to a friend sitting with a sick friend, talking and consoling him, but also giving McKinsey a mission to spread the message of Christianity.
McKinsey claimed that he pushed back when the spirit of Jesus told him to become a Christian messenger, saying that ‘I’m not Billy Graham. I can’t do that.’
‘He did chuckle when I said I’m not Billy Graham. I’ve never heard him laugh, but that was probably the closest that I’ve come to that. But yeah, he’s a friend,’ he explained on the Peaceful Presence Podcast on July 23.
McKinsey added that his experience should not be considered uncommon, believing that the crucifixion of Jesus – the biblical act where he died for the sins of humanity – gave people the ‘authority’ to speak directly with God.
‘We have direct access to the throne. I think of him as a friend now,’ said McKinsey, who is now a published author who shares his insights from the near-death experience and conversation with Jesus.
Unlike other depictions across Christianity, McKinsey said he vividly remembered Jesus having darker skin, green or blue-green eyes and shoulder-length, wavy brown hair. Pictured: Jesus as he is depicted in the Sermon on the Mount in the Old Testament
The author also claimed Jesus had warned him that those who spread the word of God would also face growing ‘attacks from the enemy.’
McKinsey explained that he believed this warning meant the devil would stir up more trouble in a Christian believer’s life, creating more doubts, harsh criticism, fear and personal setbacks that try to shut them down.
After spending 12 days in the hospital recovering from the surgery and pneumonia, McKinsey said those ‘attacks’ from Satan began to impact his life, even before he began writing about his NDE.
‘I lost my parents within a couple of years after the NDE, and I lost both of them within six months of each other, and I just knew,’ he revealed.
‘I could feel God’s presence and Jesus holding me up, the Holy Spirit holding me up, and I just kept thinking, “wow, this is one of those attacks.”‘
However, McKinsey said his experience with Jesus pushed him to not view these tragedies as a personal attack against him specifically.
He came to see hard losses as part of a fallen world that hurts many people at once, not as Satan singling him out for spreading the message of Jesus, and he tried to keep his focus on God holding him through it.
