None other than my own maternal Grandmother, Mary Ann McKinniss, experienced one of the first supernatural experience reports that came my way. My Grandmother, who has since gone on to be with the Lord, was a woman of few words and yet so in love with God. Writing and reciting poetry to the Lord in her later years was how my Grandmother spent her time.
She had a near-death experience in which she had heart failure and she was even pronounced clinically dead by the doctors while in the hospital. She came back to life and shared that what she saw was wonderful and she could not use anything from earth to describe what she had seen. She said that she never feared death again after that. This experience left me with a profound curiosity about God and Heaven at an early age, for which I would later try to find answers. When I was about 14-years-old, my Grandmother made it to her incomparable home.
When I Pray
When I Pray
All my burdens roll away
And His smiling, beaming face
Seems to brighten up the place.
When I pray
My life, my all at His feet I lay
Then there comes a deep sweet peace
A sudden feeling of relief.
When I pray
All things earthly fade away,
And I feel all secure
With the one so sweet and pure.
When I pray
All my cares are put away,
And I feel content to rest
On my Savior’s loving breast.
-Mary Ann McKinniss
Jesus Leads Me
Jesus led me to Calvary’s Cross
Where my sins were counted loss.
Now He leads me o’er paths He trod,
And now, I receive blessings from a loving God.
Jesus leads me, Jesus leads me,
Jesus leads me every day.
Jesus leads me, Jesus leads me
Jesus leads me safely all the way.
He leads me through the dark Gethsemane,
Through times of dreadful agony.
But through His wonderful keeping power
I am brought victorious through this trying hour.
He leads me through the valley
Where sometimes we must be
So as to trust for plenteous grace,
To lift me up to a higher place.
He leads me to the mountain top,
Where flowing blessing never ceases to stop,
Where all His mercies and tender love
Are always coming from above.
He leads me on to eternity,
Where His loving face I then shall see.
And, Oh, the wonders I shall then behold
When I am safe within God’s fold.
-Mary Ann McKinniss
