Jo Dee Messina Recalls Visit by Jesus Christ on Front Porch While Battling Cancer

Jo Dee Messina has not had an easy few years. The 48-year-old was diagnosed with cancer in 2017, later separating from her husband, Chris Deffenbaugh, leaving Messina to raise her two sons, Noah and Jonah, as a single mom. With financial woes added to the crisis, due to her inability to tour because of her health, Messina was about to hit rock bottom, when she claims she had a personal visit by Jesus Christ.

"If you've walked my life in the last five years, it has not been a typical life. Not a lot of it goes out in press, which is great, because a lot of it's painful, and a lot of it's hurtful, and a lot of it's scary," Messina shared recently with PopCulture.com and other media. "About five years ago, Jesus Christ walked onto my front porch and argued with me all day long. As real as I'm sitting in this seat, Jesus came to my front porch and he's like, 'She's mine.'

"I was at an all time low. I was trying to sustain a career. I had a lifestyle and a family and everything, all on my own, and I couldn't do it. I couldn't. I was pulled way too thin and so, I was just standing on my porch one day, and Jesus Christ walked out and said, 'She's mine.' I just knew it, in the middle of that, in the middle of my spirit and my soul, I'm like, 'That's Jesus.'"

Messina ran to her next door neighbor, and asked him to tell her more about Jesus, since she admits she knew very little.

"I know the stories," Messina explained. "I know the Christmas and Easter. He was born on Christmas, died on Easter. You know what I mean? But I didn't know him. Just having that intimate relationship with God, and I'll sit here right in front of you and tell you he loves you more than you ever even imagine. We all feel like that we are not lovable, that we've screwed up beyond repair, and we're not worth it, and we're broken, we're fat, we're ugly, we're this, we're that, we're too old, or too young, and he made the very spirit that's in us."

Messina became so fired up about her newfound faith that she recorded a gospel song, "Reckless Love," and began including it in her shows.

"When I heard the song 'Reckless Love,' it was a very successful song in the Christian format," Messina recalled. "I started performing it in my live shows. People didn't hear it and I was like, 'You know what? This message needs to be heard across the board. We cannot format God,' so I recorded it and I prayed that at some point there's a major label that is brave enough to pick it up and release it, because we just did a digital release of the song.

"It doesn't have a big machine behind it, but one day, I pray that someone does get that message out, not for me," she continued. "I spent my entire career, my entire life glorifying myself. It's time for him. He gets the glory from this point on. When you are going through a hard time in your family situation and you are diagnosed with cancer, and you don't know what's going to lie around that corner, and you have the arms of Jesus there, holding you. You never want to walk away from it."

Download "Reckless Love" on iTunes.

Photo Credit: Getty images / Jason Kempin