Bishop T.D. Jakes Delivers First Message Since Health Scare

By Rosaland Tyler
Associate Editor
New Journal and Guide

On New Year’s Eve, Dallas megachurch founder Bishop T.D. Jakes, age 67, delighted his parishioners when he returned to his pulpit at the Potter’s House in Dallas after he experienced a health emergency on Nov. 24.

“I cannot tell you how glad I am to be in the house of the Lord tonight; I missed you,” Jakes said.

Jakes returned to the pulpit on New Year’s Eve, a few weeks after he began to shake uncontrollably and was rushed to the hospital where he underwent emergency service on Nov. 25. Jakes launched his church in 1996. It has more than 30,000 members and operates campuses in Fort Worth and Frisco, Texas; and in Denver, according to his website.

Jakes has also authored books, produced and acted in several films and spoke at the 2009 inauguration of former President Barack Obama, his website said.

“Many of you don’t realize that you’re looking at a miracle,” he said in a recent video that was produced on New Year’s Eve, according to Dallas Morning News. “I faced a life-threatening calamity, was rushed to the ICU unit; I had emergency surgery. I survived the surgery. I’m back.”

During his hourlong sermon on New Year’s Eve, he described the aftermath of his health scare.

“They couldn’t hardly get a pulse,” he told congregants. He was rushed to emergency surgery at a time when he “couldn’t hardly recognize anybody” and everybody said he was not gonna make it, said Jakes. “I’m standing here as a testimony,” he said.

“I don’t come as Bishop Jakes; I come as Bishop Lazarus to let you know that with God all things are possible,” Jakes said, referring to the man that Jesus raised from the dead in the New Testament.

Jakes thanked his church for praying for him. “You went right into spiritual warfare,” he said. “You fought … you spoke in tongue[s], you cried, you prayed, you prevailed, you danced, you laid prostrate on the floor, and every time you did it, death had to back up off of me.”

Jakes said, “They had oxygen up my nose. I was breathing in what you was putting out, baby,” he said.

As Jakes delivered his New Year’s eve sermon, audience members held one another’s hands, jumped up and down, and soon enjoyed fireworks in the building’s parking lot.

A 14-year Potter’s House congregant, Verenda Harper, told Dallas Morning News that Jakes’ sermon left her in tears. “I was here when the incident actually happened,” she said, “so to see him walk on stage alive and breathing, still vibrant – it just did my soul and my spirit well.”