(RNS) — Saying “I’m standing here as a testimony,” Bishop T.D. Jakes returned to his Dallas megachurch on New Year’s Eve for his first in-person appearance after suffering an unspecified medical incident in November.
“I had a fair amount of anxiety about walking out on this stage, standing in the same spot that I almost died in,” the Pentecostal minister told the congregation at The Potter’s House on Tuesday (Dec. 31). “In fact, I think I did. But God in his infinite wisdom and his great grace brought me back to this same spot,” he said to cheers and applause.
On Nov. 24, Jakes, 67, suffered what his church initially described as a “slight health incident” that prompted about a dozen people to rush to his side after he concluded preaching, lowered his microphone and started shaking in his seat.
Jakes spoke for about 55 minutes on Tuesday, standing occasionally at the pulpit on the stage but mostly walking and pausing near it. “I don’t come as Bishop Jakes. I come as Bishop Lazarus, to let you know that with God, all things are possible,” he said, citing the New Testament story about a man who is raised from the dead by Jesus.
A week after Jakes’ incident, the minister spoke in a seven-minute video to the congregation, describing himself as a “miracle” after surviving emergency surgery.
RELATED: T.D. Jakes speaks to church via video week after health emergency that led to surgery
As he did at that time and in an earlier video post …