{"id":12380,"date":"2025-01-06T13:39:01","date_gmt":"2025-01-06T18:39:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/?p=12380"},"modified":"2025-01-06T13:39:01","modified_gmt":"2025-01-06T18:39:01","slug":"td-jakes-refers-to-himself-as-bishop-lazarus-after-returning-to-pulpit-after-stroke","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/2025\/01\/td-jakes-refers-to-himself-as-bishop-lazarus-after-returning-to-pulpit-after-stroke.html","title":{"rendered":"TD Jakes Refers to Himself as \u201cBishop Lazarus\u201d After Returning to Pulpit After Stroke"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_12368\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-12368\" style=\"width: 1200px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12368\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/409\/2025\/01\/td-jakes_credit-The-Potters-House-of-Dallas-youtube.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1200\" height=\"900\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-12368\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Potter\u2019s House of Dallas \/ YouTube<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>TD Jakes made his <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=yKrpMaUk7yw\">return to the pulpit<\/a> on New Year\u2019s Eve after a very public health incident while delivering a sermon just before Thanksgiving required him <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbsnews.com\/texas\/news\/dallas-pastor-bishop-td-jakes-suffers-medical-emergency-during-sermon\/\">to be rushed to the hospital<\/a>. Speaking to his congregation at The Potter\u2019s House in Dallas, Jakes revealed just how serious the incident had really been. \u201cI&#8217;m so grateful to the Lord. To be perfectly honest, in the spirit of my daughter, I&#8217;m going to be very transparent,\u201d he said, admitting he had been anxious about appearing on stage and that he had nearly died there. \u201cIn fact, I think I did [die], but God, in His infinite wisdom and His great grace, brought me back to this same spot.\u201d He further revealed that he\u2019d had a stroke and that during his hours-long surgery, \u201cthey almost lost me twice.\u201d \u201cThey said if I&#8217;d have gotten there five minutes later, I&#8217;d have been D.O.A.\u201d He credited prayers for his survival.<\/p>\n<p>Jakes used his experience to try to encourage the members of his congregation. \u201cI don&#8217;t know what you&#8217;re going through tonight but let this be a signal to you that you&#8217;re on your way to a comeback. And if I&#8217;m talking directly to you, and if all the odds have been against you, and if they couldn&#8217;t hardly get a pulse on you, and if you couldn&#8217;t hardly recognize anybody, and everybody said you weren&#8217;t going to make it, I&#8217;m standing here as a testimony.\u201d Jakes then referred to himself as \u201cBishop Lazarus\u201d as he wanted \u201cto let you know that with God all things are possible.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Jakes had spoken to his congregation in December after the incident through <a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/reel\/DDDTw8wJRmn\/?utm_source=ig_embed&amp;ig_rid=5ac69fbb-ffcd-434f-a440-e9dbbc6353d2\">a video message<\/a>. \u201cMany of you don&#8217;t realize that you&#8217;re looking at a miracle. I faced a life-threatening calamity, was rushed to the ICU unit, had emergency surgery, survived the surgery,\u201d he said. \u201cI&#8217;m grateful to God for his goodness and his mercy, and to not just our local church, but to the global community that follows this ministry. I&#8217;m in good spirits,&#8221; he continued. &#8220;I feel good, I&#8217;m in no pain, I&#8217;m in peace and tranquility, and I want you to know that I can feel your prayers.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>2024 was a trying year for the megachurch pastor, with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nbcnews.com\/tech\/misinformation\/td-jakes-diddy-court-youtube-misinformation-video-rcna184585\">social media conspiracies<\/a> linking him to the alleged \u201csex parties\u201d hosted by Sean \u201cP Diddy\u201d Combs. Jakes\u2019s lawyer filed a defamation lawsuit against a minister in Pennsylvania named Duane Youngblood, who has accused Jakes of sexual assault. The suit, filed just after Jakes\u2019s health incident, implied that the false allegations could be responsible for Jakes\u2019s deteriorating health. \u201cYoungblood\u2019s intentional and malicious lies have taken a substantial emotional and physical toll on Bishop Jakes,\u201d it said, citing the incident on stage. Jakes\u2019s attorney, Dustin Pusch, has also filed a motion to subpoena Google to discover the identities of four YouTube accounts that have made videos alleging Jakes\u2019s involvement in Combs\u2019s parties. The accounts appear to be using AI-generated images according to the motion. Jakes referred to the accounts during his NYE sermon, stating, \u201cThey\u2019re taking good technical things like AI and using it for evil. I need him. I can\u2019t even protect my image and my voice. I need the Lord.\u201d The motion against Google has not yet been approved, but it is likely that Jakes will also seek defamation charges against the YouTube account owners should their identities be obtained.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp; TD Jakes made his return to the pulpit on New Year\u2019s Eve after a very public health incident while delivering a sermon just before Thanksgiving required him to be rushed to the hospital. Speaking to his congregation at The Potter\u2019s House in Dallas, Jakes revealed just how serious the incident had really been. \u201cI&#8217;m&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":627,"featured_media":12368,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fbia_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[140],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12380","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-church"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>TD Jakes Refers to Himself as \u201cBishop Lazarus\u201d After Returning to Pulpit After Stroke<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/2025\/01\/td-jakes-refers-to-himself-as-bishop-lazarus-after-returning-to-pulpit-after-stroke.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"TD Jakes Refers to Himself as \u201cBishop Lazarus\u201d After Returning to Pulpit After Stroke\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"&nbsp; TD Jakes made his return to the pulpit on New Year\u2019s Eve after a very public health incident while delivering a sermon just before Thanksgiving required him to be rushed to the hospital. Speaking to his congregation at The Potter\u2019s House in Dallas, Jakes revealed just how serious the incident had really been. \u201cI&#8217;m&hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/2025\/01\/td-jakes-refers-to-himself-as-bishop-lazarus-after-returning-to-pulpit-after-stroke.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Christ News Today\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-01-06T18:39:01+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/409\/2025\/01\/td-jakes_credit-The-Potters-House-of-Dallas-youtube.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"900\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Cecilia Buchanan\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"TD Jakes Refers to Himself as \u201cBishop Lazarus\u201d After Returning to Pulpit After Stroke","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/2025\/01\/td-jakes-refers-to-himself-as-bishop-lazarus-after-returning-to-pulpit-after-stroke.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"TD Jakes Refers to Himself as \u201cBishop Lazarus\u201d After Returning to Pulpit After Stroke","og_description":"&nbsp; TD Jakes made his return to the pulpit on New Year\u2019s Eve after a very public health incident while delivering a sermon just before Thanksgiving required him to be rushed to the hospital. Speaking to his congregation at The Potter\u2019s House in Dallas, Jakes revealed just how serious the incident had really been. \u201cI&#8217;m&hellip;","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/2025\/01\/td-jakes-refers-to-himself-as-bishop-lazarus-after-returning-to-pulpit-after-stroke.html","og_site_name":"Christ News Today","article_published_time":"2025-01-06T18:39:01+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1200,"height":900,"url":"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/409\/2025\/01\/td-jakes_credit-The-Potters-House-of-Dallas-youtube.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Cecilia 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