After 50 years of ministry, a massive heart attack and now his daughter’s frightening accident, Bishop T.D. Jakes shares a powerful lesson about what it means to stand when life’s storms refuse to let up.
During an appearance on “The Tamron Hall Show,” Jakes and his wife, Serita Jakes, joined their daughter, Sarah Jakes Roberts, as she opened up about her recovery from a serious trampoline accident that left her family confronting the possibility that they could lose her.
For Serita Jakes, simply hearing her daughter revisit the ordeal brought the emotions rushing back.
“Days after, it still shakes me to know how close I came to losing her,” she told Hall.
T.D. Jakes expressed the same emotion from a father’s perspective. No matter how many people know Sarah as a pastor, wife, mother and public figure, Jakes said he still sees the little girl he raised.
“I can’t help but see her as an eight-year-old little girl,” Jakes said. The thought of losing her, he added, was something he could hardly put into words.
Yet the accident came during a remarkable season for the Jakes family.
Jakes himself has been recovering from a massive heart attack he suffered while preaching at The Potter’s House in November 2024. Amid his recovery, the longtime pastor wanted to help carry some of his daughter’s burden, just as she had helped carry his.
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“I would do for her what she would do for me,” Jakes told Hall.
That father-daughter moment carries even greater significance as Jakes celebrates 50 years in ministry and watches a new generation step forward.
According to Sight Magazine via Religion News Service, The Potter’s House recently honored Jakes’ five decades of ministry with a celebration looking back at a journey that began with him preaching to a tiny congregation in West Virginia and eventually grew into a global ministry.
Sarah and her husband, Touré Roberts, were formally installed as senior co-pastors of The Potter’s House in 2025 as Jakes moved into a different season of leadership.
During the 50th anniversary celebration, Sarah made it clear she does not view her father’s transition as the conclusion of his impact.
“Your legacy is not coming to an end; it is just beginning,” Sarah said.
After decades of preaching to others through their darkest valleys, Jakes is walking through a season in which both he and his daughter have faced frightening physical battles.
His advice? Stop believing you have to fix every storm.
“It rains on the just and the unjust,” Jakes told Hall, noting that everyone eventually encounters pain, sorrow and seasons where something must be rebuilt.
Instead of carrying the impossible pressure of repairing everything that goes wrong, Jakes encouraged people to remain “steady in the storm.”
“Sometimes storms blow that you cannot fix,” he said. “And don’t put that weight on yourself to have to show up as a mechanic and fix everything that goes wrong.”
Jakes reminded viewers that no storm lasts forever. Even when there appears to be little forward movement, remaining steady can be enough to make it through.
Then came the declaration that perhaps best summarizes this season of his life:
“The storm wouldn’t come if you didn’t have a destiny.”
Fifty years into ministry, Jakes’ message is no longer merely something preached from a pulpit. After facing his own brush with death and watching his daughter endure hers, it is a truth his family has had to live.
Abby Trivett is a writer and editor for Charisma Media and has a passion for sharing the gospel through the written word. She holds two degrees from Regent University, a B.A. in Communication with a concentration in Journalism and a Master of Arts in Journalism. She is the author of the newly released book, The Power of Suddenly: Discover How God Can Change Everything in a Moment. For interviews and media inquiries, please contact [email protected].
