My Beginnings in Sarcoxie
August 30, 2016
I was born in the same town my father and grandfather were born in. It is also the same town my great grandfather settled in and was buried.
There in Sarcoxie, Missouri, on a cold
March day while playing in a gravel pile just as I was turning six, the Lord
came and talked with me. I believe I was born again on that gravel pile. I
knew as a young lad that I probably should be a preacher. But I had little
understanding of what that meant. I knew that they were servants of God but
where did they get their message? I didn’t want to be a preacher because I
did not believe I was a good speaker and I didn’t know what to say. I did
know though, that if I knew my subject I could communicate with anyone. I
was surprised one day reading the Psalms “Open your mouth wide and I
(God) will fill it” (Psalm 81:10). Then I was amazed at Jeremiah 1:9,
Then the Lord put forth his hand,
and touched my mouth. And the Lord said unto me, Behold, I have put my words
in thy mouth.
That was just beyond my ability to
comprehend. So I resisted preaching God’s word as long as I possibly could.
But in 1969 the Lord visited me and made it clear, sell your veterinary
hospital and practice and obey me. I knew that if I didn’t obey God it was
certain death.
I sold my clinic and practice and went
to Murfreesboro, Tennessee. I was baptized there in the Holy Spirit in my
bed on July 24, 1970 and started speaking in new tongues. It was that
September God spoke to me, “Go back to the land of your fathers”. We began
packing the next day. Patti, my wife who is in heaven now, had frequent
respiratory problems. She had a friend that was a personal physician whom
she saw frequently. I was told by physicians she had the beginning signs of
emphysema. On the way from Tennessee to the land of my fathers, Sarcoxie,
God healed Patti while she was driving down US 60 near Cabool, Missouri. She
never had another respiratory problem until she went to heaven. That healing
came from my obedience.
We arrived in Sarcoxie. At the time I
owned a farm just outside of town with 143 acres, but it didn’t have a house
I could stay in, so I rented the only house in Sarcoxie that was available.
It belonged to a woman that had just passed away at the age of 95. I knew
her son very well. He said to me, “Doyle, I am ashamed to rent this house to
you.” I replied, “No Floyd, don’t be, this is God.” There was grass growing
up between the cracked floorboards and springs sticking out of the couch.
God was already dealing with my pride and I knew it.
My ministry really began in Sarcoxie,
Missouri in that house. My first bible study was there. I wasn’t long after
I got there I believe God told me to start it. Only a few people came that
first time. From September 1970 to June 1971 I held that bible study in my
house on Thursday nights. I also visited other homes, went to Full Gospel
Businessmen’s meetings and talked with their leaders. I immediately started
preaching the bible to people I had met. I wasn’t afraid and I wasn’t
ashamed. I could talk about the bible with anyone, I had been reading it
intently for several years. The bible was always clear to me I just didn’t
believe it. I would visit homes in the area and speak there. One night I was
doing a home meeting and the man said, “Now you need to know that if you
hear the words Holy Spirit or Holy Ghost, you need to know that the Holy
Ghost is stronger”. I knew Holy Ghost and Holy Spirit were the same Spirit.
Another night I was in a home talking to some people. A woman said to me,
“You have only been following God a couple months? You sound like you have
been following him for five years!” I also had an interview with the
Gideons.
It was in Sarcoxie, at my farm in May
1971 after fasting three days that Patti, Kathy and I sat on the bridge
covering Center Creek that we prayed “to seek of him (God) a right way for
us” (Ezra 8:21). God answered that prayer.
I was born in Sarcoxie, I was born again
in Sarcoxie, and my ministry began in Sarcoxie. Sarcoxie has never left my
heart.
Deuteronomy 30:5
And the LORD thy God will bring thee
into the land which thy fathers possessed, and thou shalt possess it; and he
will do thee good, and multiply thee above thy fathers.
(I want to thank God for Kathie Davidson. She is interviewing me and writing what I say. I find it easy to talk to her.)
God bless you,
Doyle Davidson
Servant and apostle of the Lord Jesus Christ
kd/kc
