JESUS ON THE CROSS

 Water of Life Ministries
A Life Lived Wholly Unto God:
A Testament of the Grace of God on His Servant


by Kathryn Currier with Doyle Davidson
4/1/2012



Introduction

“And thou shalt remember all the way which the Lord thy God led thee these forty years in the wilderness, to humble thee, and to prove thee, to know what was in thine heart, whether thou wouldest keep his commandments.” (Deuteronomy 8:1)
“Over Forty years I have obeyed God, wholly.”
I’ve heard Doyle Davidson say that often and few people can make that statement truthfully, but he can and God is his witness. He didn’t ask me to write about how God has led him over forty years, but it was in my heart to do so. When I began, I thought it would be something accomplished fairly quickly, however it soon became clear, this was not a simple task. I have not been an eyewitness to Doyle’s life, however since June 2006 I have personally witnessed moves of the Spirit of God in his life and his ministry many times. God has most certainly allowed me to become well acquainted with him and in our many conversations I have learned about his “up-bringing”, the people who raised him, and others God brought into his life. I have learned he is honest and a man of integrity—that is how his parents raised him but more importantly, that is the heart that God gave him. I have learned that he doesn’t seek his own will, but only the will of the Father.
Doyle’s cousin Paul Miller, a well known journalist said, “Our actions must be determined not by their compliance with state or federal law, nor by public attitudes, but on the basis of doing the right thing.”
Doyle learned years ago in his walk with the Lord that, to do what was right was to be led by the Spirit and to walk in the word. Psalm 37 says: the steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord and David prayed in Psalm 119:
Order my steps in the word: and let not any iniquity have dominion over me.
Much of this is simply Doyle’s own words from the writings he has shared on his web site, testimonies of the paths of correction God has led him on as he laid down his own life and took up the life of the Lord Jesus Christ, a yielded vessel that God could work His power through. Called of God, before the foundation of the earth, as an apostle and prophet, his life, and specifically the past forty two years is a testament to the faithfulness of God toward His servants but also an example of what is required of a servant, called of God. One can never fully understand what God requires of his holy apostles and prophets, only those who have walked there and they are few—we read about them in the bible and his is a life that resembles the lives of God’s servants found in the pages of the bible.
These are only highlights of his walk since 1970, when he drove away from his veterinary practice and hospital that he had built and it has all been to perfect his faith and his love, to prepare him to fulfill God’s purposes in these last days. Doyle has stated that he spent the first (nearly) forty years of his life learning the wisdom of man, and the next forty years being delivered of that wisdom.

Smith Wigglesworth said about Moses:
“The striking thing about Moses is that it took him forty years to learn human wisdom, forty years to know his helplessness, and forty years to live in the power of God. One hundred and twenty years it took to teach that man…” (from the Active Life of the Spirit filled Believer)


Early Years
He was born, Doyle Eugene Davidson on April 1, 1932 to Lyle and Alba Davidson, the second of four children and the only boy. He was born with a heart defect which in layman’s terms was called blue baby syndrome and the doctors told his parents there was nothing they could do for him. A neighbor told Lyle that he might as well be prepared to find him dead in his crib some morning. Lyle’s reply to her was, “He won’t die, he will live!” Family members have shared with Doyle that when they brought him home, his mother being very distraught threw him on the bed and said, “Take him Lord, he’s yours!” At that moment, she surrendered him to the Lord and the Lord took him up. He didn’t die, he lived and God healed him. Doyle learned from his mother years later that she had told the Lord if He would give her a son, she would give him back to Him and God required her to do just that, much like Hannah in 1 Samuel 1:
27) For this child I prayed; and the Lord hath given me my petition, which I asked of him:
28) Therefore also I have lent (returned him of whom I have obtained by petition) him to the Lord; as long as he liveth he shall be lent to the Lord…
Doyle was born again, as a small boy. He was almost 6 years old, playing outside on a gravel pile and was talking to Jesus, when his mother called him to come in because it was cold. He remembers he didn’t want to go in, he was talking to Jesus. The Lord has shown him he was born again that day, but it would be many years later, that Jesus would become his Lord.
He was raised in southwest Missouri in Jasper County, near Sarcoxie, born on land joining where his great-grandfather had settled. His grandfather, Luther Davidson was a dirt contractor and a house builder. Luther along with his four sons, and son-in-laws, built roads, dams, and straightened creek beds; whatever dirt work needed done, he could do it and it was all accomplished with horse drawn equipment; he owned fifty head of draft horses. He and his crew were contracted to build a section of Hwy. 66 in the Rolla, Missouri area. During that time, Luther and his entire household were born again. Not long after that his grandfather told his family and all his crew, “When we finish this section, we’re going home,” and they did. Doyle believes that his grandfather’s heart was changed after he was born again, and he could no longer conduct business as usual to secure government contracts. They returned home to Jasper County and what a sight that must have been to see, a wagon train of fifty horses and all the equipment coming across the Missouri prairie.
Doyle’s dad, Lyle, was also a successful contractor with a business of moving houses all over the state of Missouri. He was also a carpenter and did some farming along with his construction business. Doyle was raised by a father who had faith and believed God to some degree. When Lyle was about eighteen, God took him down to the gates of hell three times and when he related this to Doyle he said, “I saw people in the flames that I knew. I knew fear that day, like I had never known and I wasn’t just born again, I was converted.” You can read, The Faith of Lyle Davidson on Doyle’s web page (http://www.doyledavidson.com/news/testimonies/the_faith_of_lyle_davidson.html). Doyle asked the Lord once, “Where did my Dad get his faith?” and he said God clearly spoke to him and said, “I gave it to him when he was born again, just as I gave you the faith to do what you do.” Lyle demonstrated his faith by his works and he ministered that faith to Doyle and Lyle’s testimonies continue to minister to others today.
“Doyle you are going to have to preach the gospel” his Dad often said. “I did not want to hear that, I wanted him to be still,” Doyle said, “Because I thought that meant I would have to be like the preachers I knew.” He was raised in Redwood Holiness church, where they taught John Wesley Methodism. It was built by his Grandfather Luther and his sons and the neighbors, cutting and felling the timber and hauling the logs with teams of horses, according to a cousin’s memory. Doyle always knew he was different as a child, not necessarily understanding why. People would encourage him to go to the front for the altar call to “be saved” and he always shook his head “No,” rooted to his spot in the pew. “I wasn’t about to tell anyone I already knew Jesus. Maybe I just didn’t want to be honest with myself—that in my heart, I knew Dad was right; there was a call on my life and I didn’t want to acknowledge it.” When he turned eighteen, he asked his Dad if he could stop going to church because he didn’t believe it was doing him any good. His dad’s reply to him was, “Well if you don’t think it’s doing you any good, then you ought not to go.”

Heritage

The Davidsons are of Scottish and English heritage and came to America in the late 1600s to early 1700s initially settling in Virginia. There is also Irish and Cherokee lineage in his background. His great-great grandfather Joshua Davidson and Joshua’s father, Golden, born in Virginia, also lived in Tennessee and Alabama before migrating to Illinois where they are both buried. According to research, a number of them fought for this country. The Davidsons were land owners—farmers. His great-grandfather James Madison Davidson moved to Missouri from Illinois in the late 1800s and Doyle was told by an uncle that he farmed 100 acres of strawberries in Jasper County. He was also a house builder and Doyle remembers his Dad telling him that one of the houses he moved was built by his great-grandfather.
When he was a small boy the family moved to another farm and they used teams and wagons to transport their household items. He was about five, riding beside his Dad in the wagon and it was a cold day, “Bitter cold.” Doyle said. His Dad stopped the team and said, “Let’s get down and walk behind the wagon, it’ll be warmer,” and they did, Doyle having to almost run to keep up. As he shared that story with me he commented, “There was no place for weakness with the Davidsons.”
His mother’s paternal side of the family—the Millers, trace their ancestry to a group of people who came to America in the 1630s and settled in Rhode Island. They eventually established fellowships which later were called Six Principle churches following the foundation teachings in Hebrews 6. Samuel Gorton was one of those. He came to America with his family in 1636 and wrote: "I left my native country to enjoy the liberty of conscience in respect to faith towards God, and no other end." In researching original record, Samuel Gorton (http://www.doyledavidson.com/nation_fruit/samuel_gorton.html) was elected to office for many years and highly respected by his friends and neighbors. He was a friend to the Indians and believed in purchasing land from them rather than taking it by force. He and his friends were advocates of religious freedom and the separation of church and state, believing that government did not have the right or authority to dictate what men believed. One historian is quoted as saying that the government that had originally been formed on Aquidneck Island by Gorton and associates at Portsmouth, “operated like leaven in diffusing itself through the minds of the masses and formed the nucleus out of which sprang the Declaration of Independence.” He was a minister, governor and a man whose influence in the founding of this nation has been largely ignored.
Doyle’s great-grandfather Newell Miller was a cavalryman in the Civil War and he had ancestors who fought in nearly every military conflict from the early 1600s. Newell Miller settled in Newton County, Missouri in the late 1800s. He was a land owner and a farmer. His grandfather, Frank Miller was born in Michigan and came to Missouri with his family as a young lad. He was a farmer and also a constable for a time. Doyle talks of spending a great deal of time with his grandfather, listening to the grownups talk politics and he remembers that his Grandpa Miller hated socialism—“he could spot a socialist a mile away.”
His maternal grandmother Minnie Virkler traces her roots to Amish-Mennonites from Alsace-Lorraine, France who came to America in the 1800s, settling in New York. Her great-grandfather, Rudolph Virkler was born in France and the ninth of eleven children. Rudolph and Catherine Virkler and their family, along with at least two other families from the community, sailed for America in 1833 and by 1836, organized themselves as the first Amish-Mennonite congregation of Lewis County, New York, holding their meetings in homes. There were other immigrants that followed them to New York and in the mid-1800s many of the congregation left the group to form a new fellowship, because of a dispute over doctrine. The Virklers and others believed immersion was the scriptural form of baptism and rejected infant baptism, believing that there must be a conversion experience before baptism by immersion. Benedict Wyeneth was sent to America from Switzerland by Samuel Frohlich at the request of the Virklers about 1847 and by 1852 he organized and established the Apostolic Christian Church which later became known as the Evangelical Baptist Church. Later Joseph Virkler, the oldest son of Rudolph was ordained as a minster by Benedict Wyeneth. According to research, Rudolph’s grandson Joseph settled in Missouri and married Catherine Garber and their daughter Minnie was the sixth of nine children.
Doyle has told me, “My family and the neighbors I grew up with were honest, hard working people. We didn’t pay attention to what a person looked like, the color of their skin or how they talked, we didn’t care. We minded our own business and left people alone, that was the kind of community I was raised in.”
Listening and writing about Doyle’s childhood, the strength and character of the people that God surrounded him with brings a new understanding to the words in Acts 17:
26) And hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth, and hath determined the times before appointed, and the bounds of their habitation.

Like Jonah and the Whale
Doyle has stated on more than one occasion: “I knew growing up, Jasper County couldn’t keep me. As a young boy I stood on top of a high “tailing” pile and as I looked out over that land I said to myself, ‘When I get old enough, I’m leaving this place’, and one day I did just that.”
He joined the United States Navy in 1952 and served four years as a hospital corpsman; 27 months of his service were in Yokosuka, Japan. He married his high school sweetheart, Patti Tinkle and their daughter Kathy Jane was born in California seven days after he had shipped out for Japan. He met Kathy for the first time in Japan when she was seven months old, after he had made arrangements for Patti and Kathy to come live with him while he was stationed there. In Oakland, California, working as a hospital corpsman on the paraplegic ward, he saw men with injuries like he had never seen and as he attended to these men, he was greatly humbled and it had a profound effect on him. Years later God would bring these experiences back to his remembrance as he read in Isaiah that Jesus was marred more than any man.
After his discharge from the Navy, he made the decision to go to veterinary school and upon graduation from University of Missouri School of Veterinary Medicine in 1962, moved his family to Tennessee. There was tremendous opportunity for him in the equine medicine industry in that state, however Patti had health problems that were exacerbated by the climate of the area and Doyle made the decision to leave. He told Patti he could practice veterinary medicine anywhere, it wasn’t worth her being sick and they left Tennessee, living in Sarcoxie, Missouri for a short period, eventually settling in McKinney, Texas. He worked for another veterinary group for a few months and then began his own practice. He built 121 Veterinary Hospital, a state-of-the-art animal hospital that he had designed himself. He established a successful equine practice and became well known in the business. His reputation of honesty and integrity preceded him, in an industry that wasn’t always conducive to those qualities. A client told him once, “Doc you are too honest for your own good.” Doyle replied, “Never.” One day, Lyle came to visit and spent the day with him at his veterinary hospital. The parking lot was full of horse trailers and while Doyle was working, his Dad mingled outside with Doyle’s clients, listening and asking questions. When the day was over Lyle said, “Well I’ve found out two things.” Doyle said, “Yes, and what would that be?” Lyle said, “Your clients say you are honest and you’re not afraid to say you don’t have the answer but you’ll try to find out.” Doyle’s reply was, “Well that shouldn’t surprise you. You raised me.”
Prior to entering vet school, Doyle had a visitation from God. He was 26 years old, living in Columbia, Missouri and rotating the tires on his car one afternoon when the presence of God fell on him and he heard the Lord say, “I don’t want you to be a veterinarian, I want you to be a minister of the gospel.” He said he knew fear in that moment like he has never known since and all he could say was, “Lord don’t send me to hell, Lord don’t send me to hell.” He didn’t obey God that day and years later God told him it was because he didn’t believe Him.
He describes those years he practiced veterinary medicine, as being like Jonah, running from God and ending up in the belly of a whale, except his whale was veterinary medicine, though he didn’t know that at the time— he enjoyed what he did, and they lived a very comfortable life.
When he left the church at eighteen, with his dad’s permission, his parents and siblings and the people he grew up around were troubled. He never returned, except to visit once in awhile and it appeared to them he had rejected God or at the least, it seemed he had no interest in God—he was considered the “black sheep” of the family. But what they didn’t know was during those years he was always looking for God, he just didn’t tell them—he didn’t tell anyone.
Even as a boy growing up in a family who read the bible daily and went to church regularly—he didn’t want to tell anyone he talked to God or that he prayed. And he didn’t tell them that he didn’t want to be like the preachers he saw, there were too many who said one thing, but did another. But he experienced the results of a prayer of faith when God answered his prayer during what to him was a desperate time during his childhood:
“When I was five years old, my mother became sick and they thought she was going to die. No one knew what was wrong with her, but she couldn’t get her breath. (Now I know it was demons.) She was sick for weeks. At that time, Granddad could delegate his work to his sons and others; he didn’t have to be on the job every day. He came to the house every day for two weeks and prayed when Mother was sick. One day when he came, he called me and my sisters together and sat us down to talk to us. He told us, “You know there was a lady who lived down south from here who was sick and they thought she was going to die and this woman had three kids. One day those kids got together by her bed and prayed, and they told God, “God if you don’t do something for our mother, we’re going to have to take her to the cemetery.” God healed those kids’ mother.” Only God knows how hard my heart was. I would give you anything I had to help you, but I didn’t want to talk about God. As I listened to Granddad, I didn’t know what to think. My heart was so hard and I didn’t want anyone to know I prayed, but this was my mother. After I heard the testimony that Granddad shared with us, I thought maybe it was time to pray. Dorothy, Betty and I, along with my Granddad prayed. I don’t recall my prayer, I probably reminded God about those three kids Granddad had told us about. Mother began to get better immediately. I know now, my Granddad and we three kids joined our faith and God honored that prayer.”
God did put people in his life, including Levi Burkhart and Elliott Hodge who also demonstrated faith. They both ministered at the Redwood Holiness church while Doyle was growing up and they stand out in his memory, especially Levi Burkhart. Of all the visiting preachers that came to speak, he seemed to have the greatest impact on Doyle’s life. Doyle said he didn’t care to listen to most preachers in church but Levi Burkhart was one who was able to hold his attention. He had a methodical and deliberate delivery and included a great deal of scripture. He remembers that he opened every sermon with, “I need the prayers of all God’s people.” Reverend Burkhart spoke at length about the creation and the stars in the heavens and the heavenlies and he ministered that to Doyle. I have heard that same appreciation for all that God has created in conversations with Doyle. He said to me once, “How can one look up at the stars in the sky at night, and not know there is a God?” He didn’t know Reverend Burkhart personally and never had any conversations with him but he learned years later after a conversation with a neighbor and family friend, Paul Smith, that when Levi came to visit his [Paul] home, he always had his bible, it was almost always in his lap and it was underlined. That made an impression on Doyle. Doyle believes God told him the reason Lyle took his family to Redwood Church was for Doyle to hear Levi Burkhart speak.
Elliot Hodge was another minister that seemed different to Doyle. He had faith, as his testimony “A Sketch of My Life” demonstrates. In his testimony he tells that from the result of a hunting accident he ended up gravely ill in the the hospital and the doctors believed he would soon die. A friend called church members in Independence, Kansas and asked them to gather the Holiness people to pray. A number of people came to the hospital to pray, including Doyle’s aunt, Neva Dodson. Later Doyle’s Uncle Floyd Davidson and his Grandfather Luther Davidson came also. Hodge died and went to heaven three times, and tells of the experience in his testimony, but God answered their prayers and Hodge lived and recovered, a testimony to the faith of those who prayed. Doyle obviously recognized it in both Burkhart and Hodge, even as a young boy. He admits it was easier for him to accept that it was faith in those visiting ministers, than it was to accept his Dad’s faith.
Doyle said, “I didn’t believe a word I heard all those years, which proves that you can sit in the middle of a people and not hear one word, but one day, God can open a person’s heart to hear and believe.”
Doyle went on television in the Joplin area in the 1990’s and his family was questioning his ministry and the things he was teaching. Paul Smith told them after a lengthy conversation with Doyle in Alba’s kitchen, that he could find nothing wrong with his doctrine. Paul Smith was a student of John Wesley doctrine.
While Doyle was a practicing veterinarian God was constantly speaking to him and he tells of an angel riding with him in his car:
“But God had been visiting me for about 12 years, and the last two years, 1968 – 1969, God spoke to me day and night. In fact, I know now that He put an angel of the Lord in the right front seat of my automobile. I drove hundreds of miles practicing veterinary medicine in North Texas and other areas in the United States. That angel sat in my car day and night.
Every time I would get in the car he would be there asking, ‘Why don’t you preach the gospel? Why don’t you obey God?’ I was so frustrated, I thought, ‘Why don’t you get out of my car? Why don’t you leave me alone?’ But I thank God that He did not.”
He kept a bible with him under the seat of the car those two years and he said when he would pull it out to read it, the words would stand up on the page, looking three-dimensional—God was illuminating His word to him and teaching him. He showed him in Ephesians 1 about the baptism in the Holy Spirit being a second experience to being born again.
13) In whom ye also trusted after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation: in whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise.
14) Which is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, unto the praise of his glory.”
Just as Paul said in Galatians 1 that he was taught of God, so it was with Doyle:
For I neither received it of man, neither was I taught it, but by the revelation of Jesus Christ.

Sell Out and Obey Me

The assassination of President John F. Kennedy in 1963 was a moment in history that changed his life; it was like simple innocence came face to face with the wickedness of the world. He was 31years old, X-raying a horse on the Texas State Fairgrounds in Dallas, when a man walked up and told him and his client that Kennedy had been shot. He has stated: “That impacted my life like no other moment, to think that my president could be assassinated.” He could not understand how something like that could take place in the United States of America. He closely followed the events associated with Kennedy’s death and read everything he could get his hands on. He has stated, “Ultimately that event made it easier to sell my veterinary hospital and practice when God directed me to.”
When he built 121 Veterinary Hospital he knew in his heart he wouldn’t be able to keep it, although he barely allowed himself to acknowledge that thought. He asked Rodney Butler to become a partner with him in his practice, and it was God, setting him up for the day He would require him to lay his life down.
God allowed him much success even in his rebellion, but in 1969 the day came when it was over and he knew it. At the time, he was involved in a corporation that he was not enjoying at all and he really wanted out of it. As he was driving down U.S. 75 one day he said to the Lord, “If this has been you bugging me all these years telling me to obey you, sell my share of this corporation and I will do whatever you ask.” The next day he was on his way to a client’s to look at a horse and he stopped to get a coke. The two partners of the corporation were there and they asked him if he was interested in selling his share. As unassuming as he can be, he said, “Maybe.” They made arrangements to meet that afternoon and finalize an agreement and just that quick, it was done.
About two weeks later, he was motoring down 75 again, without a care in the world, and he heard the Lord say, “Sell out and obey me.” Doyle said, “I am not doing that,” and the Lord said, “You said if I would sell your share of the corporation, you would do whatever I ask.” “Well it didn’t include that!” Doyle replied. But he knew he was had and from that day, he knew his life was not his own. It was at that time that Doyle became increasingly frustrated with Dr. Butler’s actions and after Dr. Butler had his sixth wreck, a friend and the president of the Pontiac-Cadillac dealership and shop called him and asked him to come down to the dealership, he needed to talk with him. During the course of that conversation, he warned Doyle that Dr. Butler would destroy him financially. As Doyle related that story he said, “Throughout my life, God has always had someone there to speak to me things that were helpful.” When Doyle told God, no one would buy his hospital and practice, the Lord told him Dr. Butler would and Doyle responded, “He won’t buy it, he’s afraid.” God said, “I’ll make him buy it.” He did.
January 2, 1970, with his heart breaking, Doyle drove away from 121 Veterinary Hospital, leaving a lucrative equine practice that he loved. God wasted little time in divesting him of all his holdings, which included farms, horses, cattle and investments. He walked away from financial success and a reputation of one highly esteemed in the equine industry because he believed it was God. He was 37 years old.
Just as Abraham is described in Hebrews 11:8, Doyle by faith, sold his practice and left, not knowing where he was going.
“By faith Abraham, when he was called to go out into a place which he should after receive for an inheritance, obeyed; and he went out not knowing whither he went.”
After he sold his practice he struggled for three months, whether he wanted to obey God or not. He had some fear of God and knew if he didn’t obey he would be destroyed. He had grown up hearing about the rich man in Luke 12 and he did not want to be that man.
15) And he said unto them, Take heed, and beware of covetousness: for a man’s life consisteth not in the abundance of the things which he possesseth.

16) And he spake a parable unto them, saying, The ground of a certain rich man brought forth plentifully:

17) And he thought within himself, saying, What shall I do, because I have no room where to bestow my fruits?

18) And he said, This will I do: I will pull down my barns, and build greater; and there will I bestow all my fruits and my goods.

19) And I will say to my soul, Soul, thou has much goods laid up for many years; take thine ease, eat, drink, and be merry.

20) But God said unto him, Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee: then whose shall those things be, which thou hast provided?

21) So is he that layeth up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God.

Family, friends and business associates thought he was having a midlife crisis and he didn’t have the courage to tell people he was obeying God. His wife and daughter didn’t know what to think and Kathy has said, “I didn’t understand what was going on in our lives and I wish I could say I went along willingly, but I didn’t.” They moved to Springfield, Missouri for a short time and towards the end of those three months, in March, he went to see a friend in Dallas, Texas about a business deal. He checked into a hotel in Sherman at 3:00 AM and when he walked into the room there was a light on by the nightstand with a bible lying open. He walked over to the nightstand and looked down at the bible and it was open to Isaiah 30 and his eyes fixed on the first verse:
1) Woe to the rebellious children saith the Lord, that take counsel but not of me and cover with a covering, but not of my Spirit, that they may add sin to sin.
“As I read that verse, I knew for the first time in my life that I was a rebel. I never considered myself to be a rebellious person, but a person that won’t obey God is a rebel and God convinced me on the spot.” He never discussed the business deal with his friend, returning to Sarcoxie a changed man—never able to run from God again.
As Doyle was learning to be led by the Spirit of God, he had brought Patty of Oaks, one of the broodmares he still owned, to his farm in Missouri, after he had sold his practice. Some friends were visiting and wanted to see her and Doyle took them out to his farm where she was pastured. When they drove up she was about a ½ mile away and the people with him said, “How are you going to get her?” “Watch me,” he replied. She wasn’t wearing a halter and he didn’t have a halter or a lead rope with him, but he found some baling twine in the barn and took it with him as he started across the pasture. When he got close, she threw her head up and snorted at him, getting ready to take off. He said, “Stop!” Immediately she stopped in her tracks and he walked up to her and slipped the twine over her neck, looping it over her nose, as a make-shift halter and lead and started back toward where they were parked. Doyle has described her as a spirited thing and a bit of a show-off and she wanted to trot, and he let her trot in circles around him, as he moved the twine-lead from side to side and over his head, while she pranced around him. She responded to his every move without him putting any pressure on the string.
As they made their way back to the area where he had parked, the Lord said to him, “When I get through with you, that is how you are going to respond to me.” Doyle thought, “Lord, I don’t even have to tighten the string on her!”
In May 1970, Doyle’s sister was having car trouble one day and he went to lend assistance and brought her back to his house. They talked and before she left they prayed together. A day or so later, he was sitting on his couch and he asked the Lord, “Lord, who do I get with and who do I follow?” His bible was lying beside him and as he looked at it he saw the words in John 15:
1) I am the true vine, and my Father is the husbandmen.
2) Every branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away: and every branch that beareth fruit, he purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit.
3) Now you are clean through the words I have spoken unto you.
4) Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me.
5) I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing.
6) If a man abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered; and men gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned.
7) If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you.
8) Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit; so shall ye be my disciples.
He understood what a true vine was: one that would produce after its own kind. He also knew that a husbandman was a farmer—and purge was a term he was very familiar with for he had administered mineral oil and castor oil to newborn foals to cleanse their system and he knew it could be a very painful process. While he was considering these verses God showed him a vision of a watermelon vine with watermelon fruit on it. Soon, those fruits began to change and one became a cantaloupe, one a cucumber and one a strawberry. He knew God was showing him, Catholic, Baptist, and Methodist denominations and he was showing him, denominations were not of Him.

Return to the Land of Your Fathers
Doyle knew a lot of the horse people in Tennessee from the days he spent there when he initially began practicing veterinary medicine after graduation. He attended horse shows every year in Shelbyville over Labor Day weekend and had a number of clients that he treated horses for each time he came into town for a show so he was well known there. Soon after that vision, he believed it was right to ask George Jackson about coming to work with him in his practice over the summer. George told him, “Come on, there’s plenty to do” and he and Patti and Kathy returned to Tennessee in May.
They went to a Full Gospel Business meeting in Chicago in June and there Doyle met Derek and Lydia Prince. Derek knew Doyle had sold his veterinary practice and he asked Doyle, “What are you going to do, preach?” Doyle’s reply was, “I wouldn’t know what to say.” During the meeting Derek read the verses in 1Timothy 2:
1) “I exhort therefore, that first of all, supplications, prayers, and intercessions, and giving of thanks, be made for all men;
2) For kings, and for all that are in authority; that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty,
3) For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour;
4) Who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth.”
God ministered those verses to Doyle and from that day on, he began praying for this country. God has shown him over the years that He has given him authority that extends not only to America, but to the world.
During that summer in Tennessee, on July 24, 1970 while in bed at midnight, Doyle asked Patti to get him a drink of water, which in itself was an unusual request. But Patti went to get him a drink and while she was gone, what looked like a clear, plastic meter board 2½ x 8 inches with six oriental words written on it appeared right in front of his face and as he jerked his head back from the vision, he began speaking in tongues. Patti returned with the water, and he said, “Patti I don’t need a drink, I’m speaking in tongues.” Jesus said to the woman at the well, “…but whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life.”
God was beginning to lay the foundation in him spoken of in Hebrews 6:
1) Therefore leaving the principles of the doctrine of Christ, let us go on unto perfection; not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works, and of faith toward God,
2) Of the doctrines of baptisms, and of laying on of hands, and of resurrection of the dead, and of eternal judgment.
After receiving the baptism in the Holy Spirit he determined he was leaving Tennessee and thought, “I’m going back to Texas”. The day they left, they were about sixty miles down the road and the car began to act up and this was a new car! Even with the accelerator pushed to the floor, it wouldn’t run over 40 miles per hour and when Doyle looked in the rear view mirror there was black smoke rolling from the back end of the car. He pulled into a service station to have a mechanic look at it. Underneath the car, transmission fluid was blown everywhere. He was told the seals to the transmission were leaking and would need replaced and it would take a couple days to fix. After considering this news, Doyle decided he would just turn the car around and see if they could limp back to Murfreesboro. As they eased onto the highway, he soon found the car would respond to pressure on the accelerator, they began to pick up the pace and soon were cruising down the highway like nothing was wrong. He looked into his rearview mirror, and there was no smoke! They made it back to Murfreesboro without incident. He said he never added a drop of transmission fluid to replace what had leaked out, nor at any other time while he had it. He put 50,000 miles on the car and never had any repairs done on the transmission, nor any other part of the car. After he related this incident, I asked him—twice, “You mean you never added any transmission fluid, even immediately after it happened?” His reply: “Never.” That would be hard to explain away. God not only corrected him and stopped him from returning to Texas, but performed a miracle with his car.
Soon after they returned to Murfreesboro he was walking across the parking lot of the apartments where they were staying and he said to God, “How can I be straightened?” The Lord spoke to him these words from Luke 12:50: “But I have a baptism to be baptized with; and how am I straightened till it be accomplished.” Doyle knew the scriptures in Mathew 3:15: “…Suffer it to be so now: for thus it becometh us to fulfill all righteousness…” and he knew to go on with God he needed to be baptized in water. The next morning, George and Johanna Hedges, who were moving from Chicago to Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, stopped by the Jacksons. Johanna was Lydia Prince’s daughter. Doyle asked George Hedges if he would baptize him and Patti in the swimming pool at the apartments and he did. The next night at midnight, God said to Doyle, “Return to the land of your fathers” and with that, Doyle told Patti and Kathy, “We’re going back to Missouri.” He called George and Betty the next morning and said, “I’m leaving to go back to Sarcoxie.” The Jacksons didn’t understand but Doyle said, “This is God.” He was thirty-eight years old when God sent him back to Missouri.
Their apartment rent was paid through the month so they left the next day. They were in two cars, Doyle in one and Patti and Kathy in the other. Just west of Cabool, Missouri, Doyle pulled off the road and Patti pulled up behind him. Doyle got out and walked back to their car and asked how they were all doing and Patti said, “God just healed me.” Surprised, Doyle said, “What?” Doyle hadn’t even been asking God to heal Patti. He was praying, but it was about what he was going to do when he got to Missouri. Patti went on to explain, “Everything just cleared up, my nose isn’t running, everything is gone and my breathing is normal” Kathy was in the car with her mother and she said it made a great impact on her. She knew her Dad was trying to obey God, and at that time she didn’t want any part of it. Her words were, “I was a rebel, I wanted God to just leave me alone. But that got my attention. I saw the results of my Dad’s obedience.” It was Doyle’s obedience that brought about Patti’s healing. Both Doyle and Kathy have said Patti never had any major physical problems from then on, until 1998 after she had yielded to the false anointing in 1984.
There on his farm in Missouri he continued to study the word and began to learn to live by faith. He saw in James 5:
17) “Elias was a man subject to like passions as we are, and he prayed earnestly that it might not rain: and it rained not on the earth by the space of three years and six months.
18) and he prayed again, and the heaven gave rain, and the earth brought forth her fruit.”
His farm needed rain and he saw that Elias was a man with like passions and so he purposed to believe for rain and the following is his testimony:
“When I arrived back in Sarcoxie I saw that my farm had not received enough rain and was in a dry condition. It occurred to me that the effectual, fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much. I knew that God had sent me back there, and I determined to walk an hour on my farm and pray in other tongues. That night it rained 9/10th's of an inch. I had cleared several acres of land with a bulldozer and had thirty-six piles of trees that I wanted to burn. In two weeks, I had placed under the piles of trees, inner tubes and old tires, and had strategically located several five-gallon cans of diesel fuel. That afternoon when I had completed my work, I said, ‘Now it's going to rain,’ and I started praying for rain and that night it rained two inches. The next morning I was up early and set all of those tree piles on fire. Within five months, I had burned all of the trees and stumps, and what remained I buried with a bulldozer. Those were acts of the power of God. By now, I had confidence that God would answer my prayers if I would believe him. Over the next year, I watched God do several miracles.”
Doyle said when he first began walking with God he went from one end of the radio dial to the other, trying to find someone who knew anything about God. He went to seminars, read books, listened to tapes—looking for someone who taught the bible like it was written, all to no avail.
But he never stopped studying and he had heard them say in a Full Gospel Businessmen’s meeting that God was a businessman and he knew what Psalm 100 said. He owned a house that he was trying to sell and came before the Father believing and expecting him to perform his word:
“I remember one time I fell on my face at 3:00 in the morning and said, ‘I'm on my face, Father, and I want to thank You and praise You and worship You.’ I did this for one hour and then I said, ‘I know I’m in your presence, because I came according to Psalm 100,’ which says, in verse 4:
Enter into his gates with thanksgiving, and into his courts with praise…
I continued, ‘I thanked You and entered into Your gates, and I praised You, so I'm in Your court. Now, I have some things to say to You.’
I owned a house that had been vacant for 18 months and that I had been unable to sell. I had heard people at Full Gospel Businessmen meetings say that God was a businessman.
I said to God, ‘They tell me that You are a businessman, and I accept that, because they are Your servants. It doesn't seem like good business for me to pay interest on a loan and taxes on a house that has been vacant for 18 months. I would like to have my house sold now. Thank you. Good night.’
I went to bed, and the next morning at 9:00, my realtor called me and said, ‘I just sold your house.’ I said, ‘I'm not surprised.’ That is the way God moves, when you pray from 3:00 until 4:00 in the morning. You cannot simply pray for five minutes and expect God to answer.
In January of 1971 I laid down in bed about 10:30 to go to sleep when suddenly before my eyes I found myself standing at the water’s edge. The water was crystal clear and I could see the bottom was covered in small brown pebbles that went out for about 10-12 feet from the edge. At that juncture was a clear line of demarcation and the water became very blue, deep blue. I was reminded of the water I saw in the South Pacific in 1953. I raised up, sat up in bed, shook my head, but everything remained the same, the vision didn’t go away. I stood up and the scene never left me. I thought, ‘This must be a vision of God’. As I looked up and out, the water as far as you could see was deep, dark blue just like the water in the South Pacific Ocean. In a few minutes I was able to go to sleep. The next morning I began to pray and ask the Lord what the vision meant. About 11:00 that morning it came to me by the Spirit, ‘You are about to get into deep water; don’t look to the right or to the left and don’t listen to any man, or you’ll drown.”

Florida

God sent Doyle to Florida, June 1971 to manage the Turnpike Animal Clinic in Opa-Locka, Florida and was there for eleven months. Doyle knew the men that once owned the clinic and it was one of the most elite hospitals in South Florida. One of the partners had become sole owner of the practice and facility and after he had passed away, his wife took over. Doyle received a call to manage it and he believed it was right. Both Doyle and Kathy Mai have said that she and her Mom were very unhappy about this new venture, but it was God.
The area in Opa-Locka where the hospital was located was considered unsafe, to say the least. When he first moved in to his offices he was shown a sawed-off shotgun and when he asked what it was for, he was told for his protection. He told them to get the guns out of there, “I don’t need them,” he said, “Angels surround this place.” Not long after he settled in, a facility that trained dogs for protection moved in next door and he also became acquainted with John Ripa, one of the detective’s whose life, the movie French Connection was based on.
While there, he went through a period where he was not happy at all. He was treating everything from exotic cats to poodles and housecats and he was most miserable. There was a courtyard within the facility and he was walking in it and praying, talking to God and he said: “I am willing to stay here, but you are going to have to change my heart”. In a moment, the Lord did just that, and he was at peace.
Throughout those eleven months, he was practicing with only a temporary license, and he saw God do many miracles in his very diverse clientele and he also saw God perform financial miracles:
“I had asked the owner of the small animal hospital to increase my pay and I had requested 37.5% of the gross. After several days her CPA’s said they could not afford to pay me that. I knew God had sent me there, but I was considering leaving unless I received more money. I was sure it was God that instructed me to make the request for more pay. Only a couple of days afterwards I awakened at 6:20a.m. I know because I was looking at my clock, and I heard God say, ‘55% of the net,’ and I said, ‘Alright.’ I called the owner and told her what I would do. She conferred with her CPA’s and they agreed to that figure. It turned out that 55% of the net was equal to 37.5% of the gross. I was learning that God takes the wise in their own craftiness. My confidence continued to grow that God was with me.”
It was in Florida that Doyle and Patti became well acquainted with Derek and Lydia Prince which he believes was really God’s purpose for sending him there, and they had an open invitation to visit their home every Thursday afternoon when the Princes were in town. On one occasion in 1972, God had been talking to Doyle about a curse a woman had put on him. When he and Patti arrived at the Prince’s home that afternoon, they had barely exchanged greetings before Doyle told them he believed God was telling him he had a curse and where it had come from. They said, “Oh that can’t be.” He persisted, saying, “I believe this is what God is saying to me, that I have a curse on me which was spoken on me years earlier by a woman I would not allow to manipulate me.” Derek and Lydia could not believe he was cursed. For Doyle, the conversation was over and as he and Patti got up to leave, Lydia said, “Derek, there IS something here.” God was delivering him of a curse right before their eyes and Doyle realized at that moment, “I didn’t need Derek Prince or Lydia if I could hear what God was saying better than they. I knew if they didn’t even know I was cursed and couldn’t help me get free, what could they do for me?”
While in Florida he met men who had been introduced to the “Shepherding or Discipleship Movement” of which Derek also became involved with. Doyle guarded his heart and tried the spirits, not sure the movement was of God. Even after returning to Texas he continued to humble himself and for six years he considered what these men were saying, he did not want to come against God. Throughout those years, he spent hours binding witchcraft. Through much prayer and the leading of the Holy Spirit, he determined not to join this group or submit to these men, which is really what they wanted him to do. They believed he needed to be under someone’s authority and his response to them was, “I am under authority, Jesus Christ.” (You can read Doyle’s postings: Challenging the spirit of the Discipleship Movement:
(http://www.doyledavidson.com/news/testimonies/challenging_the_spirit_discipleship.html)









Back to Texas

God sent him back to Texas in May 1972 and at that time, he thought God was going to set him up in a veterinary practice again; instead, he and Patti spent ten weeks in the Holiday Inn and there God taught him the book of Romans and he said, “By the time I got out of that Holiday Inn, I had some understanding of the first five chapters in Romans and I knew I was going to have to live by faith.” By this time he had sold his farms, all his cattle and had only six horses left.
In early August he purchased six and a half acres of land with a house in Argyle in Denton County and set about to practice veterinary medicine. He had a contractual disagreement with his former partner over where he could practice medicine and ended up in court in Denton, Texas. In September 1972, a judge in Denton had issued an injunction against him, and he could not practice in about seventy percent of the territory that he needed to serve. The injunction was in effect for seven months. Again, he saw God move on his behalf:
“When I went to court the judge instructed the jury that he had already determined that I was guilty, and they should just assess the damages. Needless to say I was surprised that I could not have a trial by jury. They brought in two of my colleagues that testified against me and both of them are now deceased. During the night following the first day of the trial, I was aware that the judge was determined to punish me. About 3:00 a.m. as I was praying, the Lord gave me three verses of scripture, Isaiah 51:
21)Therefore hear now this, thou afflicted, and drunken, but not with wine:
22) Thus saith thy Lord the Lord, and thy God that pleadeth the cause of his people, Behold, I have taken out of thine hand the cup of trembling, even the dregs of the cup of my fury; thou shalt no more drink it again:
23) But I will put it into the hand of them that afflict thee; which have said to thy soul, Bow down, that we may go over: and thou hast laid thy body as the ground, and as the street, to them that went over.
I arrived in court that morning in late March 1974 very encouraged expecting that God would do a miracle. While the jury was deliberating, the judge was seated on his bench. My attorney, my opponent's attorney, and myself were all seated. I simply said, ‘Your honor, I have four questions that I would like answered.’ The attorney's were amazed, but that judge wrote the four questions down. (He had to, I had authority over him.) His head, face, and neck were red. It was easy to see his anger. He said, ‘I will go to my chamber and study this, and I will be back.’
In about forty-five minutes he returned to the bench, and as he entered we all stood up, and then we were seated. He answered my four questions one at a time. Upon completion of his answers, he totally reversed himself and changed the bounds of the territory that I could serve. My attorney said, ‘My God I never heard of a judge doing this,’ and he began to weep. I said, ‘Jerry, please, please, get a hold of yourself.’ My thoughts were ‘Don't even give this judge an opportunity to think anything about this. Let's just get out of here before he changes his mind again.’
I really could not tell you that at that moment I believed God changed that man's decisions. The jury returned and assessed their punishment, and the case was over. I was very thankful that God's power worked on my behalf again. After I got out of the courtroom, I was convinced that God did change the judge’s decision.”
Following that, Doyle re-established his veterinary practice and spent twelve years practicing as a veterinarian who was born-again and baptized in the Holy Spirit, speaking in other tongues. During those twelve years, God demonstrated his power to him over and over and taught him to believe and trust Him in his practice. Time and again, Doyle would be at the end of his knowledge and ability and God would manifest his power. He remembers a horse he was treating that was laboring to breathe and he had decided on two different medications, not sure which one he should give and as he reached for a bottle he heard the Lord say, “Don’t give that one.” He immediately stopped and gave the horse the other one. The horse quickly began to improve. Later he asked the Lord, “Why didn’t you want me to give the first one?” and the Lord said, “I didn’t want you to kill the horse.” He learned from that experience that God knew the effect drugs had on the animal kingdom.
The Lord started revealing the gospel to him in 1973 and in March 1974 he experienced a week of what he describes as gushes of power coming up in him. He said it felt like his ribs were coming out of his mouth as wave after wave seemed to push up through him and he thought he was losing his mind, and he said “I was. I was losing my mind and getting the mind of Christ,” he was being renewed in the spirit of his mind. On one of those days he asked Patti to drive him to one of his client’s horse farms. He thought if he could go see a horse he would feel better. He reassured her that no matter what happened or what started coming out of him, to not be bothered, he would be ok. He said, “I was really convincing myself I would be ok”. After about a week of that, he said, “I was a changed person, many of the desires I had, such as making money, were gone.”

Israel – Called into the Ministry

Not long after the court case with Dr. Butler, Doyle was attending a Kenneth Copeland meeting on Sunday afternoon at the Tarrant County Convention Center in Fort Worth, Texas, and God told him to put $50.00 in the offering and he would send him to Israel. At that time he only had $75.00 in his checkbook and little desire to go to Israel, but he obeyed God and gave the $50.00. Just a few days later he received a phone call from someone he knew in Fort Lauderdale, Florida who told him that Derek Prince was leading a tour to Israel in June and had invited Doyle to go. He knew God had told him to go and he saw God perform miracles to get him there:
“When it was time to make the first payment, God did a miracle for me to get the money. When the final payment was due I had to call Fort Lauderdale and tell them that I did not have the money, yet in my heart I knew that I was going to Israel. They replaced me with another family, and that night one of those family members died. The next morning they called me and informed me about the death, and they said, ‘Do you believe that you are still to go to Israel, and do you have the money for the final payment?’ I said, ‘Yes, but no I don't have the money.’ They said, ‘Well we will put someone else in your place then.’ That night one of the individuals that was supposed to go in my place had emergency surgery. The next morning they called me and said, ‘Do you have your money to go to Israel?’ I said, ‘No.’ They said, ‘We are not going to put anyone else in your place to go, Doyle.’ Frankly, I thought, ‘how long is it going to take for you to get the message?’ That evening at about 9:45 PM, I received a phone call from a person and they said, ‘Are you going to Israel?’ I said, ‘Yes.’ They said, ‘Do you have the money?’ I said, ‘I do not.’ They said, ‘How much do you need?’ I said, ‘Well how much to do you have.’ (I was always amazed with my response.) With what I had and what they were sending me, it was enough to pay our final payment. Now I was sure that we were going to Israel, and I certainly expected to have abundance of money to spend during that trip.
During this period of our preparing to go to Israel, just a few days before we went, Ralph and Debbie Edge came to our house and were born again. That was the beginning of God giving me men and women to make Christians out of.
We were to depart DFW on June 8, 1974. The night before we left, I had our tickets. The hotel rooms, breakfast, a sack lunch, and an evening meal had been paid for. We had thirty-three one-dollar bills. At about 10:00 p.m. that night, some people brought us 100 one-dollar bills. At that time, I thought now the money is coming. Needless to say, when we got on our airplane at DFW airport we only had the $133.00. I had determined that there would be no credit cards used.
We flew to New York, and I will always be grateful for Derek Prince's actions at that airport. Someone had informed Derek that I had been involved in a lawsuit, and he called me and he said, ‘I don't want to hinder your faith, but you are going to have to be realistic.’ I said to Derek, ‘Are you telling me that I am being disobedient.’ He said, ‘Well I don't know.’ I said, ‘Well what are you saying to me,’ and his response to me was, ‘Well I don't know.’
Derek was interested in my life and for that I will always be thankful. Someone had told him about the judge’s decision in the lawsuit. When the plane landed in New York, Derek was there at the terminal waiting to greet us. He said, ‘We have a great distance to walk, so let's walk to this next terminal.’ He said to me, ‘Isn't it amazing what God did to that judge?’ I said, ‘Yes sir, it was a miracle.’ I said, ‘I am looking forward to this trip, because I thought that by now with all of the things that had happened, that God must be preparing to do something in Israel for me.’ Derek said to me something that I will never forget, he said, ‘You have earned this trip.’ I said, ‘Earned it?’ I realized at that time that Derek was appreciative of my obedience to God. Little did I know what was about to happen in Jerusalem.
Our plane landed in Tel-Aviv and we stayed overnight there. The next day we went to a Kibbutz on the northwest shore of the Sea of Galilee called Nof Ginosar. We spent four days on the Sea of Galilee, and then we went to Jerusalem and stayed at the Saint George Hotel. We attended a Sunday morning service at the Garden Tomb where a minister from Holland was speaking. While this man was speaking, the anointing of God moved into my heart. I was aware of what it was, and God started talking to me with Acts 1:8 burning in my heart, ‘But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth.’ I knew that God was calling me into the ministry. I thought to myself, ‘This must be why God brought me to Jerusalem.’
On Tuesday evening, Patti and I entered the dining room at the Saint George Hotel and there were only two seats available in that dining room. They were at Derek and Lydia's table. As we moved toward the table, Derek stood up and asked, ‘Would you like to sit with us?’ I replied, ‘Yes’. We ordered our food, and Derek looked at me and said, ‘Would you like to speak for ten minutes tonight in Christ's Church?’ My response was immediate, ‘Yes.’ I then excused myself and went to my room. When I arrived there I kneeled down and I said, ‘Okay Lord what am I going to say.’ He answered me immediately, and I said, ‘Thank you.’ I got up and went back to finish my meal. The extent of my teaching had been a bible study in our home and teaching a men's group of about 50 or 60 men on Saturday mornings at the First United Methodist in Argyle for a period of six months.
I spoke for ten minutes and there was an attorney there from Auckland, New Zealand that came to me and said, ‘I am an attorney. I have presented cases to jury's, and I have heard attorneys present cases before jury's and I have never heard a more clear and to the point presentation than you just gave.’ I said, ‘Thank you sir. God bless you.’ That was a great encouragement to me.
At that moment, I knew why God called me to Israel. That night Acts 1:8 was fulfilled in my life, a witness to Jerusalem and New Zealand, which is considered the uttermost part of the earth.
Our needs were supplied while we were in Israel. We never were short and we never were wanting for money in Israel or London. I was in an elevator in London England, on our return from Israel, and a man gave me some British pounds. I don't recall how much. I gave that money to some young people (Kathy and a group of young people in our tour) in London, and they went and had a meal. When we arrived back in Argyle, we had remaining eight one-dollar bills.
While we were gone we had some people collect our mail from our mailbox. During that trip to Israel, I had received in the mail $4000.00 worth of bills that I owed, and I had received a little more than $4000.00 in the mail from work that I had done before I went to Israel. I was encouraged that God was with us.”
Years later, when asked what he talked about that night in Jerusalem he said the Lord asked him, “What have I done for your family?” Doyle said he immediately knew what he would say and when it was his turn, he spoke of how God had brought Patti and Kathy into following what he believed was God and then read Joshua 24:15:
And if it seem evil unto you to serve the Lord, choose you this day whom ye will serve; whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the flood, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land ye dwell: but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.
When he finished reading that verse, he said, “As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.” He made a decision that day in Jerusalem, and stated it publicly, that they would serve the Lord.
Doyle shared with me that while in Israel and when he returned, God began to deal with his heart in a major way and even as he was remembering those days as we spoke that afternoon on the phone, God was ministering to him:
“I had no desire to go to Israel, to me it was just a country in the Middle East, a barren land; I pictured it as sand—a desert. When we arrived there I saw roses—many, many roses; I could smell the cow-manure they fertilized them with. I loved roses—I grew them in my yard. I saw He had made places in Israel a watered garden. For three months after I returned home, I was miserable. God was breaking my hard heart—talking to me about the land of Israel. He talked to me about Jerusalem. He talked to me about the His love for a tree. He talked to me about His love for a mountain and a plain. I didn’t know God cared about any of that. And most of all, He showed me His love for His people. And He put His love in my heart for the nation of Israel and the city of Jerusalem, for His creation—and He put His love for His people in my heart.”
As I listened to Doyle talk, I was reminded of Lydia Prince’s words about Jerusalem. She referenced verses in Psalm 137 a number of times in her book, Appointment in Jerusalem:
“If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget her cunning. If I do not remember thee, let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth; if I prefer not Jerusalem above my chief joy.”
When she first arrived in Jerusalem she talks of one evening reading the words in Psalm 102:
“Thou shalt arise and have mercy upon Zion…For thy servants take pleasure in her stones, and favour the dust thereof…”
“Stones and dust—could a person actually fall in love with things like that?” she asked herself. But that is what God did: He put His love for Jerusalem and God’s people in her heart. There are many who talk of their support for Israel, who have a “…zeal for God, but not according to knowledge.” Lydia said that she thought God gave her the work among the children in Jerusalem because she loved them. But then, she said, God showed her He loved the children and that was why He had given her the love for them.
Doyle’s life and Lydia’s life were parallels in many ways; they both had forsaken a life of luxury and prestige to obey God. I always marveled at that, it reminded me of Jesus speaking to Peter and Andrew in Matthew 4:
18) And Jesus walking by the sea of Galilee, saw two brethren, Simon called Peter and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea: for they were fishers.
19) And he saith unto them, Follow me and I will make you fishers of men.
20) And straightway left their nets, and followed him.
What I have begun to understand about Doyle and Lydia and those disciples that Jesus called to—it was simply God, it was His plan and only He could cause a person to lay their life down and follow Him.
Several days into their trip in Israel, they were just north of Hebron at a store and Lydia was sitting in a chair looking at Doyle and said, “Doyle, come over here.” She was somewhat frail, and as he walked up to her chair, he knelt down in front of her and when he did, Derek stepped up to her side, almost protectively. “Doyle, do you have something to say to me?” she asked. “Yes I do,” Doyle replied. Lydia knew by the Spirit that God had something to say to her. “You need to stop listening to your daughters. You need to have your mind on the word of God and not listen to what they are saying, because they are scaring you.” Derek spoke up in protest, “Now that’s not true.” Lydia put her hand over his, gently pushing him away and never taking her eyes off Doyle said, “Derek that is true and you know it’s true.”
Lydia recognized Doyle’s faith and his obedience and later, on that same trip, she again called him over to where she was sitting and said to him, in the presence of Derek, “Doyle, God has done more in your life in five years, than I’ve seen him do for any man on this earth.” Those words were a great encouragement to Doyle then and still are today.


Argyle
The years in Argyle were some of the most difficult Doyle has ever experienced. He had never in his life been in the position financially that he found himself in. He has stated, “From the time my Dad started his business, when I was twelve years old, I have worked. I never knew failure in business. By 1969 I had accumulated land, cattle, horses and other investments.” He always managed his money well and never allowed himself to get into a financial position he couldn’t get out of. God allowed the devil to take everything away from him, and then God sent him to Argyle—just as Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness and as stated in Mark: “…the Spirit driveth him into the wilderness.”—so it was with Doyle.
It was difficult for him to believe that God would do a man that way. At one point he said to the Lord, “I don’t know how much more of this I can stand,” and the Lord said, “Shut-up. You don’t know how much you can stand.” He considered that he might have missed God, or that God was displeased with him, but during those four years in Argyle, God ministered to him and convinced him of the words in Exodus 23:
20) Behold, I send an Angel before thee, to keep thee in the way, and to bring thee into the place which I have prepared.
21) Beware of him, and obey his voice, provoke him not; for he will not pardon your transgressions: for my name is in him.
22) But if thou shalt indeed obey his voice, and do all that I speak; then I will be an enemy unto thine enemies, and an adversary unto thine adversaries.
23) For mine Angel shall go before thee, and bring thee in unto the Amorites, and the Hittites, and the Perizzites, and the Canaanites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites: and I will cut them off.
24) Thou shalt not bow down to their gods, nor serve them, nor do after their works: but thou shalt utterly overthrow them, and quite break down their images.
25) And ye shall serve the Lord your God, and he shall bless thy bread, and thy water; and I will take sickness away from the midst of thee.
He has said that he spent three years trying to disprove the bible and one day, lying on the couch in his den, he sat up and said, “I believe the bible is true. I will not say it does not have mistakes because I believe I have found eight. That’s not enough to keep me from believing it from this day forward. I believe the bible is true.” Patti looked at him and said, “What brought that on?” He was honest enough to say he didn’t believe everything he read in it, but he believed in his heart it was the word of God and it was true. That was a major decision in his life. He said to the Lord once, “How do I become a doer of the word?” The Lord said, “Well how do you perform your veterinary practice?” and Doyle replied, “Well I apply what I know.” The Lord said, “Well that‘s how you become a doer of the word.”
As he sought the Lord, praying and studying, the scriptures in Exodus 23 ministered the fear of the Lord to his heart and he humbled himself and accepted that it was God dealing with his life. It was there in Argyle that God taught him to believe Him, taught him to pray, taught him to trust Him and no man helped him—the Lord had told him no man could help him, they couldn’t help themselves. At one point the Lord said to him, “You want out? Pray out,” and he learned that it required more that a fifteen minute prayer. It was in Argyle that he learned the gospel wasn’t the first four books of the New Testament, but the gospel was defined in 1 Corinthians 15:
1) Moreover, brethren, I declare unto the gospel which I preached unto you, which also ye have received, and wherein ye stand;
2) By which also ye are saved, if ye keep in memory what I preached unto you, unless ye have believed in vain.
3) For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures;
4) And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures:
He learned that the gospel is the power of God unto salvation, that the gospel is not in word only but power, and he learned that without faith, you cannot please God.
When he returned from his trip to Israel, his life changed dramatically. There was greater resistance to what God was leading him to speak and do. He knew God had called him into the ministry, but he was not prepared to deal with the people who became offended at his words. God gave him three messages to speak at his bible studies and by the time he was finished speaking that third week, there was no one left in his bible study.
The word eventually got around that the veterinarian was casting out devils, laying hands on the sick and they recovered and teaching that every man is rich if he believes the gospel. He was teaching that Jesus became poor that we might be rich, 2 Corinthians 8:
9) For ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that, though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, that ye through his poverty might be rich.
Religious leaders came and talked to him about all these things, and it became evident that they were afraid he was taking up offerings. They thought Doyle was taking “their sheep” and they were worried he would end up with offerings they thought belonged to them; but he wasn’t taking up offerings, he wasn’t taking anything from any of them.
Others came and told him he had hidden sin in his life. When he asked them what the sin was, they told him they didn’t know. His response to that was, “Well then how do you know I have hidden sin, if you don’t know what it is?” They finally came up with the charge that he bought his daughter too nice of clothes.
God led him through every charismatic “camp” in the country during the time he was confronting the spirit of the discipleship movement. He learned that though the charismatics had received the baptism in the Holy Spirit, they were no different than the mainline denominations and they didn’t believe what they said they believed. He knew he was dealing with religious spirits and as God led him through each one, he overcame them, one after the other by the Spirit of God. The spirits in religious leaders in the Dallas-Ft. Worth area along with the discipleship group brought much affliction upon him but he never wavered, he knew he could hear God and no man but Jesus Christ was going to rule him. He told the Lord, “I won’t go anywhere unless you send me and if I’m invited I will not go, unless you tell me to go.” God prevented men from gathering him.
God led him in what seemed to him, some strange paths and one of those was to join a Baptist church. He was a bit reluctant and after overcoming much confusion he believed it was God. Patti and Kathy went with him and Doyle informed the pastor they were going to join the church. The pastor made the usual introductions and invited the congregants to come up and meet the Davidsons. An associate pastor who was an elderly man walked up to Doyle and said, “Young man, you have a dark cloud over you.” Immediately up out of Doyle’s spirit came, “I know who you are Satan, and I bind you!” And that was the end of their attendance of that Baptist church. He humbled himself and made every effort to walk with the religious leaders that God brought him in contact with but they didn’t know what to do with him; he was seeking the will of God for his life and they had never met anyone who not only expected to hear from God, but actually talked with Him. One person told him one time, “I despise people who act like they have a pipeline to God.”
Doyle was given management of a forty acre land development with the streets and the lots already finished. There was a small tin building on it that he set up as a sales office and his daughter Kathy would spend several hours a day there as the salesperson. She told me once, “I would dress up like I was going to an office in downtown Dallas and I would go to that little tin building.” She has shared that it was there she purposed to read the Psalms as she had seen her Dad do and as he had instructed her and it was there that God put a desire in her heart to worship him and she would spend her days in that little tin building, reading and worshipping God.
Kathy remembers those years in Argyle and she watched her Dad fight with all that was in him to overcome religious spirits in people that were trying to destroy him. She talks of the hours he spent reading and studying, when there was no money, and it didn’t appear like there was any way to get any. She watched people yielding their members as weapons of unrighteousness, rail on him and accuse him, resisting every step he took. Spirits in people recognized the Spirit of Jesus in him and they pursued him wherever he went.
In the mid-1970s Kenneth Hagin was speaking at Bob Nichols’ church in Ft. Worth. Hagin claimed to be a prophet and Doyle was looking for anyone who could help him—give him some understanding. When Doyle met Derek and Lydia Prince in Chicago, Lydia had told him about Kenneth Hagin, and the power she had seen when he pointed his finger and ran along the platform, and people would “fall out” under that power. Doyle’s thought at the time was, “Well what good did that do?” At that meeting in Fort Worth, Hagin walked to the edge of the platform and looked right at Doyle, where he was sitting just a few rows back and said, “A Christian with a demon, PHEWEY!” Doyle just looked at him.
At another meeting of Hagin’s he was at, Kenneth walked right in front of him and looked directly at him and said, “Every man needs a pastor.” Doyle just looked at him and thought, “Well you are wrong. Every man needs an apostle not a pastor.”
1 Corinthians 12:
28) And God hath set some in the church, first apostles, secondarily prophets, thirdly teachers, after that miracles, then gifts of healings, helps, governments, diversities of tongues.
Doyle was learning that spirits were pursuing him.
He went to another of Hagin’s meeting in Fort Worth and it was the last one he attended. After the meeting was over, he introduced himself to Mrs. Hagin, “I’m Dr. Doyle Davidson from McKinney, Texas. I support Mr. Hagin’s ministry and I am in a desperate situation and I would like to talk to him”, knowing that mentioning his doctorate gave him an audience with people. She told him she would check with her husband and see if he would meet with him. When she returned she said, “He won’t see you.” As he drove back home, Doyle said he was at a loss at what he should do, “I was so desperate. I couldn’t find anyone or anything that could give me some kind of peace.” And then the Lord spoke to him, “He can’t help you—he can’t help himself, he doesn’t know how. Take the bible and I will teach you about my Son and I will give you a ministry like His.”

Friends and colleagues did not understand. They’d say, “Doc, what’s happened to you?” His mother thought he had lost his ambition. He said to God once, “You are destroying my reputation.” And God’s reply was “What reputation? What about my Son? He hung naked on a cross”.


Carrollton
Doyle left Argyle in June 1976 and moved to Carrolton, living there for eleven months. The following is a testimony of overcoming physical affliction:
“My grandfather, Frank Miller started walking with a cane when he was forty years old, because of pain in his knees. The devil told me for years, ‘When you turn forty you are going to have knee problems like your grandfather.’ I had been under tremendous pressure in Argyle from religious spirits with Baptists ministers who had been after me because I wouldn’t submit to their church. It brought great affliction to my body and my knees were very sore, making it hard for me to mow my yard with a push mower.
I purposed one day in June, I was going to overcome this, I WAS going to mow my yard with a push mower, and I walked for two miles on a concrete sidewalk, in great pain, speaking Isaiah 53:
4) Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem his stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted.
5) But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.
The next day, I could barely walk. I said, ‘Devil, I’m going two more miles’ and after about a mile and a half walking on the sidewalk speaking Isaiah 53:4-5, the power of God broke through and healed my knees and they have never hurt since. I have jogged on asphalt, concrete, grass, wherever I’ve been, and today thirty-six years later, there is not a pain in either knee.
One thing I have learned, any place there is a weakness in a person’s body or soul, when they come under pressure from the devil, the weakness will manifest with pain or some kind of sickness. When I started walking with God, I had toothaches like I had never had because of the afflictions that came, I just learned to never stop believing and overcame them.”
During that same time in Carrolton, Doyle and Patti had neighbors that lived across the alley behind them who often communicated by CB radios. However Doyle and Patti were privy to what their neighbors’ thought were private conversations, coming through the speakers in their television and stereo. I appreciate how God moved on Doyle’s behalf when he prayed, but I also appreciate Doyle’s humor as he took advantage of the opportunity to mention “Tycoon and Foxy Lady’s” conversations he had been picking up.
“We had moved to Carrolton from Argyle in June of 1976. In the fall of that same year almost every evening we would hear over our television’s speakers, ‘This is Tycoon calling Foxy Lady! I am leaving Dallas. Have dinner ready when I get there…’ Every time he would talk to her or she would talk to him on their CB’s we would hear it through our television or stereo speakers. It became such a nuisance! I made a decision to call the FCC, but just before I made the phone call, an article appeared in the Dallas Morning News stating there were so many violations with CB radios being reported that the FCC was one year behind in their investigations. I thought I cannot wait a year…so I prayed. Soon after, a great windstorm blew his antenna down and it remained down for five months because he couldn’t get parts to make the repairs. The antenna he had was actually illegal.

A Prophet to the Nations
God began speaking to Doyle that he was a prophet in the early 1970s and he struggled for years to believe that. God would say, “You’re a prophet.” Doyle would say, “I’m not a prophet.” Over and over this went on. False prophets were ministering such lies as “God will use you as a prophet, but you’re not a prophet.” Those statements, along with Doyle’s own unbelief made it an incredible fight to be able to accept what God was saying to him. He has shared openly, “If I was honest I would have said, I don’t want to be a prophet. I could see in the bible what happened to prophets”. He told God, “I’m not a prophet and my Dad’s not a prophet.” The Lord responded, “Amos already said that” and He sent him to the verse in Amos 7, “Then answered Amos, and said to Amaziah, I was no prophet, neither was I a prophet’s son; but I was an herdman and a gatherer of sycamore fruit.” Doyle was a horseman, a husbandman; his Dad was a horseman and his Grandfather was a horseman.
Finally he accepted that he was a prophet; then God told him he was an apostle. When the Lord told him he was an apostle he said, “Use Hagin and Copeland, you’ve exalted them and given them money.” Needless to say, Jesus did not appreciate that comment and said: “Go get your bible. I have something to say to you, turn to Romans chapter 9:
13) As it is written, Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated.
14) What shall we say then? Is there unrighteousness with God? God forbid.
15) For he saith to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion.
16) So then it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that sheweth mercy.
17) For the scripture saith unto Pharaoh, Even for this same purpose have I raised thee up, that I might shew my power in thee, and that my name might be declared throughout all the earth.
18) Therefore hath he mercy on whom he will have mercy, and who he will he hardeneth.
19) Thou wilt say then unto me, Why doth he yet find fault? For who hath resisted his will?
20) Nay but, Oh man, who art thou that repliest against God? Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it, Why hast thou made me thus?
21) Hath not the potter power over the clay, of the same lump to make one vessel unto honour, and another unto dishonor?”
Doyle has shared many times about the correction he received from the Lord and one of those times he said he spoke too much and God sharply rebuked him saying, “Shut up! You have already said too much!” He received a headache with that rebuke and retained it for several hours. God ministered great fear to him that day.
Late one night in 1979 God told Doyle to take his bible and go to the back of the house, He wanted to talk to him. The Lord took him to Ezekiel and ministered to him these verses in chapter 3:
4) And he said unto me, Son of man, go, get thee unto the house of Israel and speak with my words unto them.
5) For thou art not sent to a people of a strange speech and of an hard language, but to the house of Israel, and speak with my words unto them.
6) Not to many people of a strange speech and of an hard language, whose words thou canst not understand. Surely, had I sent thee to them, they would have hearkened unto thee.
7) But the house of Israel will not hearken unto thee, for they will not hearken unto me; for all the house of Israel are impudent and hardhearted.
8) Behold, I have made thy face strong against their faces, and thy forehead strong against their foreheads.
9) As an adamant harder than flint have I made thy forehead: fear them not, neither be dismayed at their looks, though they be a rebellious house.
10) Moreover he said unto me, Son of man, all my words that I shall speak unto thee, receive in thine heart, and hear with thine ears.
11) And go, get thee to them of the captivity, unto the children of thy people and speak unto them, and tell them, Thus saith the Lord God; whether they will hear, or whether they will forbear.
God said to him, "I am sending you to the United States of America and they will not hear you." He also told him, "be not rebellious, like they are rebellious." Doyle asked, “If they won’t hear me, why are you sending me?" God didn’t answer him but He told him in 1985 that He was going to judge America out of his mouth.
Over the years God had talked to him about Jeremiah 1, but in 2009 God convinced him that this pertained to his life, especially verse 5:
Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee; and before thou camest forth out of the womb I sanctified thee, and I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations.


Water of Life Ministries
In April 1980, Doyle was driving down U.S. Highway 380, worshipping God and the Lord spoke and said, “Go to the city of Plano and speak to the people of Plano.” When he asked the Lord what He wanted him to say to them, the Lord told him to “Read the book of Acts where Paul was at Antioch and you will understand.”
Much resistance met him when he arrived in Plano. A group of people from the First Baptist Church in Plano had started a fellowship they called Faith Temple and this group initially asked Terry Mai to lead their worship and Doyle believed it was right. However, they didn’t like Terry and didn’t like the dollar amount he requested to lead worship. Soon after, they met Doyle and invited him to become their pastor. They had a number of pastors quit and it appeared to Doyle that a woman was making all the decisions, even appointing elders, saying God had shown her who He had chosen. After visiting with them he told them “you don’t have a church”. The bible clearly states a church is established on the foundation of an apostle and prophet, Jesus Christ being the chief corner stone. He told them God had sent him to Plano and “they were welcome to join him if they wanted.” They also informed him they wanted him, but they didn’t want Terry Mai. Doyle responded that Terry was with him and he came with the package. A number of this group joined Doyle’s ministry and were with him for many years, though none remain at Water of Life today.
Years later, a former member and elder of Faith Temple, who had attended Water of Life for years but left the ministry, made public statements that Doyle had “applied” to be their pastor and they accepted him, which was a false statement. Doyle already had his own ministry under the name Seed of Abraham Ministries and he wasn’t sent by any man or organization. The Lord had told him to come to Plano and speak to the people of Plano.
Water of Life Church of Plano, Incorporated was established and received its charter on November 24, 1980 and Doyle’s ministry went public. The board of trustees purchased a building from the Pitman Creek Church of Christ located at 1621 18th St., Plano, Texas in January 1981. He held his first service there on January 4, 1981. When they purchased the property, the Board of Trustees had agreed to pay $50,000 as a down payment, $50, 000 on January 1, 1982, $100,000 on January 1, 1983 and the remainder of the balance on January 1, 1984. When the first payment was due, they paid it. During the process of paying the note off on the church, there was much unbelief exposed in Doyle’s heart and God brought him to repentance. He retired the debt on the entire note on the building in 1985 and the ministry has been out of debt ever since. In June 1996 the Lord told him to stop taking up offerings by passing the plate and he installed a treasury box at the back of the sanctuary for people to give their offerings which remains today.


Terry Mai
Doyle knew from the time he understood that he would have a ministry that he would need a singer, someone to lead worship. When he moved back to McKinney, Texas, God sent him to the First United Methodist Church of McKinney. Years earlier he had prayed and committed Kathy’s marriage to God on a cold windy day after he had borrowed her bike and rode it to the top of a hill near their house. The Lord told him Kathy’s husband would be in that Methodist church. When they arrived at the First United Methodist Church, both he and Kathy looked around and came to the same conclusion: they didn’t see anyone they believed was the one, though I don’t know that they shared those thoughts with one another. Terry Mai had been the choir director there, but had resigned and was on tour with an opera company when the Davidsons began attending. Terry returned in September and again became the choir director. The Lord told Kathy to join the choir and after a period of three months, Terry asked Kathy out for a coke and about a year later, they were married at her parents’ home in her Dad’s rose garden.
Terry had accepted a job as a painter before he and Kathy were married and he was painting houses and working on his Masters Degree in Vocal Performance in the beginning days of their marriage. He was already establishing a reputation as a singer and had an impressive portfolio of reviews from the world of opera. He had performed with the Honolulu Symphony in Hawaii and music critics had rated him as one of the best baritones to appear on the Islands in the past ten years. He performed in Washington DC at the Kennedy Center and toured with an opera company out of North Carolina, making seventy appearances in notable performance centers across the United States. God took Terry, a person who had an aspiring career as a singer and changed him into a servant of God to minister the sacrifice of praise and worship to Him and to minister the Spirit of God to His people. (See: A Glimpse of Terry’s Life: http://www.terrymai.com/terryslife.htm) Kathy ministered with Terry during most of those years. In the early days they led worship, they would ask Doyle at the end of the service, “Well Dad, how was it?” Doyle would say, “Good singing, no Spirit,” but Doyle never stopped believing that they would get there. Terry and Kathy could have been discouraged, but they would humble themselves and pray and come back and give everything they had and they learned to minister power by the Spirit.
Doyle has stated many times that Terry was one of the best singer’s he has ever heard and God gave him to Doyle—the honor of God on Doyle’s life. Terry was diagnosed with lymphoma on January 10, 2009 and very unexpectedly, left this earth with a mighty shout, a little over two weeks later on the 26th. There was no space to grieve, no time to let down—there was nothing Doyle could do but “gird it up” and continue to walk and that’s what I watched him do. And I watched God sustain Kathy and the girls; they had a sure foundation in them, laid by the apostle and prophet and continued in what they had been taught: to put their trust in the gospel. Just as Psalm 23 says:
“Yea though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for thou art with me, thy rod and thy staff, they comfort me…”
The Lord led them through and I believe Terry’s family today would agree that they have walked out of that long shadow and stepped once again into the sunlight.
Terry and Kathy had three daughters, Candace, Ashley and Rachel and growing up, they spent many hours worshipping in song with their parents—in the den, in the car… and they began ministering in song with Kathy on Live Stream almost immediately after Terry went to heaven. They have been “brought up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord,” taught by their parents and their grandfather to trust the gospel of the Lord Jesus all their lives, it’s all they have ever known. They are Doyle’s seed’s seed, and are living proof of the commitment Doyle made to the Lord in Jerusalem, “as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.”
Terry walked with Doyle for almost thirty years as a fellow apostle and prophet, his worship leader, his son-in-law and his friend. Doyle believed that together they could pray through anything and he told Terry as much. One day in 2006 Doyle was under a severe attack of the devil and was on the floor, unable to get up. He told someone to find Terry and it wasn’t long before Terry strode into the office blessing those that had cursed Doyle, blessing his enemies and those whose tongues were set on fire from hell and after just a few minutes, Doyle was up on his knees and said, “Ok Devil I am ready!” They were like Paul and Silas.
Terry finished his course and as it’s written in Revelations, Terry’s works follow him; the anointing and faith on his recorded music continues to minister to God’s people.


Radio and Television Ministry
In October 1981, a few months after they had moved into the new facility, Doyle’s radio ministry began. The Lord directed him to go on 1600 AM in Plano, ministering five days a week and within six months he was on twenty stations all over the United States.
He began teaching on live television April 1984 on Saturday evenings on Channel 49, Dallas/Fort Worth and by June 1986 he was taping a recorded program for Sunday mornings at 8:00 AM on the same channel.
God had told Doyle that his ministry would cover the earth and He spoke to him in January 1992, “The things I have promised you I will bring to pass in this season.” Shortly after, his television ministry expanded with Channel 12 Joplin and LeSEA Broadcasting Network with all of its stations. Then the ministry went on to include CBS, PAX-NBC, Fox, WB, cable and other independent stations along with satellite. The program was in such markets as Los Angeles, Denver, Dallas-Fort Worth, Tulsa, South Bend, Nashville, Houston and others. At one time the ministry was on 25 television stations in the United States. They had five one-hour broadcasts, weekly on many of the stations as well as a one-hour radio broadcast on short-wave, five days a week. These radio broadcast covered a majority of the world’s population. He had become acquainted with Lester Sumrall, the founder of LeSEA Broadcasting and they developed a close friendship. Lester recognized Doyle was led by the Spirit of God and Doyle respected Lester’s faith and all that God had done through him. They had a mutual love and respect for one another. Lester went to heaven in April 1996 and Doyle continued with LeSEA until early in 2000 when he was removed from their television and short-wave radio stations. Other stations, like PAX Communication were removing him from their stations because of the content of his messages. His weekly television expenses were over $40,000 per week, amounting to over two million dollars per year. A check accompanied every tape.
God showed Doyle twelve men he appointed as apostles and they went on radio KPPC 770, Dallas. They each had their own time-slot airing on Saturdays and Sundays. The apostles were Terry Mai, Ralph Edge, Bob Buckner, Basil Clark, Jack Turquette, John Ferguson, Steve Brown, Donnie Cauthorn, Wally Edge, Randy Brooks, JR Staton and Dwyane Jackson. They remained on radio until 1997.
Those twelve apostles began appearing on their own 30 minute television programs in July 2001. They were aired on Channel 55, Dallas-Fort Worth. Kathy Mai was a regular on Terry Mai’s broadcast, hosting her own 30 minute show and Ralph Edge’s wife Debbie also hosted a 30 minute segment on Ralph’s broadcast. Lisa, Doyle’s second wife, appeared regularly with Doyle and also hosted her own 30 minute show. Terry and Kathy Mai regularly led worship on Doyle’s programs. Water of Life ministries paid for all the air time for every radio and television broadcast. Television managers told Doyle that he was the only ministry that paid for his air time in advance. These programs continued until 2003. The following year the twelve apostles went out by twos and ministered in hotels in various locations in the Dallas-Fort Worth area.


Live Stream Broadcasting
The World Wide Web became available in 1997 and Doyle’s internet web site was founded that year.
January 2007 Doyle began broadcasting the daily services on Live Stream on the internet, seven days a week. Until then he had been making the weekly television broadcasts available on the internet.
God promised Doyle that his ministry would cover the earth and today it does through Live Stream broadcast and Facebook on the internet.


The False Anointing
God gave Doyle his first wife, Patti, June 5, 1952 and she was his help meet, walking with him through his years in the Navy, and his years as a practicing veterinarian. He has shared more than once that she ran his office and did an excellent job. When his ministry began, she was right there with him helping in whatever capacity he needed her. He has stated they were much alike in temperament, both being fairly sober, not given to emotion. Kathy Mai, their daughter has shared with me that her mom taught her to respect her dad and in turn have that same respect for her husband. She has happy memories of a loving family life.
When God told Doyle to sell out and obey him, Patti didn’t understand the decisions he was making and he said once, “I know Patti, I don’t understand it all either.” Their whole life had changed and she stated once, “I didn’t marry a preacher.” His reply was, “You didn’t marry a veterinarian either, you married a sailor.” Doyle has told the world that everyone resisted him when he started obeying God, including his own household and his daughter Kathy will attest to that. She has her own testimonies about those days and the mercy God had in granting her grace to humble herself. God gave Doyle a vision when he returned to Texas of two spindly roses in the desert and when Doyle asked what it was, the Lord said, “That is you and Patti, I’m sending you to a dry and parched land, Dallas and Fort Worth.”
They met when they were in high school and he told me when he married Patti he expected a lifetime together. He knew it was God that they marry; he could never have imagined what lay ahead and what God would require him to walk.
In 1984, Patti yielded to a wrong spirit and Doyle’s ministry came under a great attack. Patti believed God had told her to lay hands on another person during a meeting and say, “Receive the Holy Spirit,” and when she did, she and the person she touched began to laugh uncontrollably. Doyle thought it unusual—the person was already baptized in the Holy Spirit and it was unusual that God didn’t tell him. He understood later that she had usurped authority over him and a false anointing, which came in through the teachings of the faith movement, was turned loose that day and it affected everyone. There was tremendous power with it and at that time Doyle didn’t know what it was and did not want to resist it, if it was God. He did not want to be guilty of blaspheming the Holy Spirit. A great division came between he and Patti and God eventually took her out of his life, as his wife. She continued to live with him in their house and he provided for her but in 1998 the plagues from that spirit came upon her and she began to suffer many physical afflictions. He prayed and believed God for her through every affliction. She would be tormented and in great pain in the night and he would command the devil to loose her until she was free. One day she leaned down to hug his neck as she walked past where he was sitting and said to him, “Doyle I thank God for you. If you hadn’t prayed and believed God, we would have all gone to hell.” There are those who talk of Doyle being overbearing and harsh towards her and they are judging something they have no understanding of. I have heard Doyle speak with much tenderness and affection about “Miss Patti P” and God has required of him what I have not seen him require of any other man, except in the bible. By the Spirit of God he set her free from many oppressive spirits. He believed God for her and cared for her and by faith sanctified her, before God took her to heaven in February 2003.
In 1998 while doing a meeting in South Bend, Indiana, he began speaking and for the first time said that it was a false anointing that entered the place the day Patti layed hands on that person. Soon after he finished the meeting, he called Patti and asked what was going on. Her reply was, “I started getting better about 30 minutes ago.” Doyle knew the consequences of blaspheming the Holy Spirit and he had prayed and sought God for fourteen years before he would say the spirit that came in that day was not of God, but a false anointing. Since then he has been overcoming the effects of that spirit; everyone with his ministry had yielded to it and have had to be delivered by the Spirit of God. During a Live Stream broadcast in 2007 God led Doyle to pray and set people free from the false anointing with Terry Mai joining him on the floor and together they prayed and set people free for over an hour. Many that were delivered testify that their life changed dramatically after that night of deliverance.
Doyle was praying one day and God showed him a tower in a vision:
”In July 1985, I was praying one day, and the Father told me that America could not discern its right hand form its left. He showed me in a vision a tower like the tower of Babel. He told me that the tower represented confusion and that it was His church.
I said to Him, ‘Lord I cannot accept that your church is totally confused.’ I told him I needed to see some scripture for confirmation and He said, ‘Read the book of Jonah.’
So I did, and when I reached the end of the book, the last verse said that there were more than 120,000 people living in Nineveh who could not discern between their right hand and their left hand. God asked me, ‘Do you think that is confusion?’ I said, ‘I think so.’ He said, ‘Well that is My church.’ Then He told me, ‘I am going to judge America with your mouth.’ At that time I did not understand, but I finally saw as the words of God are spoken out my mouth judgment occurs.”
During that same year the Lord spoke to Doyle and told him He was going to put His Spirit back in the church through him. When God would speak things to Doyle about his life and what He was going to do through him he said, “I didn’t just immediately accept it, or even believe it was God speaking. I know many people just profess to immediately believe, I didn’t and I don’t mind admitting that.”


Water of Life Christian Training School
God began revealing the gospel to Doyle and the foundation laid by the apostles in 1973. In 1983 at the direction of God, he began Water of Life Christian Training School.
“In January the Lord instructed me to begin a bible school. When I shared this with one of the leaders of Water of Life he replied half-heartedly, “Well, who is going to come?” My response was, “I don’t care if anyone comes. I will teach to the chairs.” Two weeks later Water of Life Christian Training School was established with fifty-four students in attendance. We repeated the same teaching in September adding another term, enlarging the school to comprise of a fall and spring semester.
The teaching began with the Gospel and Its Benefits. After that I taught the foundation found in Hebrews 6:

1) Therefore leaving the principles of the doctrine of Christ, let us go on unto perfection; not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works, and of faith toward God,

2) Of the doctrine of baptisms, and of laying on of hands, and of resurrection of the dead, and of eternal judgment.

The course was called, ‘Foundation Faith’ but we covered each of the principals separately; Repentance from Dead Works, Faith Toward God, The Doctrine of Baptisms, The Doctrine of Laying on of Hands, Resurrection of the Dead and Eternal Judgment.” (From A Work of Righteousness by Doyle and Kathie Davidson)
From the Christian Training School came 239 hours of teaching tapes which he sent to Africa, all over the United States and many other countries upon request. In 1990 God had him put some of the teaching tapes in book form with the help of Randy Brooks and Wally Edge.
In 1983 God instructed him to begin receiving satellite teaching from Word of Faith Outreach and once a month they would receive teachings from well known faith ministries. Doyle knew that that those ministering on Word of Faith broadcasts were teaching in error and not walking in obedience to the word but he also knew he was receiving them at Water of Life so he could overcome the spirits they walked in. A number of people at Water of Life were troubled because they knew these ministers were teaching things that were not scriptural, but Doyle encouraged everyone to just be still, God was doing this. In March of 1986 Word of Faith was broadcasting an event and there were all sorts of emotional manifestations and people were proclaiming it was another Azusa Street. Doyle said to the Lord one morning, “This is not you, Lord” and the Lord spoke to him and said, “Since you have rightly judged you are free from taking Word of Faith Satellite.” He said he couldn’t get to the church fast enough to end it.


Africa
Doyle’s mother shared with him in the 1970s that she always thought she should have been a missionary to Africa. That came as a surprise to Doyle—his mother was a quiet, reserved woman and he thought, “Mother, you can’t even get out of Sarcoxie!”
God sent him as an apostle and prophet to Africa January 1, 1985. Terry, Kathy and Patti went with him and he ministered there for two weeks in various cities in Zimbabwe, and Doyle recently stated that it was at that time that he and Terry became apostles, “sent to heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, cast out devils and raise the dead,” and from that time on his ministry to Africa grew.
Water of Life initially received requests from six people in Zimbabwe for teaching tapes in 1988. They sent them tapes #1 and #2 from the “Gospel and Its Benefits” and after that, requests for his teaching tapes progressed rapidly. Throughout 1989, they sent over 47,000 tapes to various ministries in Africa, as well as individuals upon their request. In 1990, they sent over 65,000 tapes and opened Water of Life offices in Harare, Zimbabwe, where they distributed books and tapes. Doyle maintained the offices there in Harare until 1994. During this period of time, Water of Life supplied tapes for over 750 pastors upon their request in Zimbabwe, South Africa, Zambia, Tanzania, Malawi, Nigeria, Mozambique, Botswana, Kenya, Island of Mauritius, and Zaire (now the Democratic Republic of Congo). These pastors sent pictures and information to Doyle that verified that they were established ministries. In 2004, God directed him to destroy all the teaching tapes and he began ministering and teaching from the internet.
During the two weeks they ministered in Zimbabwe they saw many miracles and following is one of the many testimonies:
“The first night I was there, God brought a blind man to us. We laid hands on him, and God healed his eyes. He took the Bible and read it. Glory be to Jesus! I was so naïve that I just handed him a Bible and said, ‘Read.’ I did not even know if the man could read. I never thought that he might not be able to read. He started reading that Bible. Five minutes before he could not see anything.
The second night, God healed more people. The third day, Sunday, God said, ‘Now you are going to do what I sent you over here for. You are going to preach prosperity to these people,’ and we cut loose.
We had a six hour service one Sunday, and I spoke three of those six hours—an hour and a half on faith and the next hour and a half on prosperity. Those people never moved out of their seats. I did not know I could speak that long.
I preached the gospel—prosperity—to people who had never heard it. Our host said, ‘I have heard many people preach 2 Corinthians 8, but I have never seen what it says.” (From The Gospel is Always a Blessing)
Doyle had met Ezekiel Guti in Israel when God directed Doyle to lead a tour there in 1984, just prior to his trip to Africa. A number of Water of Life people accompanied him, including Patti, Terry and Kathy Mai, and Bruce and Debbie Geer. Doyle, Kathy and Debbie were in the Garden Tomb along with Ezekiel and two other black women when the power of God began to shake everyone in there. No one knew at the time that it was a divine appointment.
Later as Doyle and the rest were mingling around the Garden, Ron Kepler, an Assemblies of God minister, part of Doyle’s group, met Ezekiel and told him his pastor (Doyle) was coming to Zimbabwe in January the next year. Ezekiel asked, “Where is he going?” and Ron responded, “Forward in Faith Ministries.” Ron didn’t know who he was talking to—Ezekiel was president of Forward in Faith Ministries (FIFM). Only when Ron identified Doyle as a former veterinarian did Ezekiel know who he was talking about. Doyle and Ezekiel then talked a few minutes and he asked Doyle to move his arrival date up to January 1st, which he did. Only God could arrange for two men, from separate continents, to meet at the Garden Tomb in Israel, the same place He had called Doyle into the ministry 10 years earlier. God had two world leaders of the Body of Christ meet in the Garden Tomb, one Doyle Davidson, and the other Ezekiel Guti; interesting enough, one is white, the other is black just as the leaders at Azusa Street.
One afternoon, years later, Ezekiel Guti was in the United States and Doyle was driving him back to the airport when Ezekiel said: “You’re a very bold man.” Never taking his eyes off the road Doyle replied, “Jesus died, was buried and rose again the third day.” Ezekiel said again, “You’re a very bold man.” And again, never looking at him, Doyle said, “Jesus died, was buried and rose again the third day.” After the third time, Ezekiel said, “That’s the gospel, why don’t we preach it?” Doyle replied, “I don’t know,” although in his heart were the words, “Why don’t you?” but he could not say them.
Ezekiel called Doyle some time later and told him he was making 3000 tapes of what the gospel is, and giving them to 3000 ministers in Africa. Today, Ezekiel’s ministry, FIFM, is in over 100 countries and states all over the world and the gospel is being preached; the results of a divine appointment.


Medicine is Witchcraft
God began talking to Doyle in 1986 about his medical books being curious arts. He had closed his veterinary practice in 1982, but had a number of clients in Texas and throughout the United States and he continued in a consultant capacity, which afforded him some income. When he told these clients that they would have to find someone else, they were not happy. One said to him, “Doc, there isn’t anyone else.” And he said, “Well you’re going to have to find someone else.” About the time God was talking to him about his books being curious arts, God told him to start giving ½ of the ministries money away. He wrote:
“During the month of August, God told me to begin giving one half of the ministry’s money away. When I shared this with Terry Mai he showed me Luke 19:8: “And Zacchaeus stood, and said unto the Lord: Behold, Lord, the half of my goods I give to the poor…” I laughed and told him ‘This is easy for you to say Terry!’ Terry, being an affable person responded as he often did, with a big smile and a little laugh, and then walked out of the office. This meant that our television program which had just gone from $500 to $2000 per program now doubled to $4000 so as to give half away. We finished that year “in the black”. The ministry was completely out of debt and has remained that way since.”
A few days after that exchange with Terry, Doyle was replacing a 2 x 2 florescent light fixture in the hallway and it slipped and lacerated his wrist. As Doyle looked down at the cut, he could see clearly that a tendon had been cut. He went to find Patti and had her drive him to his physician’s office and when the doctor saw what he had done, he said, “Well you have destroyed your wrist.” Doyle just said, “Just sew me up,” but instead, his physician sent him to a specialist and by the time they were finished with him, it cost $5000. They put a cast on him and needless to say, he was not a happy man. They were having dinner with Terry and Kathy after his arm had been casted, and he heard the Lord say, “Man ought to obey God and not a man.” He said out loud, “What?” Everyone at the table looked at him. He heard again, “Man ought to obey God and not a man.” He excused himself from the table, went to the restroom, and started taking the cast off. He got as much off as he could, and when he got home, found his tin snips and cut it the rest of the way off. God had told him months earlier that medicine was witchcraft and he couldn’t believe that was true. When he questioned in his heart how the devil had access to him to injure his wrist he was immediately reminded of his medical books. God told him to get rid of his medical books and that day he carried them out to the dumpster and began dropping them in, one by one and he began to weep. As he threw each book in the trash he wept—God was delivering him of medicine.
He continued to have soreness in his wrist and one day he noticed a medical dictionary on his bookshelves that he had kept. It had Greek and Latin definitions in it and he thought it might be useful. As he stood there looking at that book the Lord told him to throw it away. He did and within a few short months, all the soreness was gone from his wrist and has never bothered him since.
The Lord told him, “Since you have obeyed me, my mercy will never depart from your house.”


A Second Wife
In August 1987, God gave Doyle his second wife, Lisa. As mentioned previously, God had separated him from Patti after the false anointing took her over and though she lived in his house with him and he continued to care for her, God had taken her out of his life as his wife. Lisa and Doyle walked together for seventeen years and she worked at the ministry during most of those years. The few who knew that God had joined them as husband and wife have stated that Lisa made it very clear that she was Doyle’s wife. She posted many testimonies on the internet and in those writings she professed Doyle was a prophet and though she did not openly profess to be his wife, her words surely confirm she believed she was. However, the day came when she denied everything. Doyle has stated that Lisa had a problem submitting according to Ephesians 5:
22) Wives, submit yourselves to your own husbands, as unto the Lord.
23) For the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church: and he is the savior of the body.
When he would discuss this with her she would say to him, “Jesus is my head.” By the end of 2004 she completely rebelled and left the ministry, returning to the man she had married first and had two children with, denying that God had given her to Doyle as his wife and declaring that those seventeen years had been an affair.
Doyle has stated that Satan used the false anointing through Patti to try to get him to follow her, and Satan used the rebellion in Lisa to try to get him to follow her. However, God upheld him, not allowing his foot to slip. When it was made public that God had given Lisa to Doyle as his wife and they had been together for seventeen years, many stumbled and left the ministry.


There is Coming a Great Deliverance
In September 1987, Doyle was jogging on a road in Fairview, Texas. There was a lady parked on that road that he knew and he waved as he ran by. She yelled at him and said, “I want a hug.” “I don’t have time”, he shouted over his shoulder. God stopped him and said, “You have time.” He ran back to her car and as he gave her a hug, the spirit of prophecy came up in him and he spoke, “As Joseph’s brothers sold him into bondage, so have your brothers and sisters put you into bondage, but there is coming a great deliverance.” He knew that prophecy was for him and he was reminded of Psalm 105:
16) “Moreover he called for a famine upon the land: he brake the whole staff of bread.
17) He sent a man before them, even Joseph, who was sold for a servant:
18) Whose feet they hurt with fetters: he was laid in iron:
19) Until the time that his word came: the word of the Lord tried him.
20) The king sent and loosed him: even the ruler of the people, and let him go free.
21) He made him lord of his substance:
22) To bind his princes at his pleasure; and teach his senators wisdom.
There came a day in his walk that he knew he had to confront his parents about what he had been taught by them and the church he grew up in. He described that day in some detail, asking if they could sit down at the table and have some coffee. It wasn’t an easy thing to tell his parents, “You know I love you and respect you both, but I have to tell you, you raised me wrong.” His mother began to cry, saying, “What have we done to you—we always did the best we could for you.” Doyle said, “I know, but those that taught you, taught you to teach me the Ten Commandments and we are no longer under the Ten Commandments when we are born again.” He said he felt terrible when he walked out of that house, he had no desire to hurt his parents but he knew it was necessary for both him and them, to tell them the truth.


Is There Not a Cause?
Doyle, with the assistance of Randy Brooks and Wally Edge, transcribed several tapes from Water of Life Christian Training School into book form in 1990. He initially published five books and at the instruction of God sent them to various ministers and the following is a brief account in his words:
“In 1990 I published five books and I mailed a copy of each of those five books to thirty-six national preachers along with a letter stating: “The Lord has directed me to make these books available to you for your reading”. The responses I received from these ministries were not even relevant to the letter I sent them.
One morning in January 1991 about 12:30, I was reflecting over the responses I received from these ministries. I will say that most of them probably never saw my letter or my books but someone printed out a computerized letter and mailed it to me. But God didn’t care that they hadn’t read my letter or my books, or that someone in their office just answered irresponsibly. That morning, God said to me, ‘Is there not a cause?’ I knew David had said to his brothers about Goliath, who was defying the entire Israeli army, ‘Is there not a cause?’ I said after a moment, ‘There is a cause,’ and from that day, there has been much warfare with the ministries of America.”
Recently Doyle has brought these books from the archives and posted them on his website, http://www.doyledavidson.com/book.html. These books remain available and can be read and downloaded free of charge. They are in pdf format.

Gospel Crusade Meetings
The Lord directed Doyle to begin ministering in different cities within the United States in 1993. He took others with him as the Spirit of God directed and they began driving and flying commercial to Joplin, Tulsa, Houston, South Bend, Anaheim and Indianapolis and others.
The Spirit of God directed Doyle to serve a meal at all the meetings, beginning with a breakfast at the first meeting he held in South Bend and they continued to do so for a number of years. Out of those meetings, Water of Life Churches were established in Oklahoma, Indiana, California, Missouri, Wisconsin and Plantersville, Texas.


Mission
Throughout the years there has been a mission through the church to give to the poor. God gave Doyle a heart for the poor just as He had given his Dad. Doyle remembers his Dad picking up hitchhikers and using it as an opportunity to tell them about Jesus, delighting that they were a “captive” audience. He would give them money or take them to a grocery store and buy them a loaf of bread and lunchmeat. A doer of the word, obeying James 2, “...gave them those things which are needful to the body…” and he shared Jesus with them.
“We started a mission in McKinney, Texas. When we went to McKinney and started giving food away, we preached the full gospel to the people right away. I thought, ‘God, slow down, these people might stone me.’ Finally they began to like us.
We fed 108 people one night. Later, the sanctuary was full. They liked the service. They even began to raise their hands. In the beginning, they would not raise their hands. You would tell them to raise their hands, and they would look at you like you were dead.” (Doyle—From the Gospel is Always a Blessing)
Later the mission was moved to Plano and was operated out of the church, purchasing food and giving it away each Friday. Annually the mission gave away over $75,000 of food and clothing. More recently, God has led Doyle to give money to WillowCreek Church located next door to Water of Life, Plano, for them to distribute to the needy. Since then God has led him to give them a check each week. God also had Doyle give money to WillowCreek to build a parking lot which is a testimony of being a partaker of the grace on Doyle’s life.


Prayer Across America
In 2003 to July of 2004, God sent him to the 48 contiguous states to pray for the nation and he took a group with him and they flew charter at a total cost of over $400,000 and prayed in every state.
No other ministry that I know of has ever done that. During this time he confronted principalities and powers in this country and the persecution and affliction against him and his ministry increased. The warfare was great and he overcame with every trip.
In 2007 Doyle by the Spirit of God sent Terry and Kathy Mai to pray in every state in America and from April 2007 to September 2007, they traveled to all 48 mainland states, praying and overcoming principalities and powers. Terry considered it the greatest honor God had ever placed on him and Kathy agrees it was the same for her.


The Power of Darkness
December 2003 as Doyle was ministering live with a number of other apostles, he began to speak about his ministry and God’s promise to him that He would give him a ministry like His Son. He spoke that night of how he had considered the implications that promise might have on his life. What might be required of him? How much of the things Jesus experienced in His ministry, would he? He knew it wouldn’t include going to hell, was quite sure it didn’t include crucifixion, but just what did that statement carry with it?
He mentioned two people who had known him all their lives, one of them being his daughter, Kathy, the other his nephew, Ralph Edge, and he stated that he had confidence that these two people were for him and would stand up for him and wouldn’t do anything against him, “But,” he said, “If the power of darkness hit them with enough strength, they would deny they knew me…when this darkness hits, no flesh can rule…Peter proved that, as did James, John and the rest… I believe that there is a great darkness about to hit this ministry…you don’t need to think that you will escape what the apostles didn’t escape…they couldn’t stand at that darkness…I won’t be surprised what happens to me, what kind of accusations come against me and I won’t be surprised at whose mouth they come out of…I’ll be fine…I will be here, ruling. Where will you be?”
And just as he had prophesied, the power of darkness hit his ministry in September 2004 and many left. He was falsely accused, arrested under a false pretense and falsely charged for public intoxication. The accusations came from those within the ministry, from those who were also on his staff who had become lifted up in pride and had yielded their members to the devil as weapons of unrighteousness. One of his accusers was his wife Lisa, falsely accusing him and denying she was ever his wife. She had told him when God first brought them together that there was nothing in her that would ever want to hurt him; his reply to her at that time was, “That remains to be seen.” Doyle experienced Psalm 55 in a very personal way:
Psalm 55:
12) “For it was not an enemy that reproached me; then I could have borne it: neither was it he that hated me that did magnify himself against me; then I would have hid myself from him:
13) But it was thou, a man mine equal, my guide, and mine acquaintance.
14) We took sweet counsel together, and walked unto the house of God in company”
The darkness reached a new depth when two months later in November, Dena Schlosser severed her 11 month old daughter’s arms from her body with a butcher knife causing the death of the child. Schlosser and her husband had periodically attended Water of Life Church. The Dallas Morning News, D Magazine, The Dallas Observer, along with other print media made an attempt to destroy him, his ministry and those associated with him. Joining them, the television and radio newscasters and talk show hosts used their position to report falsehoods with a clear attempt of the destruction of his ministry and him. Wicked men and women wrote letters to members of Water of Life Church, defaming him and defaming them for staying with him. Their calls to the Plano police about him led to the apparent tapping of his phone by the Plano police department.
During this time, many left, just as they left Jesus, saying “This is too hard.” Bob Buckner was one of the elders from Faith Temple who had joined Doyle’s ministry and came to Water of Life for years, along with his wife; He was also one of the many who left when the powers of darkness hit.
Paul Kix of D Magazine in Dallas interviewed Bob at the time of the Schlosser trial and in that interview Bob said, speaking of Doyle, “He was real impressive.” The following is an excerpt from Kix’s interview with the Buckners:
“And it was a great place to be,’ Bob says. Bob and Judy moved recently into a large ranch house at the end of a dirt road outside of McKinney. Sitting in his living room, talking about the early days of the church, Bob says a service could last an hour; it could last two. There was no established pattern. ‘It was just in the service of God,’ Judy says. Doyle often asked parishioners to repeat a verse in a song, the better to draw oneself closer to God. The sermon itself took an hour and a half sometimes but it was always engaging. ‘He could explain the bible better than anybody I’ve ever been around,’ Bob says. After the service, Doyle often prayed for the sick among them. ‘We saw miracles and healings,’ Bob says.”
Bob went on to say in the interview:
“Ever so slightly, though, the tenor of the church changed.” (From D Magazine)
The years from 2004 to 2009 were some of the most difficult years of his ministry. Tongues set on fire from hell brought much physical affliction and the lies that were perpetrated against the ministry also caused financial damage. Many of those who railed on Doyle, his ministry and those associated with him were former congregants of Water of Life and had received thousands of dollars from him when they were in trouble. They had seen and experienced Doyle ministering the power of God by the Spirit for healing, deliverance and finances. Blogs devoted entirely to maligning him and others who walked with him were started and the viciousness of the attacks nearly takes one’s breath.
A friend called him one day and read him a verse in Isaiah 59: “Because you have departed from evil, you have made yourself a prey.” He said, “Doyle that’s what you have done, you have made yourself a prey because you have departed from evil.” But God upheld His servant and he never stopped believing.
Galatians 2:
I am crucified with Christ; nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.
He has never stopped believing and praying for those who left; he forgave those who came against him, and continues to believe and pray for all, knowing God will deal with his enemies.
“Vengeance is mine, saith the Lord, I will repay.”
In the midst of all the persecution he was on an errand one day, walking through Saks Fifth Avenue department store and thanking God for his ministry and he clearly heard God say, “I made you for this job.” Doyle said, “I considered those words as I walked a few more steps and then I said to the Lord, ‘Well if you made me for this job, then I cannot fail. You have never made anything that failed.” In 2008, Doyle and I were walking through that same store and he stopped and said to me, “Right here is where God told me he made me for this job.” Little did he know what was still ahead of him. Those words from God on that day sustained him through the coming trials, tribulations, afflictions and persecutions—that he would not fail. God knew what was coming.
I recall a conversation Doyle and I had and he said, “The heart of a man is desperately wicked, deceitful above all things, who can know it but God only;” he went on to say, “My heart is just like every other person, the difference is, I don’t stop believing.” I have thought of that often as I have watched people walking in the wrong spirit, come against him and his ministry. God has upheld him through it all and he has continued to just keep walking. The Lord told him once, “The Spirit that is in you has been tried every way and has never failed, don’t be afraid to trust that Spirit.” Those words made a major change in his heart and in his walk with the Lord.
He was subpoenaed to testify at the Schlosser trial and February 2006 he was summoned to court in Collin County. He had been labeled by many as demented, a lunatic, a baby killer and many were convinced he was at least partially responsible for Dena Schlosser’s actions because she attended Water of Life. The prosecutors did all they could to provoke him to lose his composure, but God upheld him. The questions he was asked had no relevance to the trial of Dena Schlosser but it was the will of God that he was brought before the courts and he tells why: “I perceived when I was subpoenaed by the district attorney’s office of Collin County Texas for the Schlosser trial that one of the primary reasons I was subpoenaed was to examine me about my wife Lisa, whom God had given me. As it turned out, more than half of the examination was about Lisa, because I was examined. God had warned me of what was about to take place with the following scriptures from Matthew 10:
17) But beware of men: for they will deliver you up to the councils, and they will scourge you in their synagogues;
18) And ye shall be brought before governors and kings for my sake, for a testimony against them and the Gentiles.
19) But when they deliver you up, take no thought how or what ye shall speak: for it shall be given you in that same hour what ye shall speak.
Notice it says, ‘…for a testimony against them.’ God’s word is sure and He will perform it. There was a defense attorney named Schultz that I had great respect for. He asked me on examination: ‘In other words you are saying that the words you speak are not yours, but you are just a conduit?’ And I said, ‘You got it counselor, you got it’. As he was closing, he said to me, ‘Have you been treated fairly today?’, and I said ‘Absolutely’. The district attorney asked me a couple questions and one was, ‘Were you present when that woman cut that child’s arms off?’ I said, ‘Absolutely not’. (I suppose the law would require him to ask me that kind of question).”
The Lord Jesus ruled and reigned in that courtroom; Amy Morantz, staff writer of the Plano Courier wrote in the February 16, 2006 edition: “Davidson, 73, was a dominating presence in the courtroom, with his gravelly voice and scriptural references.”
It was during those days, when the powers of darkness had come in like a flood that the Spirit of God sent the prophet to the widow and her son as in James 2:
27) Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world.
God sent Doyle to my household and the Lord performed these scriptures in my life. After the death of my husband in 2004, I was left with thousands of dollars of debt; I was a widow, my son was fourteen and fatherless. We had been listening to Doyle’s ministry since about 1993. He called me in May 2006 and read the scriptures in James to me and told me God was going to deliver me. When God moves, it is swiftly and within weeks, I was out of debt and the Lord gave my son a vehicle to drive. I visited Water of Life at Plano for the first time in June and 18 months later I went on staff at Water of Life.
Until we started receiving Doyle Davidson’s ministry on LeSEA Broadcasting out of Colorado Springs, we had never heard the gospel. We learned that the gospel is defined in 1 Corinthians 15:
1) Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the gospel which I preached unto you, which also ye have received, and wherein ye stand;
2) By which also ye are saved, if ye keep in memory what I preached unto you, unless ye have believed in vain.
3) For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures;
4) And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures;
We learned that the gospel was the power of God unto our salvation according to Romans 1:
16) For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone who believeth, to the Jew first, and also to the Greek.
17) For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith: as it is written, the just shall live by faith.
We learned that salvation not only means escaping hell, to live for eternity in heaven but it also means to live a victorious life on earth. Salvation includes being made sound, to be set at safety, to be delivered from every hindering influence and we receive that salvation by believing, trusting and relying on what Jesus did for us through his death, burial and resurrection. We learned that if we were born again, we were no longer under the law, which included the Ten Commandments, but we were under grace.
God, by His Spirit has convinced me, to the degree He has, that Doyle is a man of God, an apostle and prophet, sent to the nations. I have been a witness to people being delivered of devils, along with other manifestations of the power of God through this ministry just like in Mark 16:
17) And these signs shall follow them that believe; In my name shall they cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues;
18) They shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them; they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover.


America and the Kingdom of God
In June of 2008, the Spirit of God revealed to Doyle and the world that He had sent Doyle’s ancestors to America that so that Doyle could preach the gospel. Soon after God ministered to Kathie (Small) Matthew 21:
43) “Therefore say I unto you, The kingdom of God shall be taken from you, and given to a nation bringing forth the fruits thereof.”
The Lord confirmed His word through Doyle that God had taken the Kingdom of God from Israel and given it to the Body of Christ, in America. At that time, Kathie began sharing with Doyle about her ancestors, that she believed she was a descendant of the Mayflower passengers. The Lord began revealing to Doyle, more and more about His purposes for America, the Body of Christ. Others learned they too, had ancestors on the Mayflower.
November 2, 2008, two days before the presidential election, the Spirit of God spoke to Doyle in the early morning hours about then Senator Barack Obama, “Because you have lied to God’s people and made them promises you cannot keep, my hand is against you.” Doyle spoke those words by the Spirit of God to Senator Obama and the world on Live Stream Sunday morning, November 2, 2008.
December 2008, God joined Kathie with Doyle as his wife and she moved into his house in January 2009. At that time, there was so much pressure against his soul from wicked spirits that his eyesight was dimmed to the point he could no longer see to read or drive and Kathie began driving for him and reading for him during his Live Stream broadcasts.


Water of Life Boys and The Mai Girls
As previously stated, January 2009, Terry Mai unexpectedly went to heaven with a loud voice and a shout. About two months before, a powerful move of the Spirit occurred during Sunday morning worship in the sanctuary at Water of Life. Candace Mai, Terry’s daughter has described that day in detail in her post A Powerful Move of the Spirit: (http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=10150148403667870), and after Doyle opened in prayer, the congregation joined him in giving thanks until Doyle directed Kathy Mai to lead a group of women in the dance. At that point they were worshipping in the dance with no accompanying music until Doyle motioned Candace and asked her to play something on the piano. She began to minster a song that came by the Spirit and the dancers continued to worship for about twenty minutes and then Terry stepped up to lead worship and the song, We Exalt Thee came forth with power. In her post Candace shared some of what Doyle spoke afterwards:
“Now God did that to us, Romans 8:14 says, They that are led by the Spirit of God are the sons of God. They that are led by the Spirit of God are the sons of God. You have to pay attention. You have to listen to what I’m telling you and not do what you think is right. God wants you to know He’s in charge and you’re not, you don’t have any predetermined ideas or patterns of what you’re going to do when you follow God. They that are led by the Spirit of God are the sons of God. I don’t apologize for what God just did. I didn’t know we were going to do it, but I know it was God…”
That Sunday was the last time Terry led worship in the sanctuary and many are reminded of that day and encouraged by what the Lord did, not only for those who were present in the sanctuary, but everyone who received the Live Stream broadcast.
There are no words to describe the news that God had taken Terry to heaven, except to say that his family and all who knew him were stunned. When Terry was diagnosed with lymphoma, the Lord had awakened Doyle and he had looked at his digital clock, and it was 3:33—he had a prior experience with those numbers and knew it meant a move of the Spirit. He understood it to mean that God was going to heal Terry; however he later said, “I was wrong. God was getting ready to take Terry to heaven.”
As Kathy and her girls made funeral arrangements, the Lord made it possible for her to supply a cd of some of Terry’s recorded songs and during the viewing, a group of young boys from Water of Life were gathered in the room and began to sing along with Terry’s voice. The void left by Terry’s deliverance to heaven left a certain sense of uncertainty about what it meant for the ministry, however God already had His plan in place and it began to be revealed that night. As Doyle listened to them he knew God was showing him He was bringing something forth. At Terry’s celebration service, the Water of Life Boys sang together publicly for the first time.
Prior to Terry’s diagnosis, Doyle, Kathy Mai and I were in Terry’s office and Kathy shared a song with her Dad singing a few verses of “It Is Your Love” and said, “Me and the girls are going to sing that one day.” I remember observing Doyle’s response, “That’s God, Jane!” as he gestured with his hand toward his abdomen saying there was a quickening in his spirit.
During Terry’s stay in the hospital, his daughters were with him one evening in his hospital room and the three of them began to worship and when Kathy returned Terry told her about it saying, “Kathy, it was beautiful and it was anointed!” In thinking of that now, it was like a gift from heaven, not only for Terry, but for his girls—a memory of what God did for them and their dad that night. The Lord showed Kathy and her girls a song the night before Terry’s service, and the Mai girls also ministered together publicly that day for the first time.

Greater Works
Proverbs 4:
18) But the path of the just is as the shining light, that shineth more and more unto the perfect day.
God continues to lead Doyle, perfecting his faith and love, and daily he is overcoming. The resistance to the purposes of God for him and his ministry has only increased, but the Kingdom in him has grown and his strength increased, being strengthened in his inner man by the Spirit. Years ago as Doyle was driving down Highway 75 he was just considering some things and he said to himself, “I wonder how far God would take a person?” and he immediately heard the Lord say, “As far as you will go.” “I wasn’t even talking to you!” Doyle replied, but as he pondered what the Lord had just said, he finally said, “Well I’ll tell you what, I will go as far you can take me.”
Abraham was seventy-five years old when God said to him, “…Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father’s house, unto a land that I will shew thee:”
Doyle was thirty-seven when the Lord told him to sell out and obey him. Moses was eighty when God sent him to deliver His people out of Egypt and Doyle turned eighty April 1, 2012.
God took a country boy from southwest Missouri and raised up an apostle and prophet to the world. God is the same yesterday today and forever and he said in Amos 3:
7) Surely the Lord God will do nothing, but he revealeth his secret unto his servants the prophets.
As the Spirit of God directs, more will be added to this testimony of the grace of God on Doyle Davidson’s life. That grace has spilled over on many others and it seems there isn’t time or space to write of all the works God has done through His servant. However, other chapters are waiting to be written, for the Lord said:
John 14:
12) Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do, he will do also; and greater works than these he will do; because I go to the Father.


A personal note:
Writing about Doyle’s walk with the Lord has ministered faith to my heart and often brought deliverance. It has been powerful and often difficult. At times it seemed I could go no further and though Doyle was often unaware of the things I was working through, he would overcome in prayer, things would break loose in the Spirit and the words would flow again. I am grateful to the Lord for allowing me to be a part of this work.
I encourage every person who reads this to consider what God has done and continues to do through His servant, a yielded vessel; it will minister faith to your heart. His experiences will benefit those who will humble themselves and consider what he has walked through, letting God give you the understanding.
“He [God] loves you enough to raise someone like me, to take my life and break it into pieces, and to show the gospel to me, to reveal to me the mystery of God, and then to cause me to speak it to the world.”
He wrote those words years ago and when I read them I was reminded of Matthew 21:
44) And whoever shall fall on this stone, shall be broken, but on whomsoever it shall fall, it will grind him to powder.
We have always been instructed to not look to the man Doyle, but to the man Jesus Christ. It is Jesus the Apostle, Jesus the Prophet, Jesus the Teacher, in him.
Galatians 2:
I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.
God is no respecter of persons, the same power that the Father worked in Jesus when He delivered him out of hell and raised him from the dead, He will work in any person who will believe Him. The Father ministered that to Doyle years ago and he in turn, has ministered it to us, by the Spirit. We just have to believe it.
God Bless you. –Kathy