A Life Lived Wholly Unto God - Chapter 9: Argyle

A Testament of the Grace of God on His Servant
 by Kathryn Currier with Doyle Davidson

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”.

Other chapters of "A Life Lived Wholly Unto God:"

Introduction
Chapter 1: Early Years
Chapter 2: Heritage
Chapter 3: Like Jonah and the Whale
Chapter 4: Sell Out and Obey Me
Chapter 5: Return to the Land of Your Fathers
Chapter 6: Florida
Chapter 7: Back to Texas
Chapter 8: Israel - Called Into the Ministry
Chapter 9: Argyle
Chapter 10: Carrollton
Chapter 11: A Prophet to the Nations
Chapter 12: Water of Life Ministries
Chapter 13: Terry Mai
Chapter 14: Radio and Television Ministry
Chapter 15: Live Stream Broadcasting
Chapter 16: The False Anointing
Chapter 17: Water of Life Christian Training School
Chapter 18: Africa
Chapter 19: Medicine is Witchcraft

Posting Index