Doyle was ministering by the Spirit of God on a Sunday evening broadcast about a testimony he heard Norvel Hays share. Norvel's mother had died from cancer and Norvel fasted and asked God why his mother died. God told him that where she went to church they didn't believe in healing. I recall Doyle sharing many times how his Dad believed God and would be healed. Once when his jaw was broken, by the time he drove himself to the doctor, God healed him. After his Dad started going to a Baptist church with his mom, he could no longer get healed.
I was considering this and the Baptist church I used to attend. I would watch the people around me and they were sick or broke or their marriage was a mess or their children were a mess or maybe all the above. I include myself in this group. I remember that occasionally I would think to myself, what is our incentive for being here? I would be immediately condemned for having those thoughts, because you know, we get to go to heaven when we die! I certainly wasn't as honest as Doyle when he asked his Dad if he could stop going to church, because it wasn't doing him any good. We would pray for each other, but I'm not sure any of us believed God would do anything. We believed he could and hoped he would, but never really expected him to do anything and I learned we could always rationalize or justify why he didn't. That was how we all lived. We were "saved" and that was all that mattered. I have since came to a place to acknowledge that the "once saved, always saved doctrine" is a damnable heresy and it seems to have crept in and perverted the whole body of Christ. It was a false foundation laid in my heart.
In 1992 my husband injured his back on a construction job and he couldn't work. For months we had little or no income except what I made working at a little pizza shop in Byers. I was pretty frustrated with my husband, because he was offered other jobs that didn't require the physical activity of construction and he wouldn't consider them. My husband had told God, "this can't be your will" and God spoke to him and said, "if you want to know my will, get a bible and read it." So my husband did just that. During this time we met a man that had prayed for people and they were healed. I had never heard of such a thing where I went to church but my husband was willing to try anything. We met with this couple, and this man prayed for my husband and the next morning he was free of pain. I was stunned! Do you think that didn't do a work in this baptist girl's heart?! God allowed me to see his power manifest and it changed my life. I knew the bible said God was no respecter of persons, therefore we could and should expect healing. Needless to say, I became more and more uncomfortable going to that church and the day came when I knew I couldn't go back there.
I wasn't raised in church and I only attended that baptist church for five years but false foundations were laid in my heart that I need delivered from. I was taught, you must be born again and once you were, you were a new creature. I wasn't honest enough to say that I wasn't a new creature, but I liked hearing that I was ok because I was born again. It is frightening to think of the thousands who have been taught that they are ok with God if they were born again at some point in their life. I don't remember ever hearing that I could fall from grace if I didn't continue to believe. Gal5:4 Christ is become of no effect unto you, whosoever of you are justified by the law; ye are fallen from grace." I'm fairly sure if I asked any of those that I went to church with if they were under grace, they would say yes, "because I'm born again". But we believed we had to keep the ten commandments. I didn't hear the gospel until God sent his prophet to us and ministered these words by the Spirit of God: 1Cor15:1 Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the gospel which I preached unto you, which also ye have received, and where in ye stand; 2 by which also ye are saved, if ye keep in memory what I have 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:"
Notice that it says: 2 by which also ye are saved, if ye keep in memory, what I have preached unto you unless you have believed in vain". If we don't continue to believe this gospel, we have believed in vain. Vine's Dictionary defines believe, is to rely on, to trust in and adhere to. I have been listening to Doyle Davidson for fifteen years and the doctrine he preaches hasn't changed. Did he bring you this gospel? Has this gospel worked in your life? Do you think because at some point you were born again, you're ok? I am reminded often of the words Doyle's first wife Pattie spoke to him, "thank God for you Doyle, if you hadn't prayed and believed God for us, we would have all gone to hell". It is the mercy of God that he sent someone to speak the truth by the Spirit of God.
God performed a miracle right in front of me before I ever heard the gospel, but I SAW the gospel that day. Rom 8:16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth; to the Jew first and also to the Greek". I am in the process of being saved and it is simply the mercy of God that I am where I am today. I won't for a moment, tell you that I am always believing. When the Spirit of God is chastising his people for their unbelief I am one of those being chastised. It is a constant battle to keep my heart on this gospel and I am grateful that God is longsuffering. When I know I'm in unbelief I repent and believe. The scripture in Hebrews 12 always encourages me, Heb12:1 Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us.." The sin which doth so easily beset us (me) has to be unbelief. I encourage myself and everyone who reads this to continue to believe the truth that has been ministered to us by the Spirit of God.
God bless you,
Kathy
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