The Early Years
This is your Year of Jubilee. The word Jubilee is actually a Hebrew word that means a blast of a trumpet. In Leviticus 25, the Lord spoke to Moses about the Year of Jubilee. It was a special year to be celebrated every 50 years with the sound of the trumpet. You and I are celebrating a Year of Jubilee because this is my 50th year in the ministry. During the last 50 years God has been preparing me for such a time as this, to open the doors of the prisons, to set the captives free, to heal the brokenhearted, to declare that lost lands and possessions will be returned, debts to be canceled and wealth to be transferred.
Media Archive
click here to watch Don
preaching one of his first sermons
under A.A. Allen's tent!
Through the years, I have heard the sound of the trumpets. Let me take you back 50 years when I heard the sound of the trumpet that blasted: “All things are possible to those that believe.”
In one of my very first meetings when I was 20 years old, I rented the high school gymnasium in Prescott, Arizona, in the same town where I was born. I had been fasting and praying for 10 days when the promised works and the Gift of Healing, Faith and Miracles rippled through my meeting in Prescott. Alfred Cosette, a lanky, brown-eyed man in his thirties, had traveled from Tempe, Arizona, about 100 miles away to receive his miracle. Alfred was a hard-working locksmith. He came in faith, determined to unlock his miracle.
It was no easy task for him to get there. He was in a lot of pain as he hobbled up the long inclined walkway to the gymnasium. His left leg was one and a half inches shorter than the right one. I propped him on a chair and called on Christ for his healing in sight of the entire congregation. The Lord said, “Yes.” As everyone watched, Alfred’s limb grew out to precisely the length of his right leg. He no longer hobbled when he walked from the service that Monday night. His gait on two even legs was perfectly normal.
As a result of that miracle, the next night the place was packed out. Word got around that little town. I preached that there was nothing too difficult for the Lord. Nothing that He can’t do. Quoting from Psalm 111:1-3: “Praise ye the LORD. I will praise the LORD with my whole heart, in the assembly of the upright, and in the congregation. The works of the LORD are great... His work is honorable and glorious: and his righteousness endureth for ever.”
“Do you really believe everything you said tonight,” asked a girl who came to the platform after my sermon.
“I wouldn't be much of a preacher if I lied in the pulpit, if I quoted the Bible without conviction,” I replied.
Her name was Barbara Gregory. She was a senior in high school and she was as pretty as springtime – until she opened her mouth and it was filled with huge black cavities.
I had prayed for most of the afflictions of mind and body, but never for teeth. But a few moments earlier I had said that the Lord could do ANYTHING.
As I looked at Barbara, I felt God’s presence, His indwelling, and He told me how to deal with her. “I’m going to pray for you,” I said, “and after my prayer, I want you to go home and sleep peacefully. God has directed that your healing will come during the night while you are asleep.”
And so, I asked a benediction, intoning with my hands against her forehead, Matthew 5:48: “Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.” I called on Jesus to banish the imperfections from this girl’s mouth.
She came back to the service the following night with her family pastor and about a dozen of her classmates.
Testifying eagerly, she declared the glory of the Lord. What she triggered was holy pandemonium. One of her friends said, “Brother Stewart, you have to look in her mouth. I brought a flashlight with me. I want you to see what God has done.” Barbara opened her mouth while her friend held the flashlight. I was absolutely amazed! Where the black hole cavities had been, I saw nine beautiful silver crosses. At least, I thought it was silver. Everyone there that night waited to see them, so one-by-one they marched by, looking at the nine silver-looking crosses in Barbara's mouth.
Word of this spread like wildfire in that small town. She went to her dentist. He checked her. He said he had never seen anything like it. The silver-looking material was not silver, it was a very rare material that was not being used by dentists. This all sent a ripple through Barbara’s high school and a number of her schoolmates came to the revival and got saved.
After that experience, when I was in revival, I would always designate a special night to pray for people’s teeth. I can't tell you the number of times I watched as God filled someone’s tooth. There were times when it looked like a small tornado in someone’s mouth when God was filling a tooth.
Jubilee Archive