For those who know Andrew Wommack, this is not something they would expect to hear from the man who ministers around the world, sharing the message of the Gospel with confidence and conviction. But like all great ministers, Andrew didn’t start out with all the answers. After being told at twelve years old that God was the one who killed his father, the journey to the revelation of God’s unconditional love and grace would be filled with plenty of mistakes. But it was one that also led him to encounter God in a way that would forever change the course of his life. That encounter took place in a church prayer meeting on March 23, 1968.

“I was born again, but it was really superficial. It was just like, ‘O God, forgive us of our many sins and bless us and we’re praying for revival.’ If we had a prayer request, we might mention somebody’s name, but it was really superficial.”

Then one night, Andrew was challenged by Marion Warren, a man who was instrumental in his extraordinary encounter with God. “[He] was our youth director,” Andrew begins. “When Marion prayed, he got serious with the Lord. I mean, he would talk to the Lord, and he’d stop, and God would talk back to him. He had a relationship with the Lord that we all enjoyed, but it was intimidating. So, the only way we could pray with Marion was to get in, and I’d pray first and get my prayer out of the way so I could enjoy his. But, boy, this night, we were just talking about something, and Marion hit his knees and started praying. He prayed for thirty minutes just pouring his heart out to the Lord. He was crying and seeking the Lord, and instead of me entering in and agreeing with him or praying with him, I just got to thinking, What am I going to pray? What’s everybody going to think about me?”

And it was at that moment - when Andrew got mad at Marion - that God revealed the truth to Andrew:

“I don’t even know how it happened, but somehow, it’s like God pulled back a curtain, and I saw what a hypocrite I was. I wasn’t praying to God; it was all about impressing all of my friends and the leaders of this church. He just showed me that I was a total hypocrite. I don’t have the words to describe it, but I had taken pride in my holiness - in the fact that I’d never said a word of profanity, never drunk [alcohol, never smoked] a cigarette. And I looked down at other people, and I thought God owed me something. I was trying to earn God’s blessing in my life, and I thought I was doing a good job.” 

Andrew continues, “But all of a sudden, when I saw things from God’s standpoint, it’s just like God showed me what a religious hypocrite I was. It devastated me, and, man, I got so convicted.” 

Based on Andrew’s belief that God had killed his dad and that God was the ultimate punisher, he thought the same thing would happened to him. “I honestly thought God was going to kill me . . . . And so, before He killed me, I was just going to confess everything I could think of so that I’d go to heaven instead of hell.

“I honestly thought I was going to die right then. Usually my prayers were like five minutes maximum, and that night, I prayed probably for an hour and a half. I just turned myself inside out, and I started confessing everything I’d ever done. . . . I confessed in front of the leaders of the church and all of my friends every person I’d ever lusted at, every thought I’d ever had, every time I’d ever gotten mad, everything I’d ever thought about a person, things that probably I had no business confessing, but I was just getting rid of everything I could think of. . . .

“Finally, there was just nothing left to say. . . . I was just laying on the floor in a puddle of tears, and instead of God’s wrath coming on me, I just had a supernatural, a tangible love come on me that overwhelmed me . . . . I just got overwhelmed with how much God loved me and the reality of God. I mean, He was in that room!”

Andrew goes on to say, “I intuitively knew that His love for me had nothing to do with my goodness. . . . [This was] the first time in my life I ever realized I had nothing good to offer God, and it has served as a foundation for me. . . . The more I see God do, the more I know it has nothing to do with me. It’s not my goodness.” Andrew goes on to say, “Because of that experience that God’s goodness to me and love for me has nothing to do with how good I am - it just transformed me.”

Andrew says that now his confidence isn’t in self, but his confidence is in the Lord. He says, “I feel a hundred percent accepted and loved, not because I’m lovely, but because God is love. A lot of people, I don’t think, can make that connection. They think the reason God loves them is because they’re really awesome. I don’t have that deception.”

Fifty years later, hundreds of thousands of people all over the world are reaping the benefits of this experience. From the humble pews of a small church prayer meeting, one man’s encounter with the unconditional love and grace of God transformed a life into an unstoppable force for the kingdom of God.

Andrew shares about a dream he had on November 4 of 2014. He says, “The Lord spoke to me and He said, ‘This is the reason I’ve raised you up, is to change people’s opinion of Me. And then, as their opinion of Me changes, they will go out and change the world.’ So, the Lord was basically telling me I’m not the one [who’s] going to change the world. But through changing people’s opinion of Him, He would raise up other people to go out and change the world.”

Are you changing the world? As a partner of Andrew, you most definitely are. Marion was a man who obeyed God in something as simple as praying with a group of teenagers. He probably never dreamed that one prayer would propel one young man to set the world on fire with the Gospel. But Andrew has never done it alone. Andrew loves to give the picture of people coming up to you in heaven and thanking you for what you did for them through your partnership.

Today Andrew continues to share the revelations he received all those years ago, pointing people back to Jesus and changing their opinion of the Father. Thank you for being a part of Andrew’s story as we all continue the work that God began.