THE UNBIBLICAL TEACHINGS OF ANDREW WOMMACK

 

 

 

Andrew Wommack is just one articulate and persuasive voice among the many voices of the Word of Faith (WOF) movement, which minimizes God’s sovereignty in favor of our own power and sovereignty.

 

For the sake of clarity, I will bold and italicize Wommack’s words.

 

“It’s never God’s will for us to be sick; He wants every person healed every time.” http://www.awmi.net/extra/article/healing_knowledge

 

This cannot be Biblically supported. Death, suffering, weakness, and even disease are parts of our Lord’s glorious program. They are to be seen in a positive way rather that a negative one. Even Jesus had to learn through what He suffered:

·       Hebrews 5:7–8 In the days of his flesh, Jesus offered up prayers and supplications, with loud cries and tears, to him who was able to save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverence. Although he was a son, he learned obedience through what he suffered.

 

The greatest evangelist also learned through God-given suffering:

 

·       2 Corinthians 12:7–10 So to keep me from becoming conceited because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to harass me, to keep me from becoming conceited. Three times I pleaded with the Lord about this, that it should leave me. But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

 

Affliction teaches us to trust in Him:

 

·       2 Corinthians 1:8–10 For we do not want you to be unaware, brothers, of the affliction we experienced in Asia. For we were so utterly burdened beyond our strength that we despaired of life itself. Indeed, we felt that we had received the sentence of death. But that was to make us rely not on ourselves but on God who raises the dead. He delivered us from such a deadly peril, and he will deliver us. On him we have set our hope that he will deliver us again.

 

“The Lord never told us to pray for the sick in the sense that we ask Him to heal them. He told us to heal the sick,” and “Jesus told us to heal the sick, not pray for the sick [for God to heal].” (http://www.awmi.net/extra/article/authority_releases),

 

This teaching reveals that WOF teaches that we have been granted to have power and authority within us and therefore need not pray to God for Him to heal. Wommack cites:

 

·       Matthew 18:15–20 “If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault, between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have gained your brother. But if he does not listen, take one or two others along with you, that every charge may be established by the evidence of two or three witnesses. If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church. And if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector. Truly, I say to you, whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.

 

However, these verses fail to teach that we are to conduct ourselves independently of God. Instead, there is a lengthen procedure, which Jesus had taught, before we excommunicate the unrepentant, culminating in evaluating evidence. Consequently, when we excommunicate, this judgment will be “bound in heaven.” If the church fails to find reasons to excommunicate, their sins will be “loosed in heaven.” Besides, these verses do not provide any support for the idea that we shouldn’t pray to God for a healing. Instead, the entire Christian life is to be one dependent upon the will of God:

 

·       2 Corinthians 3:4–5 Such is the confidence that we have through Christ toward God. Not that we are sufficient in ourselves to claim anything as coming from us, but our sufficiency is from God. (John 15:4-5)

 

Instead, so many verses point to our dependence upon God, not our own power:

 

·       Matthew 10:19–20 “When they deliver you over, do not be anxious how you are to speak or what you are to say, for what you are to say will be given to you in that hour.” For it is not you who speak, but the Spirit of your Father speaking through you. (After the Apostles were given authority)

 

WOF teaches us how to take the authority that only belongs to God. However, these verses restored my hope that I could rest securely in the oversight of the Spirit and trust in God’s sovereignty over my life to work all things for my good:

 

·       Romans 8:26–28 Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. And he who searches hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God. And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.

 

Consequently, my trust was restored to God, who will provide me with everything I need:

 

·       1 Corinthians 15:10 But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me was not in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me.

 

“Our words are powerful. They activate faith.” “So the whole focus of all of these meetings have been about taking your authority, recognizing that there are certain things under our control, speaking and seeing things come to pass.” https://www.thepathoftruth.com/false-teachers/andrew-wommack.htm

 

Wommack cites:

 

·       Proverbs 18:21 Death and life are in the power of the tongue, and those who love it will eat its fruits.

 

However, the Bible never claims that we have supernatural powers for healing. Instead, we are to pray to God for His healing! Therefore, we should understand this “power of the tongue” as interpersonal. With our tongue we can edify or demolish others.

 

·       Others cite: Romans 4:17 as it is written, “I have made you the father of many nations”—in the presence of the God in whom he believed, who gives life to the dead and calls into existence the things that do not exist.

 

However, nowhere does the Bible teach that we have this power. It belongs to God alone! Instead, our tongues should only serve the Truth:

 

·       James 4:13–16 Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit”—

yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.” As it is, you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil.

 

We are nothing more than an insubstantial mist. Therefore, we must not claim that we have the power to control our destiny. According to James, this is an evil boast!

 

“God has already placed His healing power within us, and it is now under our authority. It isn’t up to God to determine who receives healing; it’s up to us!” (“Faith For Healing Is Based On Knowledge”)

 

“If God wants us well, and we aren’t, this means we have to accept some degree of responsibility.” (“God Wants You Well,” p. 41)

 

“I don’t believe this [child’s death] was God’s will.… He didn’t allow this to happen.… It’s either my fault, your fault, both of our faults, or things that we don’t understand.” (“God Wants You Well”)

 

God could have stopped the death! To deny this is to minimize God’s power:

 

·       Genesis 18:14 Is anything too hard for the LORD? At the appointed time I will return to you, about this time next year, and Sarah shall have a son.”

 

·       2 Corinthians 4:16-18 So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, your inner self his being renewed day by day. For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.

 

In support, Wommack claims that we all have been given authority and power which is unlocked by our words. Wommack cites:

 

·       Matthew 10:1 And he called to him his twelve disciples and gave them authority over unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to heal every disease and every affliction. (Mark 6:37; Luke 9:1)

 

However, this only pertained to the 12 Apostles. When Jesus sent out the 72, there is no mention of “authority.” Instead, it seems that this authority was only extended to the Apostles (Acts 2:43; 4:30; 5:12).

 

“When (people) see that some sickness, disease, tragedy comes into their life, instead of taking their authority and rebuking the devil and commanding him to leave, instead they go to God … and they beg God, “Oh God please change this situation. Oh God please get the devil off my back.’ And it’s not within God’s power and authority. He gave us that power and authority.” ( “The Believer’s Authority,” part 3)

 

It’s certainly within God’s authority and power! Even Jesus always submitted to the authority of His Father:

·       John 5:19 So Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of his own accord, but only what he sees the Father doing. For whatever the Father does, that the Son does likewise.”

 

Should we then presume that we can accomplish anything without God! Do we have the authority to rebuke the devil? Not even the archangel Michael had this authority:

 

·       Jude 8–9 Yet in like manner these people also, relying on their dreams, defile the flesh, reject authority, and blaspheme the glorious ones. But when the archangel Michael, contending with the devil, was disputing about the body of Moses, he did not presume to pronounce a blasphemous judgment, but said, “The Lord rebuke you.”

 

Instead, according to Jesus, we are to pray according to His will,:

 

·       Matthew 6:9–13 “Pray then like this: ‘Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.’”

 

Jesus gives us no indication that He has surrendered His authority to us. Instead, if we want the confidence that He will answer our prayers, we must pray according to His will:

·       1 John 5:14–15 And this is the confidence that we have toward him, that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us. And if we know that he hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests that we have asked of him.

 

Wommack often cites:

 

·       Matthew 21:21–22  And Jesus answered them, “Truly, I say to you, if you have faith and do not doubt, you will not only do what has been done to the fig tree, but even if you say to this mountain, ‘Be taken up and thrown into the sea,’ it will happen. And whatever you ask in prayer, you will receive, if you have faith.”

 

This teaching begs for clarification. Certainly, you will not receive “whatever you ask in prayer.” For example, Jesus instructed that receiving depended upon seeking the Lord first:

 

·       Matthew 6:33 “But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.”

 

James agreed that there are limitations upon what we should expect to receive:

 

·        James 4:2–3 You desire and do not have, so you murder. You covet and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel. You do not have, because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions.

 

Jesus was not in the business of issuing blank checks. Instead, He added that, to receive, we would have to abide by His Word:

 

·       “If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples...If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father's commandments and abide in his love.” (John 15:7-10)

 

The Father is glorified if we keep His Words so that He would grant us “whatever you wish,” according to the will of God.

 

So then, how would casting mountains into the sea glorify the Father? It wouldn’t! In His Sermon on the Mount, Jesus claimed that there would be some who would come to Him and expect to enter heaven because they had glorified God with the miracles they had performed:

·       Matthew 7:22–23 “On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’”

 

Miracles do not prove that the miracle workers are children of God.  Returning to Matthew 21, Jesus said “And whatever you ask in prayer, you will receive, if you have faith.” Faith wasn’t a matter of quantity, claiming authority, or of speaking the right words.  The smallest measure of faith would be enough (Luke 17:5-10). Then, what about “faith” is Jesus talking? The decision to trust in God’s Word above all else!

 

How was Elijah able to accomplish what he did? Did he have the right type of faith or more faith than others? Instead, he was like the rest of us:

 

·       James 5:16-18 Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working. Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed fervently that it might not rain, and for three years and six months it did not rain on the earth. Then he prayed again, and heaven gave rain, and the earth bore its fruit.

 

Where did Elijah’s fervency and confidence come? From the will of God…as directly expressed to him through the Word of God:

 

·       Now Elijah the Tishbite, from Tishbe in Gilead, said to Ahab, "As the LORD, the God of Israel, lives, whom I serve, there will be neither dew nor rain in the next few years except at my word." (1 Kings 17:1)

 

According to the Lord’s will and timing, He sent Elijah back to King Ahab:

 

·       After a long time, in the third year, the word of the LORD came to Elijah: "Go and present yourself to Ahab, and I will send rain on the land." So Elijah went to present himself to Ahab. Now the famine was severe in Samaria. (1 Kings 18:1-2)

 

The famine wasn’t the result of God having given Elijah a blank check but a direct and explicit command. As a result, Elijah had little doubt that his prayer would be answered.

 

Because of the drought, the Lord now had the attention of Israel. Elijah challenged the priests of Baal to call upon Baal to consume an offering with fire. They couldn’t do it, but God used Elijah to call down fire from heaven (1 Kings 18:24-29). What enabled Elijah to be so bold? He knew that he was operating according to the will and Word of his God:

 

·       At the time of sacrifice, the prophet Elijah stepped forward and prayed: "O LORD, God of Abraham, Isaac and Israel, let it be known today that you are God in Israel and that I am your servant and have done all these things at your command. (1 Kings 18:36)

 

Elijah’s confidence did not stem from his faith in a prayer or faith or in His words but rather from his faith in the Words of the God whom he served. He knew God’s Word, and that was what he banked on.

 

Elijah’s faith is a model for ours. He did not believe that he had been given authority to heal anyone he chose. Neither should we.

 

The context of Matthew 11 suggests that Jesus’ Apostles already understood that they could only perform miracles, like killing the fig tree, if they were acting according to the will of God to glorify God.

 

Wommack provides many testimonials to support his claims, but how much credence should we place in them if they are associated with unbiblical teachings? It seems that there will be many miraculous testimonies in the end:

 

·       Matthew 24:24–25 For false christs and false prophets will arise and perform great signs and wonders, so as to lead astray, if possible, even the elect. See, I have told you beforehand.

 

Jesus warned us that these “great signs and wonders” (and presumably the testimonies that accompany them) will lead many astray. Therefore, we need to regard the Word of God as weightier than miracles and the testimonies of miracles, which the WOF and Wommack provide. God had warned Israel that if someone was preaching a different god, and even if they were working miracles, they shouldn’t be believed (Deuteronomy 13:1-5). Consequently, we should not regard highly the testimonies of the WOF if they are preaching another gospel!

 

I am a great believer that we serve a miracle-working God but not in our ability to perform miracles apart from the will of God.