“I had no clue that my life was about to be radically changed.”
— Andrew Wommack
You’ve never heard the full account of Andrew’s encounter with the Lord on March 23, 1968. Now it’s time for the rest of the story. Andrew has taken the time to sit down and pen a new booklet that describes in detail his early life, the events leading up to this encounter, and how his life has been changed since. Every story is a journey, and Andrew’s has never been told quite like it’s been told in his latest release, My Appointment with God.
Beloved Father
In his testimony, Andrew reveals that his father led him to the Lord at the age of eight. “He explained what true salvation was, and I prayed with him and got ‘born again’ right there in my bedroom with my dad. Praise God for my parents who shared their love of Jesus with me.”
However, he was only at the beginning of understanding God’s love for him. Unfortunately, the church he attended didn’t help. When his father, who had been sick a long time, died, his fellow members told him that God killed him. They offered the consolation that his dad was the most godly man they knew. But Andrew writes, “He was just Dad to me, and I was missing him.” He found himself asking, “Why would God do that to me and my family?” But as hard as it was to understand, Andrew accepted what they told him God did. He even hungered to know Him more. “I prayed, ‘Lord if You are great, reveal Yourself to me. Show me Your plan for my life.’”
Journey to Discovering God’s Will
Andrew truly meant what he prayed about knowing God’s will for his life. And by the time he was a senior in high school, he’d started reading the Bible all the way through! “I knew my answer was in there someplace,” Andrew notes. But the answer eluded him until 1967, when he went to a retreat in New Mexico and heard a man quote Romans 12:1–2.
I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.
Romans 12:1–2
This made a remarkable impression on Andrew. “That passage just jumped out at me,” he writes. “I needed to be a ‘living sacrifice’ and ‘renew my mind.’” The trouble was, he didn’t know what those meant. So, like many believers, he became saved but stuck! “I became a human doing instead of a human being.” However, the revelation of Romans 12 was indeed another milestone in Andrew’s journey. God was setting him up for his eventual appointment!
It’s Not About the Dos and Don’ts
As a Christian human doer, Andrew did what he learned in church. He’d been told that this was the way to please God. “I began to hear that in order to keep pleasing God, I had to live a holy life and do all the right things and avoid all of the wrong things,” he writes. “The only time I ever felt like God was even remotely pleased with me was connected to something good that I had done.”
What Andrew hadn’t realized was that by focusing on the do’s and the don’ts, he was becoming the exact opposite of a Romans 12 living sacrifice. Instead, he was becoming a man pleaser. “I always read my daily Bible readings so I could get credit for it on my envelope every Sunday. All my visits for the church were so I would look good to other people. The pastor would have me stand in front of the church and tell how many visits I had made and how many people I had pray ‘the sinner’s prayer’ with me.”
The praise of man did something to Andrew. “I craved acceptance but thought it was only available through performance, so I was performing the best I knew how. However, I never felt like it was enough. It was like I was on a treadmill going faster and faster, and I was fearful that if I stopped for even a moment, that treadmill would knock me off my feet. This spilled over into my relationship with the Lord.” All of Andrew’s good works never made him feel comfortable in his relationship with God. “Because I never did anything perfectly, I never felt His perfect love.”
Andrew elaborates on the vicious cycle he didn’t even know he had fallen into, writing, “I believed He loved me enough to save me from hell, but I didn’t think He liked me. I didn’t like myself. How could Almighty God like me if I didn’t like me? So, I would just try a little harder.” There would be only one remedy for his dilemma, and it was nearly time for his appointment with God.
Day of the Appointment
When Saturday, March 23, 1968, came along, it began like any other day. Nothing of note to remember. It was the regularly scheduled prayer meeting that night that he will never forget. It all started at 10 p.m.
“That Saturday night, I was standing around joking with my friends when Marion Warren, our youth director, just fell on his face and started praying,” Andrew recalls. “We all hit our knees and started listening as Marion just poured out his heart to the Lord.”
Marion’s impromptu prayer was with passion and reverence. He talked to God like he knew Him! Everyone there knew he had a relationship with God that they didn’t. But instead of being inspired to have his own relationship with God, Andrew was upset with Marion. His attention was on himself. What is everyone going to think of my prayer after this? he thought. I won’t have anything left to say. I certainly can’t pray like Marion. I’m going to be embarrassed.
As Andrew puts it, that was when God held up a mirror and showed him how much of a hypocrite he was. “Everything I did was for the praise of men,” he writes. “I looked good on the outside, but inwardly, I was a mess, and for the first time in my life, I knew it.”
What Andrew didn’t know was that he was moments away from an encounter with the Lord that would change his life forever. It was a pivotal moment when, at last, he saw the worth of all his self-righteousness. “When God shined His light of truth on me, I saw myself compared to Him . . . I actually thought the Lord was going to kill me. When I saw how sinful I was, I assumed that was the first time the Lord had seen it.”
You’ll have to read Andrew’s booklet My Appointment with God to learn how he responded before experiencing what he describes as waves of liquid love from God. “For the first time in my life, I knew that God’s love for me had nothing to do with me and everything to do with what Jesus did for me . . . This transformed my life . . . I’ve never gotten over it, and I never will.”
The legacy of Andrew’s appointment has impacted millions around the world for over half a century! He has dedicated his life and ministry to the revelation he received that fateful night in 1968. You don’t want to miss the full story of what happened, in Andrew’s own words! Read Andrew’s full testimony online or get a hard copy of the booklet when you become a partner of Andrew Wommack Ministries or call our Helpline at 719-635-1111 today!
