You may have seen this book offering in your Facebook timeline …
Have you been longing for lasting change in your life without the struggle? Discover the secret to effortless transformation with Andrew Wommack’s book “Effortless Change”!
In this foundational resource, Andrew shares how God’s Word can naturally and effortlessly bring profound change to your life. Say goodbye to striving and step into a life filled with lasting change and abundant blessings. Don’t miss out on this opportunity to experience the power of God’s Word firsthand.
Brief Biography of Andrew Wommack
Andrew Wommack is a prominent figure in contemporary American evangelicalism, particularly within the Word of Faith movement. Born in 1949, Wommack claims a pivotal supernatural encounter with God on March 23, 1968, which fundamentally redirected his life toward ministry. He has since built a substantial media and educational empire centered around his interpretation of Christian theology.
Wommack’s ministry began modestly with small Bible studies and churches in Texas, but has expanded dramatically since 2002, when he claims God revealed that he was “limiting Him through small thinking.” His organization now includes Andrew Wommack Ministries, the international television program “Gospel Truth” (reaching an estimated half the world’s population), and Charis Bible College with campuses across multiple continents. The ministry claims to have over 200,000 hours of free teachings available online and operates a 24-hour prayer helpline.
Theologically, Wommack positions himself within the broader charismatic and Word of Faith traditions, emphasizing divine healing, prosperity, and what he terms “effortless change” through the application of spiritual principles derived from his interpretation of Scripture. His ministry maintains close associations with Kenneth Copeland Ministries and Trinity Broadcasting Network (TBN), both organizations known for promoting Word of Faith theology that deviates significantly from orthodox Christianity. These networks have consistently platformed teachers who advocate prosperity gospel doctrines, name-it-and-claim-it theology, and other teachings that biblical scholars widely recognize as inconsistent with the Biblical Text. Wommack’s association with these ministries and his regular appearances on TBN programming place him firmly within a theological tradition that evangelical and Reformed scholars have identified as promoting dangerous errors regarding God’s nature, human authority over spiritual outcomes, and the relationship between faith and material blessing. While maintaining evangelical language regarding salvation and biblical authority, his teachings reflect distinctive emphases that warrant careful theological examination.
Theological Concerns and Departures from Orthodox Christianity
The Doctrine of Spiritual Completeness and Perfectionism
One of the most significant departures from traditional Christian doctrine in Wommack’s teaching concerns his understanding of the believer’s spiritual state. He asserts that “when you got born again, God put everything on the inside of you that you will ever need. In the spirit realm, you are complete (Col. 2:10). You are as complete and perfect in the spirit realm as Jesus is.”
This teaching reflects a form of perfectionism that diverges substantially from historic Christian understanding. While orthodox theology affirms that believers are positionally righteous before God through Christ’s imputed righteousness, it maintains a clear distinction between positional and experiential sanctification. The traditional view recognizes that believers, while justified, continue to struggle with sin and require ongoing sanctification through the Spirit’s work.
Wommack’s claim that believers are “as complete and perfect in the spirit realm as Jesus is” approaches what theologians have historically identified as perfectionist heresy. This teaching minimizes the ongoing reality of sin in believers’ lives and can lead to either spiritual pride or devastating disillusionment when believers inevitably encounter their continued moral failures.
The apostle Paul, writing to mature believers, acknowledged his ongoing struggle with sin in Romans 7:14-25, stating, “I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I practice.” John similarly warns that “if we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us” (1 John 1:8). Wommack’s teaching essentially contradicts these clear biblical acknowledgments of the believer’s ongoing struggle with sin.
Mechanical Views of Faith and Spiritual Laws
Throughout this booklet, Wommack presents a mechanistic understanding of spiritual principles. He repeatedly uses agricultural metaphors to suggest that spiritual “laws” operate with the same predictability as natural laws. This perspective treats faith and spiritual growth as formulaic processes that, when properly executed, guarantee specific outcomes.
This mechanistic approach to spirituality reflects a fundamental misunderstanding of the nature of faith and God’s sovereignty. Biblical faith is relational trust in God’s character and promises, not a technique for manipulating spiritual outcomes. When Wommack suggests that planting God’s Word in one’s heart will “automatically” produce desired results, he reduces the dynamic relationship between God and believers to a cause-and-effect system.
The danger of this teaching becomes apparent in its practical implications. Believers who apply Wommack’s formulas but fail to see desired results may conclude they lack sufficient faith or haven’t properly applied the principles. This can lead to spiritual introspection that borders on works-righteousness and can devastate believers who face genuine trials, illness, or financial difficulties despite faithful application of these supposed spiritual laws.
Problematic Hermeneutics and Eisegesis
Wommack’s biblical interpretation frequently demonstrates what biblical scholars term eisegesis—reading foreign concepts into biblical texts rather than extracting their intended meaning. His use of Genesis 1:11-12 to support his teaching about spiritual seed-planting exemplifies this problematic approach.
When Wommack states that “seeds don’t produce apples. The earth produces the apples. The seed activates what is already in the soil—the heart,” he imposes a spiritual interpretation on a straightforward creation narrative that was never intended to teach complex theological principles about sanctification. This allegorical approach to Scripture, while sometimes legitimate, becomes problematic when it forms the foundation for major doctrinal positions.
Similarly, his interpretation of Mark 4:26-281And he said, “The kingdom of God is as if a man should scatter seed on the ground. He sleeps and rises night and day, and the seed sprouts and grows; he knows not how. The earth produces by itself, first the blade, then the ear, then the full grain in the ear. and the parable of the sower extends Jesus’ agricultural metaphors beyond their intended scope. While Jesus did use these parables to teach about the kingdom of God, Wommack transforms them into detailed instruction manuals for spiritual transformation, complete with specific steps and guaranteed outcomes. This approach fails to recognize that parables are teaching tools designed to convey general spiritual truths, not comprehensive theological systems.
The Prosperity Gospel and Conditional Blessing
While Wommack doesn’t explicitly embrace the most extreme forms of prosperity theology, his teaching contains clear prosperity gospel elements. He suggests that understanding and applying spiritual principles will inevitably lead to blessings in areas including “healing, finances, or deliverance.” His personal testimony about ministry growth following his decision to “think big” reinforces the notion that proper spiritual understanding leads to material prosperity.
This teaching problematically conflates spiritual maturity with material success. It fails to account for the biblical reality that God’s people often experience suffering, persecution, and material lack despite faithful service. The apostle Paul, arguably the most successful missionary in church history, frequently experienced poverty, persecution, and physical ailments (2 Corinthians 11:23-28).2Are they servants of Christ? I am a better one—I am talking like a madman—with far greater labors, far more imprisonments, with countless beatings, and often near death. Five times I received at the hands of the Jews the forty lashes less one. Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I was stoned. Three times I was shipwrecked; a night and a day I was adrift at sea; on frequent journeys, in danger from rivers, danger from robbers, danger from my own people, danger from Gentiles, danger in the city, danger in the wilderness, danger at sea, danger from false brothers; in toil and hardship, through many a sleepless night, in hunger and thirst, often without food, in cold and exposure. And, apart from other things, there is the daily pressure on me of my anxiety for all the churches. Job’s suffering was explicitly not related to his spiritual condition but served God’s purposes in ways that transcended material considerations.
The prosperity emphasis also tends to evaluate spiritual truth based on pragmatic results rather than biblical fidelity. When Wommack attributes his ministry’s growth to his change in thinking rather than to God’s sovereign purposes and timing, he subtly shifts credit from divine grace to human technique.
Inadequate Understanding of Suffering and Divine Sovereignty
Wommack’s teaching demonstrates an inadequate theological framework for understanding suffering within God’s purposes. His emphasis on “effortless change” and automatic spiritual production leaves little room for the biblical reality that God often uses trials, difficulties, and even delays in answered prayer for believers’ sanctification and His glory.
The Scriptures consistently present suffering as a normal part of Christian experience, not merely the result of insufficient faith or improper application of spiritual principles. Peter writes that believers should not be surprised by “the fiery trial” but should “rejoice insofar as you share Christ’s sufferings” (1 Peter 4:12-13). Paul instructed Timothy that “all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted” (2 Timothy 3:12).
Wommack’s framework struggles to account for believers who face genuine hardships despite faithful application of his principles. This can lead to victim-blaming attitudes toward suffering believers and an inadequate pastoral response to genuine spiritual crises.
The Role of Human Effort in Sanctification
While Wommack claims to teach “effortless change,” his system actually requires considerable human effort in the form of consistent Bible study, meditation, and mental discipline. This creates a contradiction between his stated theology and its practical application. Believers must work diligently to apply his principles while maintaining the illusion that change happens effortlessly.
This tension reveals a fundamental confusion about the relationship between divine grace and human responsibility in sanctification. Orthodox theology recognizes that believers are called to “work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure” (Philippians 2:12-13). This passage maintains both human responsibility and divine agency without reducing either to a formula.
Wommack’s teaching tips go too far toward human technique while using language that suggests divine automation. This can burden believers with performance anxiety while failing to provide genuine assurance of God’s grace in the sanctification process.
Questionable Views on Spiritual Authority and Revelation
Throughout the booklet, Wommack presents his insights with a level of authority that suggests direct revelation from God. He frequently claims that “the Lord spoke to me” about various principles and insights, positioning his teachings as divinely revealed truth rather than his personal interpretation of Scripture.
This approach to spiritual authority raises significant concerns about the sufficiency of Scripture and the danger of elevating personal revelation above biblical authority. While God may certainly guide and illumine believers’ understanding of Scripture, claiming direct divine communication about specific doctrinal principles requires extraordinary caution and biblical validation.
The early church faced similar challenges with individuals claiming special revelations that diverged from apostolic teaching. Paul warned the Galatians that even if “an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed” (Galatians 1:8). This principle applies equally to contemporary claims of divine revelation that introduce novel theological concepts.
Implications for Christian Apologetics
From an apologetic perspective, Wommack’s teaching presents several challenges for defending the Christian faith. His mechanistic approach to spirituality makes Christianity appear more like a self-help system than a religion centered on a relationship with the transcendent God. This reduces the gospel’s supernatural character to naturalistic principles that could theoretically be verified through empirical testing.
Furthermore, his emphasis on guaranteed results through the proper application of spiritual principles creates unrealistic expectations that can lead to faith crises when life fails to conform to the promised outcomes. Non-believers observing Christians who embrace these teachings may rightfully question the faith’s credibility when promised results fail to materialize.
The prosperity elements in his teaching also reinforce secular criticisms of Christianity as a religion that exploits people’s desires for material success rather than calling them to genuine spiritual transformation and service to others.
Pastoral and Practical Concerns
Impact on Suffering Believers
Wommack’s teaching can have devastating effects on believers experiencing genuine trials. His emphasis on the believer’s spiritual completeness and the automatic nature of positive outcomes through proper application of principles can lead suffering believers to conclude they lack sufficient faith or have failed to properly apply spiritual laws.
This can compound their suffering with spiritual guilt and isolation from their faith community. Rather than receiving pastoral care and support during difficult seasons, these believers may feel compelled to maintain appearances of spiritual success while privately struggling with doubt and despair.
Spiritual Materialism and Consumer Christianity
The teaching’s emphasis on desired outcomes and personal benefit can foster what spiritual writers have long recognized as spiritual materialism—approaching God primarily for what He can provide rather than for a relationship with Him. This consumer approach to Christianity treats God as a means to personal ends rather than recognizing Him as the ultimate end toward which all things should be ordered.
This perspective can stunt genuine spiritual growth by maintaining focus on self-interest rather than conformity to Christ’s character. Mature Christian spirituality involves progressive freedom from self-centered concerns and increasing desire for God’s glory and the welfare of others.
Inadequate Discipleship Framework
While Wommack’s teaching contains elements of truth about the importance of Scripture study and meditation, his framework provides an inadequate foundation for comprehensive discipleship. His focus on personal benefit and desired outcomes fails to address crucial aspects of Christian maturity, including sacrificial love, service to others, submission to authority, and willingness to suffer for righteousness.
The discipleship model presented reduces spiritual growth to individual application of principles rather than formation within the body of Christ through relationships, accountability, and mutual service. This individualistic approach misses the communal nature of Christian maturity that Scripture consistently emphasizes.
Conclusion
Andrew Wommack’s “Effortless Change” represents a dangerous departure from orthodox Christian doctrine that believers should avoid entirely. While the booklet contains scattered references to legitimate biblical concepts such as Scripture meditation, these elements cannot redeem a theological framework that fundamentally distorts the nature of Christian faith and spiritual growth. The teaching’s mechanistic approach to spirituality, perfectionist doctrine regarding believers’ spiritual state, and prosperity theology elements create a system that, despite evangelical terminology, reduces Christianity to a religious technology for manipulating divine outcomes.
Given Wommack’s documented associations with Kenneth Copeland Ministries and Trinity Broadcasting Network—both organizations known for promoting Word of Faith heresies—his teachings must be understood within this broader context of theological error. The cumulative effect of his doctrinal departures creates a spiritual environment that can lead believers away from biblical Christianity toward a man-centered religious system focused on technique rather than genuine faith.
The serious implications of these teachings for believers’ spiritual development, pastoral care, and the church’s witness in contemporary culture demand an unambiguous response: Christians should reject Wommack’s theological system entirely. Rather than attempting to salvage useful elements from fundamentally flawed teaching, believers would be far better served by completely avoiding Wommack’s materials and seeking spiritual growth through teachers who demonstrate faithful adherence to biblical Christianity.
Believers seeking authentic spiritual transformation should turn to pastors, authors, and ministries that maintain an unwavering commitment to biblical authority, recognize the ongoing reality of sin in believers’ lives, acknowledge God’s sovereignty over all circumstances, including suffering, and focus on conformity to Christ’s character rather than achievement of personal desires. Such approaches, grounded in historic Christian doctrine and careful biblical interpretation, provide the only reliable foundation for genuine Christian discipleship and spiritual maturity. The apparent appeal of Wommack’s promises of effortless change cannot justify exposure to teachings that fundamentally compromise the gospel message.
CAUTION: For those who insist on verifying this analysis, here’s Wommack’s book: “Effortless Change.”
Views from around the Internet (judge for yourself):
reddit comment: Charis Bible College is a Cult: Here’s why (Part I) — Part II — Part III
Charis Bible College and its affiliates believe in the extremist “Word of Faith Doctrine.” There are many, expert and reliable sources describing the reasons that this doctrine is not Christian. I encourage readers to perform their own searches.
Faith healing is not healing at all. Mortal danger is imminent under this religious practice, which is condemned by the majority of Christians and held as ludicrous by the secular community. Without medical ethics, professionalism, science, and intervention, a person with an ailment like cancer or HIV is guaranteed doom. People with genetic disorders or disabilities simply cannot heal. They and their community must live with and adapt to these conditions. Andrew Wommack and Charis Bible College insist that, if you are ill, it’s your problem because your faith is not strong enough. Of course, one must attend Charis Bible College to develop the pseudo-religious mumbo-jumbo necessary to demonstrate strengthened faith to (omniscient?) God.
Baptist News Global: Andrew Wommack’s version of Christian nationalism is spreading across the country
Charis Bible College
Wommack never attended college or seminary, but says he teaches “the revelation God has given me.” He founded Charis Bible College in 1994 to provide a practical ministry education to nontraditional students.“We train disciples in the uncompromising truth of God’s word, equipping them to fulfill their unique purpose through a powerful relationship with Jesus,” says the school, which claims thousands of graduates, nearly 1,000 current students in Woodland Park, Colo., near Colorado Springs, and more than 7,000 students attending satellite campuses around the world that are run by Charis graduates.
Charis is not accredited, and Wommack says that’s a good thing: “This offers us the freedom to provide world-class Biblical teaching and training in our various programs.”
Wommack’s teaching that believers can walk in a state of healing caused him to oppose COVID precautions and crowd limitation orders at Charis, leading to two community COVID outbreaks starting there. Wommack later sued the state of Colorado, called Gov. Jared Polis “a governor who is openly homosexual and anti-Christian,” and labeled health officials as the “Gestapo.”
The Africa Centre for Apologetics Research: Beware the Teachings of Andrew Wommack
Wommack says…
It’s “false teaching” to claim that “God is the One who causes people to die” or that He “puts sickness on you to humble you for some redemptive purpose and to perfect you through all this suffering.”1 Instead, Wommack claims that “God’s Word is very clear that sickness and disease are oppressions from the devil.”2 He also tells Christians that “If you’re depressed, you’re demonized. Satan is messing with you.”3 Wommack claims that God “wants every person healed every time.”4 More so, he claims that the cross of Jesus has already redeemed believers from all sickness and disease.