What Is the Use of Anointing Oil in the New Testament Church?
1) Direct answer
Anointing oil in the New Testament Church is used as a simple, God-given ordinance for the sick. It is a sign of consecration, pointing to the Holy Spirit, while the healing itself comes through faith in the Name of the Lord Jesus and the prayer of faith.
2) Scriptural explanation
- The Bible says, “Is any sick among you? let him call for the elders of the church; and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the Name of the Lord: and the prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up” (James 5:14–15).
- When the disciples were sent out, “they anointed with oil many that were sick, and healed them” (Mark 6:13).
- The real anointing is the Spirit: “You have an unction from the Holy One” (1 John 2:20) and “the anointing…abides in you” (1 John 2:27). Jesus said, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, because He has anointed Me” (Luke 4:18).
3) Simple clarifying logic
- Now notice, the oil itself has no healing virtue. The Scripture puts the emphasis here: “the prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up.” The oil is a token of obedience and a sign that this person is set apart to God for His intervention.
- You see, God uses simple tokens—water in baptism, bread and cup in communion, oil in prayer for the sick—to point to the unseen reality, which is the Holy Spirit working through the Word.
- James directs the sick to call for the elders. They anoint in the Name of the Lord, pray the prayer of faith, and the Lord performs what He promised. That keeps the glory with God, not with the ritual.
- This does not make oil a charm. Without faith and the Name of the Lord, oil is just oil. Nor should we throw it away as “just a custom,” because the command is given to the Church in the Epistle.
- For ordaining workers, the New Testament shows laying on of hands (Acts 13:3; 1 Timothy 4:14). For healing the sick, it shows anointing with oil and prayer. We keep each ordinance in its place.
4) Short reinforcing statement
Use it the Bible way: the sick call, the elders come, anoint with oil in the Name of the Lord Jesus, confess faults, pray the prayer of faith, and expect the Lord to raise them up. The oil is the sign; the Holy Spirit is the Anointer; the Word is the ground of our confidence.
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What did the Laodicean Church Age (our age) Angel (- messenger) Say about this?
Ranked passages from the local William Branham sermon and Church Age Book database. Relevance is relative, not a statement of doctrinal certainty.
God hath a Provided Way
56-0108 §27
In the Old Testament, He was Jehovah-jireh, the Lord's provided sacrifice. He was Jehovah-rapha, the Lord that healeth thee. In the Old Testament, in His compound names He was the healer of Jehovah-rapha. In the New Testament He's Jesus Christ the same yesterday, today, and forever. The preparation. We could take it from both the Old and New Testament, pat them together. That's the reason, mostly, I got to the Old Testament to pick out a text, because I bring it over to the New Testament, and pull it together, and...
God's only provided place of worship
65-1128M §28
Now, how many was at yesterday's breakfast, or the other morning? All right, I think most, at least ninety percent of you or more. To background this, what I'm going to say, David was anointed king, anointed of God. The greatest king Israel ever had, outside of the Lord Jesus (which is God) the Anointed One. David is his son ... or, Jesus was David's son according to the lineage, the flesh. And He's to sit on David's throne as one ... inherit back, the prince always inherits the king's throne. Notice, now, that Dav...
The anointed ones at the end time
65-0725M §45
Now, we're told that all the old things happened for examples, for our teaching, reproofs, admonitions; that all the old things of the Old Testament happened, foreshadowed to see what would be in the New Testament in our day. Just like, if you'd never seen your hand and you looked up and you seen a shadow on the wall (as my hand would be from the light), if it's got five fingers here in a shadow, when the negative ... and you move your hands towards---being the positive---towards the negative, it's got to come to f...
He swore by Himself
54-1212 §17
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Church Order
58-1007 §3
We believe in justification by faith, Romans 5:1. We believe that after a person being justified by faith, he has peace with the Lord Jesus Christ; but it's possible that this same person could have habits such as drinking, smoking, doing things that he should not do, filthy habits of the flesh. Then we believe that the blood of Jesus Christ sanctifies this person for the service of the Lord. And that ... we believe in sanctification according to Hebrews 13:12 and 13: "Where Jesus also, that He might sanctify the p...