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.
Trying to do God a service without it being God's will
65-1127B §100
Notice these priests, all out of line. Notice the anointing. All right, nothing wrong with anointing. Same with you Pentecostals, but watch what channel you're moving in now. The day has changed since Pentecost, something else going. If there'd been no prophet in the land, perhaps David would've been right. That's right. But there stood Nathan, vindicated, ordained, witnessed by God to be a prophet. Watch! The ark in the Bible always is a type of the Word to us, because it was the Word of God in the ark. And was......
I will restore
54-0620A §17
And we seen this through the Old Testament, and the New Testament day, winding up, which everything in the Bible by numbers in perfection is three, like: Father, Son, Holy Spirit; justification, sanctification, baptism of the Holy Spirit; water, blood, Spirit, and all these things. Threes, sevens, twelves, twenty-fours, forties, and fifties is God's numbers. That you understand. Forty is temptations, and fifty is jubilee. And, oh, you understand those by your pastors. But now, if you'll notice, as they wind their w...
Questions and Answers, part 2
54-0103E §56
First thing I would say, according to the rules of the church in the Old Testament ... or, the New Testament, rather, at the first place, that people entered into the church of God in a Spirit of worship. And they walked in, hymns were sung. And maybe the preacher would speak, for he was a prophet of the church. (A New Testament prophet is a preacher; we know that: "The testimony of Jesus Christ is the Spirit of prophecy," said Revelation.) Now, the preacher begin to preach. While he preached, the blessings, right,...
Contending for the Faith
55-0220E §12
Then again, that... It isn't a personal contact: The ministry isn't to personally contact. That's one thing that's hurt the American people, and for my own ministry. They believe that they must have hands laid on them or something on that manner, because they've been taught that, especially among the Full Gospel people. The Nazarene, Pilgrim Holiness, Methodists, Baptists, so forth believes in the anointing of the oil. That's the way they've been taught. So they see something where you have to just look, like, and...
The unwelcomed Christ
55-0911 §76
Then, he's all washed down. He feels pretty comfortable. Then he goes into a little chamber. This man meets him at the door. Then he goes into a little chamber, there stands another servant, and he has a cruse of oil. And, oh, it's called spikenard, and what a famous stuff that is. And he puts a little in his hand, a little in the other hand, and he rubs it together, rubs it over his face and over his neck, because the direct rays of the Palestinian sun... Both men and women has to keep themselves oiled. It'll just...