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.
The Calling of Abraham
55-1116 §2
Last night, I thought I would be sure to get out at nine-thirty, but I missed it again. So, I'm going to try again, if I can. Now, they've give me some handkerchiefs here to pray over. I noticed on one, said, "Brother Branham, please anoint." Now, that is just fine. Now, I know many brethren anoint the handkerchiefs, which that's good. And anything that God will bless, I'm certainly for it, aren't you? But now, I never anoint them; I just kind of use the Scripture by it. Now, in the Scripture, I don't believe they...
Why many Christians struggle to live the Christian life
57-0303A §16
When the Holy Spirit begins to say that Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever, and that falls in an old, dry church hide; you know what happens? They just blow up. That's all. If you say, "The baptism of the Holy Spirit was promised on the day of Pentecost to you, and to your children, and to them that is far off, even as many as the Lord, our God shall call," the old dry skin just bursts open, and you lose your sermon. That's right. It doesn't do any good. And I'm ashamed that Pentecostal skins ar...
Be certain of God
59-0125 §35
And the oil means the Spirit, as we know according to Ezekiel 4 and so forth. That's the reason we anoint with oil; it's the Spirit. What is it? As St. John 4: "The Father seeketh such to worship Him in Spirit and in truth." Jesus was the truth. He was the meal-offering, and this oil was the Spirit. And the Spirit mixed with the truth has got to bring something. Put it together, it makes a cake. Oh, where's your faith? When God's Word's preached in its simplicity, though in its power that Jesus Christ is the same y...
Daniel 9: The sixfold purpose of Gabriel's visitation
61-0730E §69
Now, to anoint the most Holy. (Now, this may be a little bit strange for just a minute to many of you teachers, but just hold it just for a minute and see how it comes out.) This is the anointing, not of a man... Jesus is already anointed, is that right? The book of Acts said that God anointed Jesus with the Holy Ghost, and He went around doing good, and healing the sick, and so forth. Jesus is already... He is Messiah and Messiah means "the anointed one." Is that right? But here at the end time He's to anoint the...
Convinced then concerned
62-0118 §97
Now, I read the Old Testament first, and I seen what God was in the Old Testament through those prophets. I come over to the New Testament, and I taken the New Testament. And I found out the same God of the Old Testament was also the same God of the New Testament. Then I took from the New Testament down to the organizing of the early Catholic church, which is about three hundred years, at the Nicea Council when the bishops taken the name of Pope. And the Roman church which took the dogma side, and the Orthodox Cath...