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.
Ask a Follow-up Question
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.
Faith in the Son of God
52-0715 §13
Now, here comes a man up here, maybe, that's sick. He's standing here with a... The doctor says he's going to die. He's filled with TB. Here he comes up to the pastor, he says, "Pastor, I--I'm... The doctor tells me I'm going to die. I--I'm--I pray, you pray with me, pastor." The pastor says, "All right." Now, the pastor, if he's not a gifted man, or so forth with understanding he'd better anoint the man with oil, because that's what stands between him and the sickness (See?), or he could take it hisself. Now, he t...
An Exposition Of The Seven Church Ages
CAB 1:E-23
Now modern theologians won't agree with me for here is what was written in a great Christian magazine. "That teaching (on the Trinity) is at the very heart and core of the Old Testament. It is every whit as much at the heart and core of the New Testament. The New Testament is just as much opposed as the Old Testament is to the thought that there are more Gods than one. Yet the New Testament with equal clearness teaches that the Father is God, and the Son is God, and the Holy Spirit is God, and that these three are...
Token
63-0901M §137
Now, remember, Hebrews, 13:10-20, a "everlasting covenant." God's Blood-bound promise makes us free from sin. Amen! There is no sin in Him. Sin, self, flesh. Worship Him, and show forth His promised power. God's Blood-bound, Token-bound covenant people, has the Spirit of Jesus Christ in here that "He that believeth on Me, the works that I do, shall he do also." Displaying the covenant, see. New Testament, "testament" means covenant. That is right, isn't it Dr. Vayle? Testament means covenant. The New Testament mean...
God projecting His Love
57-0806 §2
...we have on the pulpit tonight several letters. It's perhaps handkerchiefs to be prayed over; I do that each night, try to pray over them. And now, I usually wait until the anointing of the Spirit is in the room that we feel so definitely; then we feel that it'll be more forceful to do that. It's not a superstition. If it is, then Saint Paul had superstitions. For the Bible teaches this and we're to practice what the Bible teaches. And they taken... Now many people anoint them with oil---the handkerchiefs. Well, th...
The impersonation of Christianity
57-0120M §39
And when the leaven of the human element, that's brought into the new wine, that seeks to burst the bubble to spread forth the strength of the alcohol, it shoves from the church all the worldly elements like that, and preserves the church. Grape juice will sour in twenty-four hours, but wine will never sour, because the germ of life is in the wine fermenting, and pushing, and sterilizing. And the older it gets, the better it gets. So much for that. The new wine! It can only be put in new Pentecostal bottles. God ha...