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.
Hear ye Him
59-0424E §17
Now, these handkerchiefs, we pray over them. I know many people anoint them with oil. That's all right. Anything God will do and bless, I'm in for it. But now, if you'll take the Scripture, I believe that Paul never anointed them; he took from his body handkerchiefs and aprons, see. And I think where Paul got that was by Elijah taking the staff and laying it on the baby (see), because what Elijah touched, he knowed was blessed. But if he could get the woman to believe that... Now, Saint Paul has been gone years. Th...
God's provided way of approach to fellowship
60-0709 §51
He didn't go forth saying, "I am Presbyterian." "I am a Methodist." "I am a Pentecostal." Oh, it was playing, "Holy, holy, holy unto the Lord; holy, holy, holy," packing the blood. The blood went before him, realizing an innocent victim died. And remember, he was anointed with precious anointing oil, that the Bible said, "How sweet it is that brethren dwell together in unity. It's like the anointing oil that was on Aaron's head, that run all the way to the hems of his skirts." He was completely covered with the swe...
The impersonation of Christianity
57-0120M §45
And when the Holy Spirit---not the new degree, not the new church, not the new thought, not the new emotion, not the new oil, not the new dance, not the new lips, not the new tongue, not the new this, not the new that---but when God places His Spirit in the middle of your new Spirit, then you don't have to act meek, you don't have to act like a Christian. It controls everything that's within you. It puts you decent, makes the church act orderly, makes the gifts work perfect. And if you have to be taken from a place...
God's Provided Way
53-1201 §6
And I tell you parents, you put the right kind of a home before your children. That's the thing to do. Because if I'd had a Christian home I'd been reared in, perhaps I'd have been farther along with our Lord Jesus tonight and more people had been saved. But my people was not a religious family. And God just had by His amazing grace, to save me. And then, since then, I've led several of them to the Lord. I baptized my mother, my father gave his heart to Christ, died in my arms. My grandfather, I baptized him at nea...
Discernment of Spirit
60-0308 §45
Now, brethren, in closing, may I say this. Our time gets away, but, look, may I say this in closing, with these scriptures here. Let's see. If a man that all the Old Testament theme was about Him, all the holy prophets anointed with God's Spirit, if all that and everything that they said was fulfilled to the letter exactly in Him, surely that great person called the Son of God ought to know how to set up the New Testament church. Don't you believe that? He ought to have a conception to know how to set up the New Te...