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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Ranked passages from the local William Branham sermon and Church Age Book database. Relevance is relative, not a statement of doctrinal certainty.
The Masterpiece
64-0705 §67
Now, for nearly two thousand years God has been again making Him a masterpiece, because He struck at Him to get a piece off of Him, part of Him, a rib to make a wife for Him. And now, that perfect masterpiece that He struck at Calvary, He got a piece off of Him. It's just the New Testament, that's all. He fulfilled the Old Testament. Now, it's the New Testament, another piece to be fulfilled. See, the New and Old is husband and wife, see, and it taken the New to ... Old to foreshow the New. Christ come, the masterp...
An Exposition Of The Seven Church Ages
CAB 9:E-36
I want you to watch this carefully now and see something really sweet and beautiful. I said this is His end-time revelation of Himself. When the day of grace closes, then the millennium comes very shortly thereafter, doesn't it? Well, read with me Isaiah 65:16-19. "That he who blesseth himself in the earth shall bless himself in the God of truth; and he that sweareth in the earth shall swear by the God of truth; because the former troubles are forgotten, and because they are hid from Mine eyes. For behold, I create...
Perfection
56-0610 §88
And I pray with all my heart, with all my soul that this day that You'll help Ora Mae. Now, Father, I'm taking from this altar, that's set here at this sacred place, where the Holy Ghost has overshadowed, it's called olive oil ... or, anointed oil, anointing oil. It's according to Your specification: the oil from the olives of the branch. And now, as I go forward to anoint my sister with this oil, You said, "The prayer of faith shall save the sick." After preaching the Gospel, knowing that these great services comi...
The faith once delivered to the saints
55-0501E §22
Now, we couldn't go to the Old Testament, because they wasn't called saints in the Old Testament. They were saints in the New Testament. Therefore, we'd have to begin from the New Testament. Well, then the New Testament was based upon Christianity, which come from Christ. And Christ was the first Administrator of the faith that we should contend for, because it was the faith that He introduced to the world. Christ born, virgin-born Son of God... John was between the law and the dispensation of grace. Luke 16:16 sai...
An Exposition Of The Seven Church Ages
CAB 4:E-34
This spirit of antichrist is not new. This is not something that just came in the church ages. It has been here all along. To get a clear understanding of how it works, how it goes against God and takes over in the church, look at the Old Testament and see it there. Let us examine this spirit as it was manifested in Israel as she came out of Egypt to be the church in the wilderness.