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.
An Exposition Of The Seven Church Ages
CAB 5:E-134
If we are going to understand what the doctrine of Balaam is in the New Testament church we had better go back and see what it was in the Old Testament church and apply it to that third age and then bring it up to the present.
An Exposition Of The Seven Church Ages
CAB 2:E-27
If you want to get a beautiful picture of the lamp, read about it in Zechariah 4:1-6, "And the angel that talked with me came again, and waked me, as a man that is wakened out of his sleep. And said unto me, What seest thou? And I said, I have looked, and behold a candlestick all of gold, with a bowl upon the top of it, and his seven lamps thereon, and seven pipes to the seven lamps, which are upon the top thereof. And two olive trees by it, one upon the right side of the bowl, and the other upon the left side ther...
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...
An Exposition Of The Seven Church Ages
CAB 1:E-50
Now that is the revelation: Jesus Christ is God. The Jehovah of the Old Testament is the Jesus of the New. No matter how hard you try, you can't prove there are THREE Gods. But it also takes a revelation by the Holy Spirit to make you understand the truth that He is One. It takes a revelation to see that the Jehovah of the Old Testament is the Jesus of the New. Satan crept into the church and blinded the people to this truth. And when they were blinded to it, it wasn't long until the Church of Rome stopped baptizin...
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...