Why Do Pentecostals Use Anointing Oil in Prayer? by David K. Bernard Podcast recording (no venue stated in the delivered transcript) Kind: teaching Scripture: James 5:13-15, Mark 6:13 Source: https://acts238.life/repository/sermons/david-k-bernard--why-do-pentecostals-use-anointing-oil-in-prayer Published by Acts 2:38 Life from the sermon transcript on that page. Free to copy and share with attribution. ------------------------------------------------------------ Well, the short answer is it's a biblical teaching. So let me read from the Bible, the book of James, New King James Version, James 5:13. Is anyone among you suffering? Let him pray. Let him pray. Is anyone cheerful? Let him sing psalms. Is anyone among you sick? 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 will save the sick, and the Lord will raise him up. And if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven. So that is James 5 verse 13-15. So we do it because it's an express biblical teaching. We also find in Mark 6:13 when Jesus sent out his disciples, they anointed with oil when they prayed for the sick. Now this anointing with oil has a rich u heritage. If you go back to the Old Testament, there were many times the o oil olive oil was anoint placed on someone's head or um or poured upon them. So particularly consecrations of kings, priests, uh various other types of ceremonies. And it seems that the oil represented God's spirit. So when the oil was placed on someone, it represent that God was placing his spirit upon them. And that's how we understand it today. Now, we don't believe it's essential to anoint with oil. There are many examples in the gospels of Jesus and also in the book of Acts of the apostles where they would pray for the sick, they would speak the word or they would lay hands on the sick and they would be healed and there's no mention of oil. So, we don't think that you can't be healed without it. But we think it's a positive symbol and it's helpful because and it goes alongside the laying on of hands. The laying on of hands is a similar connotation because the laying on of hands symbolizes God is ordaining or blessing or putting his hand upon a person. So we find both of these practices helpful. First of all, they're taught in the Bible. So even if we don't understand them, we should follow them. Faith in the Bible is always shown by obedience. So we don't try to rationalize it, figure it out, decide whether we think it's good or not, whether it's understandable in modern culture or not. We just obey it. That's the first reason. Second reason is to emphasize that our faith is in God, not in humans. So God is invisible. It's a little harder to believe on him without seeing him. And especially a new person, maybe a visitor or someone who has no understanding of Christianity and there's an appeal. come and repent of your sins and be filled with the Holy Spirit. Come and be healed. Well, if they um if they did not understand it, they might think humans are doing it. But when you lay hands on the person or you anoint the person with oil, you're trying to represent. I am just representing God. God is the one who's actually laying on the hands. God is the one who's pouring out his spirit. And so don't worship or put your faith in the church or in the ritual or in the person. Put your faith in God. Of course, we have to teach that and explain that. Uh the third reason is as a focus of faith because it is more difficult to visualize or have faith in in an invisible spirit. Um, when you make an appeal to come and receive the Holy Spirit or come and be healed, if you can have a definite point of contact, it's easier for people to believe. So, you prepare their hearts. You teach them to repent and surrender their lives to God, teach them to open up to God and surrender. But then when you feel like they're ready to receive, that laying on of hands or that anointing with oil becomes the focal point where at that moment they can believe. So they take their generic belief. Yes, I think God can do all things. Yes, I believe God can fill me with his spirit. Yes, I believe God can heal me to right now I'm going to believe that when the leader lays hands on me, when the leader anoints with oil, that's my time to believe. And of course, we find in actual experience that does become a great focal point for faith. So from the recipient's point of view, you're just humbly obeying God's word. God says, "If you're sick, well, call the elders of the church, have them anoint you with oil, uh have them lay hands on you, have them pray for you, and God will heal you." So, we're simply responding to God's word. Now, it's very interesting. The Roman Catholic Church in many many cases, you can see how they've retained the structure, the original structure, but without necessarily the miraculous work of the spirit. So in their case they use this to uh to justify what they call extreme uncction or last uncction meaning anointing or last rights that is just before a person dies if if there any sins that haven't been covered they try to anoint them with oil and pray for them one last time uh to prepare them for eternity. So what I think is ironic is they have transformed this into well if you're sick and you're probably going to die so we're going to anoint you not expecting a miracle but expecting you to die try to prepare you. So it's kind of like they have the form but uh as as Paul explained of some that they they deny the powers whereas we when we anoint of course we know God is sovereign and sooner or later it's everybody's time to die. So we do know that a certain percentage of people that we pray for are going to die. That's just the natural course of things. But we always look for God to intervene and do a miracle. And we feel like our job is not simply to throw up our hands and say, "Okay, whatever happens happens. Whatever God's will is, we don't know." No, our job is to pray for healing. And if it's God's will to take the person or God's will not to heal the person at that time, we accept that. God is sovereign. We can't push buttons and make him do anything. And so this is not a ritual that's designed to be a formula that guarantees God will act in a certain way. We still respect the sovereignty of God and we humbly pray for his will to be done in all things. U but nevertheless we have an expectation. We believe God's going to heal and even in dire cases we believe healing is always a real possibility. Um, and so we we're praying in faith and as I said, you know, if you look at the Lord's prayer, all prayer should be subject whether we say it or not, your kingdom come, your will be done. So even when we pray for healing, we understand it's subject to the will of God. But our job is to pray for healing. And part of and to expect God to intervene and to move by his spirit. And part of symbolizing that is the anointing of the oil saying, "Lord, we're believing in your presence and your spirit is going to touch this person right now." And that's the significance.