Mark 6:7-13 “And He called the twelve to Himself, and began to send them out two by two, and gave them power over unclean spirits. … (12) So they went out and preached that people should repent. (13) And they cast out many demons, and anointed with oil many who were sick, and healed them.”
As an aside, there is a specific truth we can learn regarding the impartation of God’s power from the above quoted portion of scripture. The scripture tells us that our Lord gave the disciples power. So how did He do that? He did that by laying His hands on them and imparting the same anointing that was on Him into their hands. In other words the disciples would have felt the tangible power of God flow from Jesus hands into their hands. Kenneth E. Hagin, in recounting a similar experience that he had when our Lord appeared to him, tells of the Lord Jesus placing His finger in the palms of each one of his hands and the moment our Lord did that Kenneth’s hands began to have a burning sensation in them. And so that is how the disciples would have known that they had received power to heal the sick, and they could therefore go out in full assurance that the sick would be healed through their laying on of hands. The main point that I wanted to mention from this passage however, is that the disciples also used oil to heal the sick. On numerous occasions in scripture oil is used as a type of the anointing of the Holy Spirit. And so in this passage we learn another important truth regarding the ministry of laying on of hands, for although it is not specifically stated, this passage nevertheless reveals to us that our Lord Jesus also healed the sick by anointing them with oil. So how do we know that? We know that because before our Lord Jesus sent His disciples out to minister healing to the sick He taught them how to do it, and the scripture tells us that the disciples “anointed with oil many who were sick, and healed them.” And so the reason the disciples practiced that method of healing was because Jesus would have told them to do it and He would have also shown them how to do it. Clearly therefore, we can see from this passage that oil is also used as a biblical mechanism to heal the sick. It is important to note however that there were no special healing properties in the oil that the disciples used.
James 5:14-15 “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. (15) And the prayer of faith will heal the sick, and the Lord will raise him up. And if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven.”
So why did the Lord Jesus use oil from time to time to heal the sick? The answer to that question is that just as with our hands, when oil is poured on an individual to receive their healing it is used purely as a point of contact so that the person being prayed for can release their faith to receive their healing. Many times, not always, when people experience the tangible healing power of God entering their bodies it feels like a warm liquid coming over them. In the natural, oil has a similar feeling as it flows over the individual. And so oil is used in the natural to help people to release their faith in the spirit. In the portion of scripture quoted above the apostle James tells the elders of the church to anoint the sick with oil when they pray for them. James learnt that method of healing from the Lord Jesus. But I want you to notice from this passage that the Holy Spirit teaches us that it is still the prayer of faith that heals the sick and not the oil. The reason for that is because the oil is used purely as an aid for the person to be able to release their faith and thus be healed.
Michael E.B. Maher
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