Understanding The Significance of Anointing Oil

In the Old Testament, God ordained the anointing oil to bless His people. But what can new covenant believers use it for today? The Bible always want to show us  how the anointing oil speaks of Christ and His finished work. Understanding this will give you access to God’s supernatural provision of health, wholeness and prosperity.

Understanding the Anointing Oil

The Bible mentions in many places the grain, wine and oil. For years, I had wondered why the Lord always mentions these three items together. So I asked the Lord and I thank Him that the search is over.

Through the grain, wine and oil, we can receive by grace, not by accomplishing or striving, all the benefits of Jesus. Man ate his way into trouble in the Garden of Eden. By the same token, you can eat your way back into God’s blessings today.

Seeing Christ In The Grain, Wine And Oil

The grain and wine represent the Holy Communion, which speaks of the broken body of Jesus and the blood that He shed. To make bread, you take the wheat or grain, then crush and beat it to make dough. Then, you punch the dough and put it into the fiery heat for it to become bread. That’s what happened to our Lord Jesus on the cross—He became our Bread of Life.

To get wine, the grapes not only have to be plucked, they also need to be crushed and trodden upon. Likewise, our Lord Jesus was trodden upon by the judgment of God and He became new wine for all of us.

Olive oil comes from the olive fruit. But when you press the fruit real hard, you won’t find oil, only a white sap. Also, the fruit tastes very bitter. To get the oil, the fruit and its seed have to be crushed by a great weight in an olive press. The crushing also removes the bitterness. In the same manner, Jesus was crushed under the burden and weight of our sins, and under the judgment of a holy God. He was crushed to become the anointing oil that heals us today.

Ordained By God

God is bringing the church to a place where we see the importance of the holy anointing oil. God’s way is always for us to act on what we can do in the natural, and He will accomplish in the supernatural what we cannot. Using the anointing oil is biblical and ordained by God. So don’t let people tell you that you are superstitious for using the anointing oil.

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. 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.

It was a practice in the early church to use the anointing oil on the sick. So when the elders of the church visited the sick, they anointed the sick person with oil in the name of the Lord. “And the prayer of faith will save the sick” shows us clearly that this is not a superstition, but something done in faith. How do you have faith? “…faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.” (Romans 10:17) So once you have a revelation about what the Bible teaches on a subject, faith for that area will come.

Fresh Oil Of The New Covenant

Let’s look at Psalm 92, a psalm for the Sabbath. In verse 10, it says, “But my horn You have exalted like a wild ox; I have been anointed with fresh oil.” God expects us to have fresh oil because when oil gets stagnant, it becomes stale.

The word “fresh” in Hebrew is raanan which means “green”. Notice that extra virgin olive oil is green. Green speaks of newness or youth. So the oil has to be of the new covenant because the oil of the old covenant is stale.

The old covenant tells you that you must obey God before He can heal your body. Some people believe that and their faith becomes stale. They will slowly stay away from God because of wrong believing.

But do you know that the new covenant doesn’t teach that? It teaches that despite your failures, God will heal you. As seen earlier in James 5:15, even if a person has committed sins, he need not feel disqualified because God will forgive his sins through the prayer of faith. Once sin, the biggest hindrance, has been removed, what is there to stop us from receiving from God?

After we have prayed over the olive oil, it becomes holy anointing oil. “Holy” means set apart for God’s purposes. It also means “separated from”—darkness into light, lack into abundance and sickness into wholeness. Thus, the anointing oil is no longer just natural oil. The next verse says:

Psalm 92:11
My eye also has seen my desire on my enemies; my ears hear my desire on the wicked who rise up against me. 

When you are anointed with green or fresh oil, it’s going to affect your eyes and ears. Your eyes will see victory and your ears will hear victory. So “the wicked” or your enemies will not prosper, but you will!

Before you read the Bible, you can tell the Lord, “I am anointing my eyes, Lord. Let me see You afresh in the Scriptures.” Then, you will find that the Bible comes alive for you. You are relying on the Holy Spirit to give you revelations, to guide you into all truths, and not trusting in your own intellect.

Yokes Destroyed, Burdens Lifted

Isaiah 10:27
It shall come to pass in that day that his burden will be taken away from your shoulder, and his yoke from your neck, and the yoke [satanic bondage] will be destroyed because of the anointing oil.

Sometimes, you feel stressed and are full of worries. After a quarrel or moment of strife, you sense a weight on your shoulders. The word “his” in the above verse refers to the Assyrians, Israel’s enemies then. Today, it represents the spirit of the anti-Christ or the devil who seeks to oppress you. An ox has a yoke around its neck to pull the cart. Likewise, the devil wants to put a yoke on your neck to pull you wherever he wants you to go. For instance, if you are addicted to nicotine, the devil tells you, “You cannot but smoke. I’ve got you where I want you.”

But the thing that can destroy this yoke is the anointing oil. You may say, “Pastor Prince, the oil represents the power of the Holy Spirit.” Yes, the Holy Spirit is 100 per cent involved here. But in this context, God says to use “the anointing oil”. Then, the power of the Holy Spirit will destroy every satanic bondage in your life.

Notice that the yoke will be “destroyed” and not “broken”. There is a difference between these two words. When something is broken, it can be repaired. But when something is destroyed, it is beyond repair. God’s anointing oil will destroy every satanic bondage in your life beyond repair!

Restoration Of Time And Family Life

When the devil wants to attack you, one of the ways he comes against you is to steal from you. In Deuteronomy 28, there is a very interesting principle to observe under the portion of the curses.

Deuteronomy 28:38–40
“You shall carry much seed out to the field but gather little in, for the locust shall consume it. You shall plant vineyards and tend them, but you shall neither drink of the wine nor gather the grapes; for the worms shall eat them. You shall have olive trees throughout all your territory, but you shall not anoint yourself with the oil; for your olives shall drop off.

The “seed” here refers to grain and in the “vineyards”, you have wine. Notice that the devil is out to consume your grain and wine, so he sends the locusts and worms. He is also out to consume your oil.

Let’s look at the next verse to find out why the devil wants to take away these things from your life.

Deuteronomy 28:41
You shall beget sons and daughters, but they shall not be yours; for they shall go into captivity.

Whenever there is a lack of the grain, wine and oil, your family life is affected. You may have children whom you love deeply, but when they grow up, you lose them. Mixing with bad company, they become captive to drinking, partying and drug addictions.

But God has prepared a way out for you.

Joel 2:23–24
…for He has given you the former rain faithfully, and He will cause the rain to come down for you—the former rain, and the latter rain in the first month. The threshing floors shall be full of wheat, and the vats shall overflow with new wine and oil.

The “former rain” in Hebrew refers to a teacher of righteousness. The reason God gives you a teacher of righteousness is so that the church, your home and your workplace will be full of grain, and overflowing with new wine and oil. And the next verse says:

Joel 2:25
“So I will restore to you the years that the swarming locust has eaten, the crawling locust, the consuming locust, and the chewing locust, My great army which I sent among you.

Here, the “chewing locust” refers to the worm. The King James Bible uses the word “palmerworm”. When your life is full of the grain, wine and oil, God will restore to you the years that the locusts and worms have eaten. Some of you may say, “Pastor Prince, once the years have passed, they are gone.” But the Creator of time says that He will restore to you the years that have been wasted!

Revealing The Beauty Of The Olive Tree

When you study the olive tree, you will be blessed because every part of the tree has a meaning. Today, when you go to the Garden of Gethsemane in Israel, you will find really old olive trees with gnarled trunks. Interestingly, the trunk of an olive tree is hollow unlike most trees.

Why is the olive tree trunk hollow? The olive tree represents each of us and God wants us to remember always that we are created by God with this purpose—to contain Him only, not ourselves or the devil.

People who don’t fulfill or refuse to accept God’s purpose for them will feel empty inside. They can do many things to fill themselves up—live for pleasure, earn lots of money, get whatever they desire—but they will end up feeling empty. You can even see the emptiness if you look real close into their eyes. But when you look at those who are full of God, there is a fire in their eyes and a spring in their steps everywhere they go.

In the Bible, God describes His people Israel as the “Green Olive Tree”. (Jeremiah 11:16) We, who were formerly Gentiles, have been grafted into this olive tree. (Romans 11:13–25) The olive tree lives long, so expect to live a good, long life. Have you wondered how the olive tree lives long?

Benefits Of The Olive Oil Released Through The Cross

A few years ago when I was in Capernaum, the hometown of Jesus, I saw an olive press. The guide explained that olive berries were put in the press and crushed with a huge millstone. The first press produces extra virgin olive oil, which is used to light the Jewish temple. The oil from the second press is used for medicine, while the oil from the third or last press is used for making soap.

At that moment, the Holy Spirit revealed to me, “That’s what happened to Jesus in Gethsemane.” Gethsemane, which means “oil press”, was where Jesus was first pressed in a time of darkness (Luke 22:53), so that we will always be in the light and walk in the light.

The light makes you see what others—your competitors, professors, scientists—cannot see in the natural. It is the Holy Spirit that gives you spiritual enlightenment. For instance, people saw David as a shepherd boy. But Samuel, under the anointing of the Holy Spirit, saw a king in David. So the anointing oil will cause you to see how God sees. And when you see how He sees, you will enjoy what He enjoys.

The second press took place after Jesus was brought from Gethsemane and scourged. Jesus is our “medicine” because “by His stripes we are healed”. (Isaiah 53:5)

The last press, in which the oil is used for cleansing, happened at the cross. Jesus was crushed under the fiery indignation of a holy righteous God, suffering the judgment and penalties for our sins. His blood has cleansed us of our sins.

Olive oil in the natural has no effect on you unless you eat or use it. But when you pray over your bottle of natural olive oil in Jesus’ name, God sets it apart and it becomes holy anointing oil. Use the oil for God’s glory and see His miracles, prosperity and restoration in your life!

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