There is a phenomenon especially among some African churches where ANOINTING OIL are being handed around a congregation claiming that they have an anointing that can cause people to be healed and other miraculous things happen to them.
Galatians 3:1
O foolish Galatians, who hath bewitched you, that ye should not obey the truth, before whose eyes Jesus Christ hath been evidently set forth, crucified among you?
The problem with this idea is especially evident in two things:
(1) that this can and is being considered by many to be Christian magic and
(2) that it is being taught as being something that should be a normal part of the Christian experience. It is taught that if you have faith you will believe in touching the handkerchief that you will be healed, freed from demons, or get a special anointing. But faith is not proven by signs and wonders. The Bible says:
Jude 1:20-23 But you, dear friends, build yourselves up in your most holy faith and
(1) pray in the Holy Spirit.
(2) Keep yourselves in God’s love as you
(3) wait for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to bring you to eternal life.
(4) Be merciful to those who doubt;
(5) snatch others from the fire and save them;
(6) to others show mercy, mixed with fear—
(7) hating even the clothing stained by corrupted flesh.
So faith is shown in these things, not believing in something that isn’t even to be a normal Christian experience but was a one time event in history where God did miracles to prove that Paul and the other Apostles were genuine and foundational to the Church. Don’t get me wrong. God can do miraculous things especially to help the unbeliever to believe. I have seen this in my own experience. But we must be careful not to pull the stories of Acts out of context and still expect the Lord to bless us.
The most dangerous thing I have noticed concerning this development is that these anointed objects are slowly and steadily taking the place of Christ in the lives of people hence ending up being idols.
John Calvin once remarked that ‘the human heart is a factory of idols’ and indeed due to our fallen nature, we easily make idols of many shapes and sizes and worship them thereafter.
The anointed items are fast becoming idols for many. What is happening with this anointed stuff is that people are told to use them whenever they want to experience a miracle or blessing from God. Recently, I met a relation who is a Christian and he greatly boasted about a certain anointed sticker bearing a face of ‘man of God’ and said:
“You know, this sticker is very powerful. I always travel with it in my car and if the devil had plans for me to get involved in a road accident, it doesn’t work. I am also told that next time, I am invited for job interviews, I should just put it in my shirt’s pocket and before entering the interview, I should pull it out, gaze at it for a while and then say a prayer and I will be successful.”
It is evident that my relation’s life is revolving around this anointed sticker. To him this sticker is his life. Now, where is the place of Christ in his life? Are not our lives supposed to revolve around Christ? I hope you get my point. I will not mince words here:
placing our faith in this so called anointed stuff is superstition and nothing else. It is not different from relying on charms or ‘small pillows’ from witchdoctors.
“Human nature often gravitates towards the tangible, as evidenced by the continued reverence of the brazen serpent even decades after Moses’ time.70 years after Moses’ passing (2 Kings 18:4). This tendency underscores the importance of faith, as emphasized in Hebrews 11:6, where it states that without faith, it is impossible to please God. The call to faith reminds us to transcend the physical and trust in the unseen, knowing that true pleasing of God comes through unwavering belief.”
Mostly Africans will understand this better. For most Africans who are not Christians, they rely on witchdoctors. For instance, when one wants to get a job, they might go to a witchdoctor who would give them some charms which they are to put in their trouser’s pocket when going for job-interviews. The charms, they are told, will guarantee success in the interviews.
I believe this is similar to how some Christians are treating these anointed objects. Only that this time around we have sugar-coated the anointed stuff with the name of Christ. Please, fellow Christian, think twice about your involvement with these so called anointed objects.
A couple of things need to be pointed out here. First, Paul never asked for any amount of money for the handkerchiefs and aprons. But the ‘’men of Satan that called themselves men of God’ today are asking for a certain amount of money for one to have these anointed items.
How can you allow demons to decive you into believing that putting on of oil now carries the power of Holy Ghost in it? What says the scripture, Looking unto Jesus the author and the finisher of our faith… Hebrew12:2a
Some in grave error and deception today have made the giving or selling out of anointed items a trend, thereby leading our fallen nature to turn these objects into idols. It’s very heartbreaking to see that some Christians can’t live without this anointed stuff. Oh Lord, may you deliver us from this temptation.!!!!! If faith now can be seen how is it then of faith. It’s no longer faith.
Credit: Daniel Franklyn – Christian Author
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