Guidelines For Planning An Anointing Service

The following guidelines provide liturgical and pastoral rationale for planning an anointing service.

Anointing with oil for healing is usually done in the context of worship, although it can take place in any appropriate setting. At a given point in the service the minister may invite all those in need of healing to come to the altar or another designated area. The congregation may continue to sing songs of worship led by the chief musician or minister of music during the anointing service. Usually a minister or an elder of the church will approach the person for whom the minister is to pray and ask the nature of the complaint. He or she may then apply olive oil to an index finger from a small bottle or flask and touch it to the sufferer's forehead, sometimes marking it in the shape of the cross. The minister or elder then places one or both hands on the person's head, or on the afflicted areas of the body where proper or appropriate to do so, and prays for healing from the specific aliment in the name of Jesus. The prayer might be as follows:

In the name of Jesus, I speak (or command) healing for this (brother/sister) from (the sickness). I ask that all symptoms of this ailment be removed, never to return. Be healed in the name of Jesus!

If the officiant has reason to believe the problem to be of demonic origin, the officiant will ask the candidate for healing to renounce all association with the occult in Jesus' name. The person may say:

By the power of the name of Jesus, I (complete name), renounce all occult activity in which I may have engaged. I turn my back on Satan and accept deliverance in Jesus' name.

The officiant might then pray in the following manner:

Spirit of infirmity (or name of illness), I command you in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of (him/her) and never to return. Satan, you have no authority over this child of God; you were defeated at the cross. Come out in the name of Jesus.

It is common in churches which practice the gifts of the Holy Spirit for those being prayed for to fall backward to the floor following the prayer, where they might lie for several minutes. This phenomenon is known variously as falling under the power or being slain in the Spirit. Such churches usually have people ready to catch those being anointed and lower them to the floor to break their fall and prevent injury. When the anointing for healing takes place in a home or other private setting, the same procedure can be followed. If olive oil is not available, vegetable or mineral oil can be substituted.