Essential Oils and Healing From a Christian Perspective

Many Christians familiar with essential oils (known also
as healing oils) know they were used to anoint both the
Tent of Meeting in Old Testament Scripture (Exodus 30:22-ff),
and Jesus Christ (John 12:1-8). However, few Christians
are aware of the implications of those two events as they relate to:

1. James' exhortation to anoint the sick with oil (James 5:14).
2. The role of essential oils in the healing ministry today.

Historical Background:

The Christian Church is the Body of Christ (Ephesians 5:29-30).
Individual Christians within the Church are physically members
of Christ's Body (I Corinthians 6:15).

Historically, the Tent of Meeting of the Old Testament served as a
type, a pattern or as a shadow of the real Church to come
(Hebrews 10:1). So when God gave instructions to anoint the Tent
of Meeting with essential oil, He was in effect giving instruction
to anoint the Body of Christ.

When Mary anointed Jesus years later, she physically anointed
the real thing, what Old Testament priests could only
symbolically anoint: The forerunner of Christ's Body.

Under Old Testament law, no layperson could touch
the oil used for anointing the Tent of Meeting, for it was
sacred. Yet here is Mary, a layperson, anointing Jesus
with a whole jar of precious oil and wiping His oil soaked
feet with her hair. It was Mary's way of honoring or blessing
Jesus for raising her dead brother from the grave. However,
in God's eye's, there is much more to Mary's act than
what many Christians realize (John 12:7).

The Spiritual Connection:

What Mary did she did for herself, but God used the
occasion to enjoin (bless) man's flesh with the flesh
of His own Son: Something that had not happened
previously. Mary's anointing of Jesus bonds all of
humanity to the ultimate sacrifice Jesus Christ paid
for our physical and spiritual healing (Isaiah 53:4-5).

God stipulated healing oils be used in the Tent of Meeting
because they were ordained (Exodus 30:25) to be the natural
counterpoint of Christ's divine healing ministry (Acts 10:38).

Israel (Jacob) called essential oils as some of the
"best products of the land" (Genesis 43:11). And rightfully so.
For they were valued for their natural healing qualities.

When Jesus, centuries later, received Mary's anointing of healing
oil, He confirmed the sacred healing role essential oils hold
for us today (John 12:7). Essential oils are the ordained
physical counterpart of Christ's healing Body.

Whether people accept or reject the above account
and their meaning is unimportant to this report. What
is important is for people who use essential oils to
understand why they were acknowledged in Holy
Scripture, and set apart for use in the Disciples ministry
of healing the sick (Mark 6:13; James 5:14).

God blessed essential oils and their use for healing,
because these plant oils spiritually and physically bond mortal,
corruptible human flesh to incorruptible, divine, eternal flesh
in Jesus Christ. Essential oils serve as a reminder that it
is God who is our Healer (Exodus 15:26).

Remember this truth and share it the next time
you anoint a loved one with oils. People need to hear
this story for edification, and to understand why it is
anointing with essential oils are blessed of God for healing.

God's Healing Word
http://godshealingword.org