YOU’RE probably aware of the handkerchiefs, face towels, wristbands and stickers that have been used in the performance of miracles in many Pentecostal churches flourishing across the world. But the question is: is this biblical? Or does God approve of it?
BY PHILLIP CHIDAVAENZI
By touching the car you fancy or that house down the street which you’ve always admired, are you going to miraculously get a similar car or house of your own? Is that really how God works? Acts 19:12 says, “So that from his body were brought unto the sick handkerchiefs or aprons, and the diseases departed from them, and the evil spirits went out of them.”
Quite clearly, the healing anointing was transferred from Paul to the sick using mantles (handkerchiefs and aprons). These sick ones couldn’t be brought to the meetings with the man of God perhaps due to their infirmity. In other instances, oil was used to anoint the sick during prayer. James 5:14, “Is any sick among you? 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…”
I understand the use of anointing oil, particularly in the New Testament church, has been spread to other areas over which the scriptures are silent. James 5:14, however, is quite significant, especially if you read it together with the verses that come immediately after it. James 5:15-16, says… “And the prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up… and pray one for another, that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.”
It’s the prayer of faith — not the anointing oil — that saves the sick. In fact, the Amplified Bible describes it as “the heartfelt and persistent prayer of a righteous man,” which can “accomplish much” because “it is dynamic and can make tremendous power available.” So the power is neither in the anointing oil nor the handkerchief but is only availed through persistent prayer. According to Kenneth Hagin in The Triumphant Church (1994), when it comes to sicknesses associated with demonic activity, you need direction and guidance from the Holy Spirit, otherwise “you can anoint people with oil and lay hands on them until you’ve worn every hair off their heads, but you still won’t get results.”
It’s always dangerous to build a doctrine based on a single scripture. The law of repetition may be instructive here. Whatever God has said to us, we must be very careful to understand how we’re to do it. John 5:19, “Then answered Jesus and said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, The Son can do nothing of himself, but what he seeth the Father do: for what things soever he doeth, these also doeth the Son likewise.”
If you study the ministry of Jesus, you’ll discover that he had a pattern of healing the sick — either through a spoken word or laying his hand. But He had “out of range” moments where he would physically recreate a blind eye using mud and spittle (John 9:6-7). This doesn’t mean if God instructed you to do it today, then you should do it tomorrow also. This is one of the several dangers associated with mantles, especially among people that are spiritually immature and are too quickly excited.
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This is something the Israelites failed to grasp in the Old Testament. In Numbers 21, after the people had complained against Moses for bringing them into the wilderness, God released poisonous serpents to bite them. After Moses had interceded for them, God instructed him to mould a brass snake and whoever looked at it after being bitten wouldn’t die.
Although the people did get healed when they looked at the serpent, they didn’t realise that the instruction was specifically meant for that moment. So the brass snake was kept for many years and when they finally settled in Canaan, it became an object of worship in their high places. 2 Kings 18:4, “He (King Josiah) removed the high places, and broke the images and cut down the groves, and broke into pieces the brasen serpent that Moses had made: For unto those days the children of Israel did burn incense to it: and he called it Nehushtan.”
This demonstrates how easy it is to take the things of God and twist them into instruments of idolatry. We must never worship the tools or the people God chooses to use, but always bring the honour and glory to God alone. The brass serpent was merely symbolic of Christ, who’d be lifted up on the cross for the salvation of mankind. “And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up: That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life.” (John 3:14 -15).
Jesus said if you love Him, His Father and Him will make their residency in you! God is in you in His totality, with all His anointing! You don’t need any mantle or oil to be anointed! John 14:23, “Jesus answered and said unto him, If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him.”
What is critical is to cultivate an intimate relationship with God — not with a piece of cloth or a bottle of anointing oil. He who walks with a little bottle of oil in her handbag is no more anointed than the one who doesn’t but is fully aware of their identity in Christ.
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