Annointed
For those that may not be familiar:
Our church uses oil to annoint people when we pray for them, kind of like instructed in James 5:14. There's no particular requirement for the kind of oil that is needed, so I've seen different kinds from normal olive oil to "special" oil made for churches. The usual process is for the person leading the prayer to wet one finger with oil and then touch the top of the hands and/or the forehead with a dab of oil. Sometimes the person with the oil makes a small cross symbol with it. It just signifies the Holy Spirit and/or God's annointing on that person, though that's just my understanding.
Leonard Terry's Testimony:
Several years ago the annointing oil that we used at our church went bad. Leonard Terry (the pastor at my church) was still using it while praying for people until someone mentioned that it smelled rather odd and then we realized that it had to be thrown out. One of the members of our congregation was in Toronto and purchased some specially made annointing oil for our church. It has a very particular sweet smell to it, a very pleasant aroma that is quite unique.
Leonard was participating in a wedding for one of the former members of our congregation this past weekend. On Friday June 4, 2004 they were going through the wedding rehearsal. My pastor, his wife, the bride, the groom and a few others gathered into a small circle to pray blessing on the wedding couple. Part way through the ceremony, a distinct scent arose in their small group. It was the very same scent as the annointing oil we now use at our church.
The scent was so obvious that the bride looked up from her prayer and asked who had brought the annointing oil. Everyone looked around and checked but no one in the group had brought any oil at all. As they continued praying, Leonard tested this a bit more and walked five or six feet away from the group. He could not smell the scent at that distance away from the group, but as soon as he rejoined the group the scent was again clear.
This event was interpreted to be a sign of God's annointing upon this Christian couple, indicating God's blessing on their marriage. Leonard said that this was a precious miracle from God, and I would certainly agree.
Note: My pastor Leonard Terry mentioned this during the Sunday church service yesterday. Hopefully I got all of the details right, but somebody correct me if I quote him incorrectly.
9 comments:
Hey Jamie. I think you got all the information correct. :) It's amazing what God can do and it's absolutely awesome when he shows up.
I love miracles *wink*.
Yeah, I thought you would appreciate this post, Abe. Now I just need to wait for Mike to comment on this.
For the record, in case you haven't seen my comment on Elyse's site, I went to the hospital on Monday June 7, 2004. They told me that I either had a fractured rib or badly bruised rib cartilage. Either way, the prescription is to be careful, breathe deeply once in a while to expand the rib cage and take Tylenol (tm) as needed.
Haha. What comment would I make?
Here's one. This past school year, I was having a discussion with a friend. She's had all kinds of ghostly experiences. She insists that the home she moved into as a preteen was haunted. Voices talking to her, objects being moved.
My question was, how come this stuff never happens to people not already inclined to believe in it? Same question for this. Yeah, no sign but the sign of Jonah. Yawn.
No, wait. My last comment was essentially trivial. Here is a more interesting one.
Ok, so God has blessed this marriage... so what? Does this mean that their marriage won't be grueling work for the next 50 years?
I don't say "grueling work" in a negative way, but by all accounts, sucessful marriages take an awful lot of effort.
Does this oil smell mean they will never get divorced? Does it mean they will never consider divorce?
Did that oil smell mean that they'll never be attracted to anyone else again? That they'll never be tempted to act on that attraction?
Did that oil smell mean they'll never scream at each other over money issues?
Did that oil smell mean they'll have great sex for the next 60 years?
In short, exactly what good does "God's blessing" do this marriage? How will it be differant from other marriages?
Personally, I can't wait to find out. If I had my way, a psychologist or a therapist would follow this couple and see if their marriage is tangibly better than the average marriage. Because of the oil smell.
Hmm, I never said that the smell of oil meant anything more than God's blessing on the couple. (Didn't you know I would answer in this way before posting those questions?) I would say it would mean the same as the couple's parents giving a blessing to them. It's very meaningful personally, but the only accompanying promises were those already mentioned in the Bible that are unrelated to miracle smells.
As for the more trivial of the two posts, I can verify this with several other people that were there, if you would like. This was not one person, it was a group of people. Much tougher to write off with mere witicisms, in my mind. Granted, you did write off Joel Timmerman's miracle 'eye healing' story and that can be verified by several different people as well...
The oil does smell good! I was prayed for on Sunday and I ended up smelling like it for the rest of the day!
Huh. So if somebody ends up with that scent on them again, take a shower and then let me have a sniff.
I sounded kind of creepy just then, didn't I?
Sometimes it's nice to have a little nudge in the right direction from God by an earthy sign. Perhaps it's just God's way of saying Hi I'm here and I like what your doing. I personally wouldn't over-analyze the situation (Mike!) but just let it be. I don't think mankind was meant to understand God's meanings all the time and that it's nice to have a bit of mystery in life.
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