Anointed

Heard in the wild

The longer version

What it means

"Anointed" has a literal meaning and a figurative one. Literally, to anoint is to put oil on someone — usually a dab on the forehead, in the shape of a cross — while praying for them. Churches do this for healing (James 5 tells the sick to call the elders and be anointed), for blessing, and at ordinations. Figuratively, someone or something is "anointed" when God's power is visibly on it: a sermon that pierced the room, a singer whose worship carried everyone, a leader whose ministry bears unusual fruit. "The anointing" is that power itself, felt.

The word is the root of the title "Christ" — Greek Christos, Hebrew Mashiach (Messiah), both meaning "the anointed one."

Why people say it

In the Bible, kings, priests, and prophets were anointed with oil to mark them as chosen and empowered by God. Christians borrow the word to say the same thing about people and moments now: this isn't just talent, this is God at work. Charismatic and Pentecostal Christians use it constantly because they expect God's power to be felt and want a word for when it is.

How to respond

If someone says a sermon or song was anointed, they mean it moved them and they credit God; "it was powerful" agrees without borrowing the theology. If someone offers to anoint you with oil, they're offering to pray for you with a small physical sign; it's a light touch of olive oil on the forehead, and you can say yes or no. If someone describes themselves as anointed, a little caution is reasonable — the humble ones let others say it.

If you hear it in different churches

Pentecostal and charismatic churches use "anointed" and "the anointing" freely. Baptists and evangelicals use it more sparingly, mostly for preaching. Catholic, Orthodox, and Anglican churches anoint with oil sacramentally — at baptism, confirmation (chrismation), ordination, and in the Anointing of the Sick — but rarely call a person or sermon "anointed." Reformed churches are the most reserved with the word.

Where does “Anointed” come from?

Oil marked God's chosen throughout the Old Testament: Aaron the priest (Exodus 29), Saul and David as kings (1 Samuel 10, 16), and Elisha as prophet. Isaiah 61:1 — "the Spirit of the Sovereign LORD is on me, because the LORD has anointed me" — is the passage Jesus read to open His ministry (Luke 4:18). James 5:14 instructs anointing the sick with oil, and 1 John 2:27 says believers have "an anointing from the Holy One." The charismatic sense of "the anointing" as a felt presence and power took shape in the twentieth-century healing revivals and Pentecostal preaching.

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