Why “If It Be Your Will” Wrecks Prayer for Healing
WELCOME to Issue #252 of The Seedhead from Alex and Hannah at Dandelion Resourcing - a weekly confidence booster to help you step into naturally supernatural discipleship and mission!
It might sound humble, but actually it’s false piety!
When you pray for healing, do you include an “if it be your will” clause in your request?
We certainly used to pray like that, until we were challenged to view it as bad theology. Ruh-oh!
Here’s the situation
In the Lord’s Prayer (Matthew 6:10) we are taught to pray, “Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.” Our vision for the whole of life needs to be in Long Beach/ London/ Timbuktu or wherever we live, as it is in heaven.
The ‘will’ part of this phrase is defined not by doubt, but by what we know of His eternal Kingly desires. If something is a facet of the Kingdom, then it is God’s will. For instance, we don’t hesitate in praying for a person’s salvation, since we know from Scripture that God “wants all people to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth.” (1 Timothy 2:4)
So why do we pray, “if it be your will” when it comes to healing?
The answer is because we’re thinking, “what happens if this prayer doesn’t seem to be answered, and the person is not healed?” So we add in this little phrase like a piece of legal small print, whether to cover our backs or perhaps to lessen the pastoral blow if nothing seems to happen.
Here’s why that’s flaky thinking
Until Jesus returns, we live in between the now and the not yet of the Kingdom, so we won’t always see things like healing (or salvation, for that matter) happen as we might wish. Nevertheless, our theology and practice need to be grounded in the revelation of God’s Kingdom life and rule, so that we walk by faith and not by sight.
Thus when confronted with sickness, we must ask ourselves, “What is God’s desire, or will, here?”
We know that Jesus has given us clear default standing: we are to expect to pray for healing, unless He says otherwise. And if in that moment He doesn’t say to pause, we don’t need to query His will - because we should remember what it is!
(If you’re curious, times God might say to hold off prayer can include when someone is close to death, or pastorally they’re not in a place to receive prayer again, or perhaps they’re a militant atheist who would be offended to be asked.)
Notice that, when it comes to healing the sick, no one in the Bible EVER prays, “If it be Your will”. Instead, they prayed with great boldness. Occasionally someone initially petitioned God to grant him or her power, but always the prayer itself was a clear spoken command or an intermediary action that represented such bold faith.
Faith Squelching
Generally we find that ‘if it be Your will’ prayers are one of the quickest ways to dampen faith, since they sow a hefty dose of doubt into the situation. They deflate expectations - you can almost see the one who is sick lose hope right before your eyes - and position the ones praying as being more focused on becoming God’s defense attorneys rather than His bold faithful representatives.
Many of us pray “If it be Your will” out of humility and trepidation, but it (unintentionally) dilutes our confidence in God’s already-revealed heart. In fact, let’s be honest, “If it be Your will” can sometimes be a spiritual cop-out.
Gethsemane
Sometimes when we teach on this, people become really offended and say something silly to us like, “Well, in Gethsemane Jesus prayed to the Father, ‘if it be your will’”, as if somehow that’s a comparable moment. Let’s consider the text and what was actually happening.
“Going a little farther, he fell with his face to the ground and prayed, ‘My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will.’” (Matthew 26:39) Jesus was crushed by sorrow and anguish at what was to come, the unique pathway only He would ever face. His humanity was on full display as, even at that last moment, He was being strongly tempted to draw back from the cross. The ‘cup’ is a metaphor for the punishment and suffering He would endure on our behalf. If He could just waltz to the cross as if it was no big deal, it would not have been the pivot point in human history that it proved to be. Of course Jesus’ human nature doesn’t want to do this, it would be crazy if He did. But He is not asking, “Father, what is Your will?” Instead, He is praying, “I reconfirm that I am aligning My will with Yours”. At Gethsemane Jesus wrestles in prayer and emerges resolved to obey the Father’s call.
This is NOT what we face when we pray for our neighbor who is sick!
Acts Examples
Here are some examples of how the apostles prayed. They ministered with boldness and certainty.
Acts 3:6 “In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, walk.”
Peter doesn’t pray, “Lord, if it’s your will, heal this man.” He commands healing with confident authority.Acts 4:29-30 The early church prays: “Now, Lord, consider their threats and enable your servants to speak your word with great boldness. Stretch out your hand to heal…”
No qualifiers - just bold, faith-filled requests for power and miracles.Acts 9:34 “Jesus Christ heals you. Get up.”
Peter speaks directly and decisively to Aeneas.Acts 14:9-10 Paul sees a man has faith to be healed and calls out, “Stand up on your feet!” Again, no “if it’s your will.”
The apostles clearly understood that healing, restoration, and bold witness were part of God’s mission. Their prayers reflect a settled conviction about God’s desire to move.
Where “If it is the Lord’s will” does appear
The phrase shows up in James 4:15:
“Instead, you ought to say, ‘If it is the Lord’s will, we will live and do this or that.’”
But that’s about planning, not healing or spiritual authority. It's a reminder of our human limits when making future plans, not a model for ministry prayer. We absolutely need to operate from a place of humility and surrender, but that doesn’t mean we delegate our God-given authority.
The Bottom Line is this:
Jesus didn’t model “If it be Your will” prayers for ministry. He modeled praying God’s revealed will into being.
The Lord’s Prayer is not about hesitation. It’s about alignment and authority.
Let’s do things biblically, and stop using this preemptive excuse to try to cover our backs in case healing doesn't happen.
This video, from a few years ago, is a powerful reminder of how Jesus taught us to pray.
Watch it here: Don’t Pray “If It Be Your Will”
Next Steps:
Watch the video and listen for what resonates most with you.
Read through the Gospels and notice how Jesus and the apostles prayed and ministered. What patterns do you see?
Pray for someone this week without adding disclaimers - just faith and love.
Ask God: “Where have I held back in prayer? What would my next step in boldness be?”
We hope you find this a helpful conversation. It’s important to wrestle through our theology and practice according to Kingdom principles, rather than the ones that make us feel most comfortable.
With love,
Alex + Hannah
ALEX AND HANNAH ABSALOM
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