"Show Me Your Glory" (Part 1): The Delayed Promise Is About to Speak

Introduction

There is a suffering not everyone can see. It isn't a visible illness, an unpaid bill, or a recent loss. It's a promise that is taking too long to come. A child you're waiting for. A marriage. A job. A home. A conversion. A direction in life. A healing. A year goes by, then another, until the calendar itself becomes an enemy. In this Part 1 of the series Lord, Show Me Your Glory, elder Junias ANANE spends almost his entire hour of preaching on this inner wound before he even opens the door to the biblical theme, Moses' prayer in Exodus 33:18. This prophetic word, he hands it to you in the name of the Lord.

The supporting verse, he reads it from John 13:19 · "I am telling you this now, before it takes place, that when it does take place you may believe that I am he." This sermon is not a textual explanation: it's a consultation. You have just walked into the office of the ultimate physician. He has seen, he has known, and now he is going to speak.

Article Outline

1. The suffering no one sees

Junias begins by naming precisely what is eating away at you in silence. This long wait has become unbearable, he says, because you suffer from it inwardly. It is no longer just disappointment, it has become a social shame, almost a suspicion of curse. Every year that passes feels like a knife driven into your soul.

Where others celebrate the start of a new year, you tell yourself: "here is another year that has just gone by, and still nothing." Time is no longer your ally, it has become your enemy. Every time you meet people your age, you find yourself comparing, murmuring bitterly: "Lord, why them and not me?"

2. A promise that carries you, and that is delayed

The preacher insists: you did not invent this promise. The Lord confirmed it to you more than once. It has even become part of your identity in Christ. It makes you dream, it keeps you standing. But months pass, years pass, decades pass, and the fulfillment seems to keep drifting further away. Time itself has become an obstacle to the promise. It seems to be dying along with the years.

The result: your prayer has lost its fervor. It has become a routine. Perhaps your prayer time has even grown sparse, because you no longer have the strength to pray about this. The secret place is no longer a joyful meeting, it's a room where you pour out your tears.

3. The good shepherd's diagnosis

Junias describes this moment as a spiritual medical consultation. The Lord, who searches your heart and your innermost being, has seen your pain. He has understood what the years have done to you. He knows you are losing hope. He knows there are even blessings in your life you can no longer appreciate, because this one lack has ended up drying up everything else.

The preacher pushes the diagnosis further still. This waiting has produced a spiritual fatigue: you hear without truly understanding anymore, you see without truly grasping anymore. Your heart has hardened under the wear of time. It has become hard to comfort you, even with the word of God. Worse still: the biblical examples worry you instead of reassuring you. Abraham waited 25 years. Gideon, more than 40 years. Secretly you wonder: "Will I have to wait that long too?"

4. The doubt the enemy sows over your identity

Junias draws a very clear parallel. The serpent said to the woman: "Did God actually say?" (see Genesis 3:1). The devil said to Jesus in the wilderness: "If you are the Son of God..." (see Matthew 4:3), only forty days after the Father's voice had proclaimed from heaven: "This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased."

His method has not changed. He comes and tells you: "if you're really a child of God, if you're really his cherished daughter, then why this situation? why this silence?" His delayed promise has ended up affecting the image you have of yourself. This is exactly where the Lord speaks to you this morning. He knows you. He knows your grief, your longings, your fears, your doubts. He hears, says Junias, the voice of your tears.

5. What the Lord tells you to answer him

The preacher does not stop at the diagnosis: he gives you words to speak. He invites you to say to the Lord, in the silence:

• "Just as I am, I come to you, with my hidden doubts and my unanswered questions."
• "Father, forgive me; heal my heart, bruised by this long wait."
• "Deliver me from this feeling that my life is running late, that I've wasted time, that I'm a failure."
• "Lord, come to the aid of my faith and make me able to hope again."
• "I entrust my calendar to you, this calendar overturned so many times. I'm no longer planning anything."
• "Today, I choose to believe again."

The strength of this section is that it does not ask God to fulfill the promise right away. It asks first for the healing of a heart that has waited too long.

6. The Father's word: John 13:19

In the middle of this time, Junias receives a text like a telegram: John 13:19. Jesus tells his disciples: "I am telling you this now, before it takes place, that when it does take place you may believe that I am he." The preacher draws out three things:

• God announces ahead of time what he is going to do.
• The announcement comes before the fulfillment, so that your faith does not arrive there by chance but by revelation.
• The fulfillment itself is a revelation of who he is for you. You will not just see an answer, you will see a Father.

He links this word to the burning bush, where God introduced himself to Moses: "I am who I am" (Exodus 3:14). When the promise is fulfilled, you will not simply say "thank you." You will say: "so this is who he is for me."

7. The promises spoken aloud

The preacher then reads out, one line after another, what he receives as a message for you:

• "Do not fear, for I am with you; I will not leave you or forsake you." (see Deuteronomy 31:6)
• "Fear not, with troubled eyes, for I am your God; I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with my righteous right hand." (Isaiah 41:10)
• "I am the Lord who heals you." (Exodus 15:26)
• "I am the Lord who gives life to the dead and calls into existence the things that do not exist." (see Romans 4:17)
• "You will not be put to shame, you will not be humiliated, but you will exult in transports of joy before his face." (see Isaiah 45:17)
• "Behold, I am doing a new thing, it is about to happen." (Isaiah 43:19)

Junias holds on to one image: God as a GPS recalculating the route. Where you lost the way, he brings you back. Where the locusts have eaten years away, he restores. The sign you were waiting for may remain invisible; that's all right, he says, God wants to give you something better than a sign, the fulfillment itself.

8. The theme that opens up: "show me your glory"

It is only at the end of the sermon that Junias opens up the theme for the three coming Sundays. The title is Moses' prayer at the tent of meeting: "Please show me your glory!" (Exodus 33:18). He sets the key verse for the whole series in Proverbs 25:2: "It is the glory of God to conceal things, but the glory of kings is to search things out."

In other words: God has hidden a treasure in your situation, and your dignity as a king consists in searching it out to find it. The preacher illustrates this with Exodus 14, Israel trapped between the sea and Pharaoh, with the Lord announcing to Moses: "I will get glory over Pharaoh." He announces that the next two Sundays will go deep into this shift between a slave mindset and a king mindset. For today, the introduction is enough: before searching things out, the heart must be healed.

Key Takeaways

• A delayed promise produces an invisible wound that affects your faith, your prayer, and the image you have of yourself.
• The enemy uses this waiting to sow doubt about your identity as a child of God, just as he did with Eve and with Jesus.
• God does not first ask you to wait better; he first offers you the healing of a heart worn down by waiting.
• John 13:19 announces that God speaks before the fulfillment, so that your faith can then recognize who he is for you.
• Moses' prayer, "show me your glory" (Exodus 33:18), becomes the thread running through the three coming Sundays.

Personal Application

• What is the promise that, in your life, has been delayed so long that you no longer even dare to name it?
• Has the calendar become your enemy? When did you stop dreaming about it?
• Can you identify a phrase the enemy keeps repeating about your identity in Christ because of this waiting?
• Are you willing today to ask the Lord, before the fulfillment, for the healing of a heart worn down by waiting?
• What would you do differently this week if you believed God announces something before it even happens?

Scriptures Cited

• Exodus 33:18 · Moses' prayer: "show me your glory."
• John 13:19 · "I am telling you this now, before it takes place..."
• Proverbs 25:2 · The glory of God and the glory of kings.
• Exodus 3:14 · "I am who I am."
• Isaiah 41:10 · "Fear not, for I am your God."
• Isaiah 43:19 · "I am doing a new thing."
• Romans 4:17 · God who calls into existence the things that do not exist.
• Exodus 14 · Israel at the Red Sea, God announces his glory.

FAQ

Why does God let us wait so long if he has promised something?

Junias does not claim to explain God's silence. He simply reminds us that waiting is not a sign of forgetfulness or rejection. Abraham waited 25 years, Gideon more than 40 years, and the Lord revealed himself at the end of the road as a faithful Father. The length of the wait says nothing about God's love for you; it prepares a deeper revelation of who he is for you.

How can you tell whether a promise truly comes from God and not just from your own desire?

The preacher gives a pastoral clue: a promise from God is confirmed over time, it attaches itself to your identity in Christ, and it holds up against the discouragement of a long wait. It does not make you dream of a life God never intended for you; it directs you toward the very purpose for which he brought you into the world.

What should I concretely do with the prayer "Lord, show me your glory"?

It is not a magic formula. It is a prayer that Moses dared to pray at a specific moment, and that any child of God can bring to the Father. Junias announces that he will unfold this prayer over three Sundays. For Part 1, one thing is enough: ask God to heal the heart that has waited too long, so that afterward you may be able to search out what he has hidden in your situation.