The Groan Before the Glory

This message, drawn from Romans 8:18–28, explores the essential Christian journey from present-day suffering (“the groan”) to future triumph (“the glory”). Bishop T.D. Jakes emphasizes that suffering is not always a demonic attack but is often the intentional hand of the Potter shaping the believer according to God’s ultimate purpose. Through understanding this divine process, Christians can stop running from their pain and position themselves for the glory that shall be revealed.

I. The Divine Calculation: Suffering is Not Worthy of Comparison

The Apostle Paul uses the term “I reckon” (an accounting term) to emphasize that he calculated the worth of suffering against the weight of glory.

The Reckoning: Glory Outweighs Groaning

Paul’s conclusion is firm: “The sufferings of this present time are not worthy to even be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us”. The current hardships—whether personal struggles or global chaos seen in places like Afghanistan, Ukraine, and Israel—pale in comparison to the splendor awaiting the believer.

The Greek word for “glory,” doxa, means “weight”. Suffering is painful but lacks eternal weight; glory possesses substantial weight, signifying that value is added through the suffering and hardship endured. The greater the groan, the greater the glory that God will deliver.

God’s Purpose in Pain

Suffering is allowed not willingly by creation, but by reason of Him who subjected creation to this vanity in hope. This means:

• It is not always the devil’s work; sometimes, it is the hand of the Potter placing indentations into the clay to shape the believer for His glory.
• God uses things that work on a believer’s nerves, pride, and ego, taking them through things they don’t like until He achieves the brokenness necessary for transformation.
• God subjects the believer to vanity in hope that they will surrender and say “yes” to His authority.

II. The Groaning of Creation and the Spirit

The present state of the world is characterized by widespread suffering and internal distress, which the Bible describes using the powerful term “groan”.

Universal Groaning

The whole creation groans and travails in pain together until now. This chaos, which has crossed over into our neighborhoods, is likened to a woman in travail (labor pains), signaling that the world is in the middle of delivery.

Even believers, who possess the first fruits of the Spirit, “groan within ourselves”. This internal groaning can manifest as feelings of being stuck in finances, marriage, or circumstances. This internal dissonance is necessary because God subjects the believer to hurt in the “hopes that he could make something out of you”.

Intercession of the Spirit

Crucially, the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities. We often do not know what we should pray for as we ought. This is because some of the things believers need prayer for are rooted in deep, intergenerational traumas and memories passed down biologically through DNA, which they cannot even remember.

The Holy Spirit intercedes for us “with groanings which cannot be uttered”.

• The Spirit is eternal enough to pray for the past, present, and future all at the same time.
• The Spirit addresses the root of the issue, not just the visible fruit, so the believer does not have to deal with it next season.
• He knows what the spirit has in mind for the believer because He makes intercession for the saints according to the will of God.

III. The Path to Deliverance and Glory

Deliverance from suffering requires active spiritual engagement, the breaking of ancestral chains, and relentless hope.

Breaking Generational Curses

The deeply ingrained traumas passed down from ancestors—sometimes involving extreme hardship like the Holocaust or slavery—require divine intervention. The Holy Spirit breaks these chains, making the believer a curse breaker who changes the trajectory of their family’s life.

The believer must declare, “It stops with me,” putting up a blood barrier against the enemy’s access. The Spirit lifts up a standard when the enemy comes in like a flood, and the believer becomes that standard against the attack.

The Power of Hope and Tears

The devil seeks to kill the believer’s hope, knowing that “we are saved by hope”. Believers must embrace “crazy kinds of hope”—hoping for that which is unseen.

Furthermore, tears are a spiritual weapon that unlocks deliverance and glory.

• God is serious about tears and saves them in a vial.
• The more a believer cries, the more God is going to bring them into glory.
• “He that soweth in tears shall reap in joy”. Crying while in affliction is watering the dream, and God ordered the tears for this purpose.

The Mandate to Resist and Stand

True deliverance requires the believer to resist the enemy and stand firm.

• Resist the temptation to give up, give in, fall out, or engage in destructive animosity.
• Stand tough in the evil day.
• If the individual is out of fellowship or backsliding, they are urged to bring their entire self to the altar for a mind-renewing encounter.