While we walk by Faith | Pr Raph | Jun 27, 2025

While we walk by Faith

The assurance of God’s Promises

The Bible contains thousands of promises—some say 7,000, others estimate 8,000. 

The number isn’t as important as this truth: God is a Promise-Maker and a Promise-Keeper.

These promises cover every area of your life—provision, healing, forgiveness, salvation, glorification, victory, and more.

“For all the promises of God find their Yes in him. That is why it is through him that we utter our Amen to God for his glory.” (2 Corinthians 1:20)

When someone gives you their word that a gift is yours—even if it hasn’t arrived yet—you already begin to celebrate because you trust the giver. In the same way, the moment God makes a promise, the blessing is already yours. You may not have it in your hands, but by faith, it’s been delivered. The moment of the blessing is not when you actually receive it in the future, but in the moment you get the promise by faith.

The promise of Restitution

Zechariah 9:11-12 As for you also, because of the blood of my covenant with you, I will set your prisoners free from the waterless pit. 12 Return to your stronghold, O prisoners of hope; today I declare that I will restore to you double.

Previously, we were trapped in despair, lying down on the bed awake at night, overwhelmed by worry. Hopeless and frightening images haunted our thoughts. Despite efforts to stay optimistic and positive, we repeatedly found ourselves drawn back into a dark state of anxiety and pain.

If I tell my 16-year-old son, “When you get married, my gift will be a paid-off apartment,” he already considers it his, bragging about having an apartment. If my son trusts my word, he will not be anxious about this in the future. He is now a prisoner of hope. For him, it's already his because his father is faithful and honest.

If evil people, like us, can give good gifts to their children, much more will our faithful and good heavenly Father give us what he has promised.

The year was 2019. There was a prophetic feeling that many of our churches would receive new building spaces. I remember hearing that word, and I believed it. I held a strong conviction in the promise for us as a church.

In Brazil, many people buy cars or homes through a financial consortium, a collective purchasing system without interest, where participants are chosen each month through a draw or bidding. I remember going after that option right after the word came to my heart. I knew the Lord would open that door for us. He had promised. Nothing occurred immediately in the natural sense; however, I was convinced of its truth. It took us two years to fully receive the reality of that promise.

Waiting in Hope Is Part of the Promise.

Faith believes that the blessing has already been given. Hope expects it to manifest. 

The biblical concept of hope isn’t wishful thinking. It’s a confident expectation rooted in God’s character.

2 Corinthians 5:1-5 For we know that if the tent that is our earthly home is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. 2 For in this tent we groan, longing to put on our heavenly dwelling, 3 if indeed by putting it on we may not be found naked. 4 For while we are still in this tent, we groan, being burdened—not that we would be unclothed, but that we would be further clothed, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life. 5 He who has prepared us for this very thing is God, who has given us the Spirit as a guarantee.

Paul asserts that we, believers, must know as a fact what we expect. We are confident in hope.

Our hope is like waiting for a bus. No one stands at the bus stop saying, “Let’s wish it shows up!” You wait because you know it will come. That’s biblical hope.

“Groaning” emphasizes human suffering, but simultaneously points to the living hope.

“Tent” living is temporary and frail, but God has prepared a permanent home for us and given us the Spirit as the down payment and guarantee.

The Greek term for “guarantee” αρραβών (arrabōn) is a legal/financial term. It means a down payment, indicating the Spirit as a first installment of future redemption.

Ephesians 1:13-14 In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, 14 who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory.

That answers what we must do while we wait: We become Spirit-filled. One way to do that is to pray fervently.

Pray Fervently

Waiting is not a reason to stop praying—it’s a reason to pray more. To be filled with the Spirit, because He sustains us on the promises.

The early disciples had to wait in the Upper Room for the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. When we read the story in Acts 1, we find out that the group was meant to be almost 4 times bigger.

Jesus appeared to 500 people, but only 120 remained for Pentecost.

(1 Corinthians 15:6) “He appeared to more than five hundred brothers at one time…”

(Acts 1:15, 14) “About 120… all these with one accord were devoting themselves to prayer…”

Those who persist in prayer will be part of the outpouring.

Don’t leave the Upper Room too soon. If you turn to the Spirit daily, you will see the fulfilment of the promise.

So, what do we do while we wait in faith and hope? You keep obeying the last instruction God gave you. When you haven’t received a new word from God, remain faithful to the last one.

Don’t move to another city. Don’t leave that church yet. Don’t close that business yet. Keep holding on to the direction God gave you with a promise. Stay praying in the Upper Room. Your LifeGroup will multiply and grow.

We walk by faith, not by sight

2 Corinthians 5:6-10 6 So we are always of good courage. We know that while we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord, 7 for we walk by faith, not by sight. 8 Yes, we are of good courage, and we would rather be away from the body and at home with the Lord. 9 So whether we are at home or away, we make it our aim to please him. 10 For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive what is due for what he has done in the body, whether good or evil.

To walk by faith means that even when your body is decaying and the evidence seems to contradict your promises, you don’t try to fulfill God’s promise with your strength.

Abraham and Sarah—impatient for the child God promised—took matters into their own hands and had Ishmael through Hagar.

Genesis 16:4 And he [Abraham] went in to Hagar, and she conceived. And when she saw that she had conceived, she looked with contempt on her mistress.

In Galatians, Paul compares Hagar to the work of the law, the fruit of our flesh.

Galatians 4:30 But what does the Scripture say? “Cast out the slave woman and her son, for the son of the slave woman shall not inherit with the son of the free woman.”

When we act on the flesh, we miss the inheritance of blessings. The inheritance of the children of grace is greater than that of the children of the flesh.

While conceiving Ishmael, it took a hasty act of intercourse and 9 months, for the promised son, it took about 25 years.

What’s done in the flesh may look like success, but it lacks the power, peace, and blessings of what’s born of the Spirit. Besides, the work of the flesh creates long-term problems, just like Ishmael, the father of most of the Arabs and Isaac’s descendants, the Jews, are still warring today.

We must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ

Leaving the position of faith and hope is not only a restraint of promised blessings now, but there is a danger of building on the foundation with the wrong materials and suffering significant loss at the coming of the Lord. And that is not a small thing.

2 Corinthians 5:10 For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive what is due for what he has done in the body, whether good or evil.

1 Corinthians 3:14-15 If the work that anyone has built on the foundation survives, he will receive a reward. 15 If anyone’s work is burned up, he will suffer loss, though he himself will be saved, but only as through fire.

Maturity requires patience, and patience proves maturity.

Only children make a scene or cry when they don’t get what they want immediately. 

Adults know how to wait, and patience is a mark of spiritual adulthood.

(Romans 5:3–4) “Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings [waiting], knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope.”

However, God does not want us to be under a false sense of peace, forcing us to be positive and hopeful when no change will actually come.

He invites us to rest.

Rest While You Wait

(Psalm 40:1) “I waited patiently for the Lord; he inclined to me and heard my cry.”

Pray and don’t act under pressure if you don’t know what to do. That was the grave mistake of Saul.

King Saul disobeyed God’s instruction to wait for Samuel and took matters into his own hands before fighting against the Philistines.

He lost everything not because of adultery or murder, but simply because he didn’t wait. Never allow pressure to push you into premature decisions. (1 Samuel 13:9-14)

Grow while you wait. 

Waiting is not a passive season—it’s a season for maturing and preparing. Use your waiting season to grow in faith, obedience, character, and skill.

Think of Joseph of Egypt. From a dreamer, he became an interpreter. We can see a clear difference in Joseph before and after the waiting time. At first, he had big dreams and naively told everyone (Genesis 37:5). But after the trial, he became someone who could interpret dreams. Interpreting is understanding the meaning behind circumstances. Joseph eventually realized it wasn’t his brothers who sent him to Egypt—it was God (Genesis 41:16).

Genesis 45:7-8 7 And God sent me before you to preserve for you a remnant on earth, and to keep alive for you many survivors. 8 So it was not you who sent me here, but God. He has made me a father to Pharaoh, and lord of all his house and ruler over all the land of Egypt.

Joseph was tested and became a dream interpreter.

You can hear God’s voice, but still do not know how to interpret what He’s doing. Being able to interpret puts you in a completely different position. If God allows you to interpret the market, you’ll prosper. If God gives you understanding of what’s happening in the global church, you’ll be highly valuable in the Body of Christ. If you can interpret history, you’ll understand prophecy. Anyone can read the Bible, but interpreting it allows one to extract its true meaning. Such insight comes from tested character. 

The time between promise and fulfillment is not wasted—it’s preparation.

Don’t let the apparent delay steal your expectations and joy. Like a child before a birthday, wake up daily with joyful anticipation of God’s goodness.

Conclusion

(Hebrews 10:23) “Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful.”

Confession of Faith

I believe that the promise of God will come to pass in my life.

The moment He spoke it, it was already mine.

I will not act in the flesh. I will not give up.

I will grow, I will rest, I will pray, and I will wait—because He who promised is faithful.”