We have been learning that spiritual habits are not about religion or ritual, but they are about relationship. Spiritual habits are the daily choices that shape how we walk with God. Just as physical habits determine the health of your body, spiritual habits determine the strength of your faith.

So, when you develop habits like Bible reading, prayer, worship, and obedience, you are building spiritual reflexes. These habits don’t earn God’s approval, but they keep your heart aligned with his will. They train you to respond with faith when life shakes you and to trust God when you can’t understand what’s going on around you.

One of the most vital spiritual habits we must learn is the habit of walking by faith. You see, faith isn’t something you use only in a crisis; it is how you live every single day. The prophet Habakkuk said,

“The righteous will live by faith” (Habakkuk 2:4).

That verse is more than a statement of belief; it is a way of living. The apostle Paul said it this way in Second Corinthians:

“We walk by faith, not by sight” (2 Corinthians 5:7).

You see, walking by sight means that you are led by what you can measure, predict, or understand. On the other hand, walking by faith means that you are led by what God has spoken, even when your eyes can’t yet see it. And so, sight reacts to circumstance, but faith responds to God’s promise.

Therefore, walking by sight confines you to the natural realm, but walking by faith connects you to the supernatural. And so, faith is living in daily dependence on the unseen hand of God, trusting his word above your worries and his power above your limitations.

But faith isn’t automatic; you can love God and still have to fight fear and uncertainty. That’s why walking by faith must become a spiritual habit, a daily discipline, a trained response, and a settled conviction. Every day, you must decide: will I walk by what I see, or will I walk by what God has said?

Nowhere in Scripture is that contrast clearer than in Numbers chapter 13. God had delivered his people from Egypt, provided for them in the wilderness, and brought them to the border of his promise. No longer were they wandering in the wilderness; they were standing on the edge of their destiny, on the threshold of the land God had sworn to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. But before they could step in, they faced the same test every believer must face, the test of whether they would walk by faith or by sight.

The Israelites had seen God’s power in Egypt, felt his presence in the wilderness, and heard his promise through Moses, but now it was time to walk it out. Moses sent twelve men, one from each tribe of Israel, to explore the land of Canaan, the inheritance that God had sworn to give them. The Bible says,

“They came to the Valley of Eshcol and cut off a branch bearing a single cluster of grapes. Two of them carried it on a pole between them, along with some pomegranates and figs” (Numbers 13:23).

Imagine that for a moment, grapes so large that two men had to carry one cluster on a pole. This was evidence that God’s word was true, the land was good, and the promise was real, but then came the shift.

“They gave Moses this account: ‘We went into the land to which you sent us, and it does flow with milk and honey! Here is its fruit. But the people who live there are powerful, and the cities are fortified and very large” (Numbers 13:27–28).

Up to that moment, everything the men said confirmed God’s faithfulness, but then came that one word, “but,” or another translation says, “nevertheless.” And that single word turned faith into fear: “Nevertheless, the cities are fortified, the people are powerful, and we can’t conquer them.”

In that instant, their walk by faith turned into a walk by sight, and they stopped focusing on what God had said and started focusing on what they could see. Their eyes became their own worst enemy because what they saw looked impossible and began to overcome the Word that God had spoken.

Isn’t that the same battle that we face today? God gives us promises, shows us his faithfulness, even lets us taste the fruit of what he has prepared, but the enemy whispers, “Nevertheless.” And suddenly, faith collides with fear. Sight begins to argue with the Word, and we stand paralyzed between what we believe and what we see.

In other words, walking by sight focuses on the mountain; walking by faith focuses on the Word. Sight looks at the size of the problem; faith looks at the power of the promise. Sight says, “I don’t know how this can work.” Faith says,

“With God all things are possible” (Matthew 19:26).

Faith doesn’t deny reality, but it refuses to give reality the final word. Walking by faith means silencing the “nevertheless” that fear tries to speak and standing firm on what God has already promised.

And today, every one of us lives in that tension. You can be standing on the edge of God’s promise and still feel the pull of fear. You can see evidence of God’s goodness and still hear the voice of doubt. And so, it is in those moments that you have to choose: will I walk by sight, or will I walk by faith?

When the Israelites heard the fearful report, the atmosphere shifted from faith to panic because sight had taken over. The same people who had seen the Red Sea part and manna fall from heaven were suddenly frozen by what they saw in front of them. And that is what happens when you live by sight: it magnifies the problem until it looks bigger than the promise.

But one man refused to be silent. Verse thirty says,

“Then Caleb silenced the people before Moses and said, ‘We should go up and take possession of the land, for we can certainly do it’” (Numbers 13:30).

He didn’t wait for a vote or for others to agree, but he silenced the crowd, and sometimes you have to do the same thing. You have to quiet the noise of doubt around you and even silence the fear inside of you. There are moments when faith has to speak louder than everything else.

You see, Caleb saw the same land and the same giants, but he saw them through the eyes of faith. He didn’t deny the obstacles; he just refused to let them define his outcome, because faith doesn’t ignore what is standing in front of you; it simply refuses to be intimidated by it.

Faith looks straight at the Giants and says, “You may be big, but my God is bigger.”

“You come against me with sword and spear and javelin, but I come against you in the name of the Lord Almighty” (1 Samuel 17:45).

You see, sight reacts to what is natural, but faith responds to what is supernatural.

And so, Caleb’s confidence wasn’t rooted in himself, it was rooted in God’s character. He remembered the Red Sea, the manna, and the water from the rock. He remembered that every time God had made a promise, he kept it. And so, Caleb knew that if God brought them out of Egypt, he could bring them into the promised land.

That’s what happens when walking by faith becomes a spiritual habit. It changes how you respond to what you see. You stop reacting to circumstances and start responding to promises. You don’t wait for everything to look right before you believe because you have already decided that what God said is true, no matter what your eyes see.

When faith becomes your habit, you don’t wait until the battle gets big to decide what you believe. You already know and so you can declare like David did,

“All those gathered here will know that it is not by sword or spear that the Lord saves; for the battle is the Lord’s, and he will give all of you into our hands” (1 Samuel 17:47).

And so, when walking by faith becomes your habit, your normal, your heart has been trained to say,

“We should go up and take possession of the land, for we can certainly do it” (Numbers 13:30).

And Joshua stood with Caleb because faith is contagious when it is lived out loud. The two of them stood in agreement with heaven as Jesus said:

“If two of you on earth agree about anything you ask for, it will be done for you by my Father in heaven” (Matthew 18:19).

And that agreement carried them through the wilderness into the promise.

Joshua and Caleb walked by faith, but the others chose to walk by sight. They said in verse thirty-one,

“We can’t attack those people; they are stronger than we are.’ And they spread among the Israelites a bad report about the land they had explored” (Numbers 13:31–32).

It was called evil because it contradicted God’s word. Anything that spreads fear instead of faith, anything that replaces hope with despair, is evil and destructive because it robs people of confidence in their faithful God.

And fear spreads fast when people walk by sight; those ten men poisoned a nation’s faith with their words. Ten voices silenced millions, and an entire generation missed their inheritance because they believed a bad report.

That’s why it is important that we recognize the power of our words. You see, your words carry great spiritual weight. Proverbs 18:21 says,

“The tongue has the power of life and death” (Proverbs 18:21).

And so, your words don’t just express your thoughts; they shape the atmosphere, because what you say either builds up or tears down, stirs faith or spreads fear.

In the same way, what you listen to determines what grows in your heart. Those who feed on bad reports eventually lose the ability to believe good ones. The Bible says,

“Faith comes by hearing” (Romans 10:17).

And the same is true of fear; it also comes by hearing.

And so, you can’t walk by faith and speak by sight; your mouth must agree with your faith and not your fear. Ten of those men came back and said,

“The land we explored devours those living in it” (Numbers 13:32).

In other words, they didn’t just come back and say those people are stronger than we are; they said the land devours its people. You see, fear always exaggerates; it distorts reality, but faith declares:

“He who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion” (Philippians 1:6).

And so, every time you speak faith, you shift the atmosphere. You remind your soul and everyone listening that the God who brought you through the wilderness hasn’t brought you this far to leave you now.

And so, don’t rehearse what fear says, declare what God says because,

“The one who calls you is faithful and he will do it” (1 Thessalonians 5:24).

When you declare what God says, the report you believe will become the reality you live.

After the ten men spread the bad report, their words revealed what was really happening inside of them. They said:

“We saw the Nephilim there. We seemed like grasshoppers in our own eyes, and we looked the same to them” (Numbers 13:33).

The problem wasn’t the giants; it was their vision of themselves. Whenever you begin walking by sight instead of faith, you will always see yourself as smaller than God says you are.

They said, we seemed like grasshoppers in our own eyes, and they forgot who they were as God’s chosen people, redeemed and delivered, covered by God’s covenant. And so, they allowed fear to distort their identity before they ever even faced the enemy. And fear always makes the giants look bigger and you look smaller. Fear convinces you that you are too weak, too flawed, or too unworthy for what God has promised.

But faith, on the other hand, restores your vision; faith reminds you who you are in Christ. Faith reminds you:

“In all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us” (Romans 8:37).

And so, faith says, “I am not a grasshopper, I am a conqueror. I am not defeated, I am victorious. I am not forgotten, I am chosen, called, and anointed.”

But when you walk by sight, sight distorts the truth until you agree with the lie. You see, the enemy never called them grasshoppers; they called themselves that. And sometimes the greatest battle isn’t against the giants in front of you, but the thoughts inside you. That’s why the Bible tells us:

“We take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ” (2 Corinthians 10:5).

And so, every morning before fear has a chance to whisper, you must declare, “I am who God says I am. I can do what he says I can do.” Because these aren’t empty affirmations, they are weapons of faith that align your heart with heaven.

And this is where the Holy Spirit helps us:

“Because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world” (1 John 4:4).

And so, the Holy Spirit doesn’t just comfort you, he lifts your perspective until you see yourself the way heaven sees you. The same Spirit who raised Jesus from the dead lives in you, which means that you are never outnumbered or outmatched. And so, when you walk by faith, you will see God. It’s not that faith denies the presence of giants; it simply refuses to forget the presence of God.

Hebrews chapter 10 says,

“So do not throw away your confidence; it will be richly rewarded. You need to persevere so that when you have done the will of God, you will receive what he has promised” (Hebrews 10:35–36).

Now, the Israelites stood on the edge of the promise; they had seen the fruit of the land and tasted God’s faithfulness, but fear held them back. They stopped short, not because God had failed them, but because they refused to push through. And walking by sight will always make you stop at the edge of your breakthrough. It convinces you that what stands against you is stronger than the one who stands with you.

But walking by faith refuses to stop where fear begins. It pushes through until the promise becomes reality. Faith grows under pressure. It strengthens with resistance. Paul wrote,

“We walk by faith, not by sight” (2 Corinthians 5:7).

And every time you choose to believe when it would be easier to doubt, your faith matures. Every time you obey when you don’t understand, your faith deepens. Every time you trust God when nothing seems to change, your faith becomes unshakable.

And so, we must walk by faith and not by sight, because sight says the giants are too big, but faith says the giants must fall.

Sight says the walls are too high, but faith says the walls are coming down.

Sight says the battle is too hard, but faith says the victory is already ours in Christ Jesus.

“In all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us” (Romans 8:37).

And so, faith doesn’t deny difficulty; it rises up and defies defeat because it believes that the God who started the work will finish it.

Joshua and Caleb proved it forty years later. After that unbelieving generation had passed, Caleb declared,

“Now give me this hill country that the Lord promised me. I’m still as strong today as the day Moses sent me out” (Joshua 14:11–12).

That is perseverance, that is a faith that refuses to die even in the delay.

Today, that is the habit that God wants to build in us, the habit of pushing through. The habit of believing again when it looks impossible. The habit of speaking faith when the enemy whispers doubt. The habit of trusting the word of God when you can’t see the evidence because the Bible says:

“Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen” (Hebrews 11:1, KJV).

And so, walking by faith is not a one-time decision; it is a daily discipline, it is how you live, it is how you win, it is how you step into the promises of God.

As we close, let me encourage you not to settle for the wilderness when God has promised you the land. Don’t stop at the edge, when your next step could be your miracle. Don’t let sight talk you out of what faith has already claimed. Push through, believe again, step forward, and walk by faith, because when you make walking by faith your daily habit, you won’t just see the promises of God; you will live in them.

Graphics, notes, and commentary from LifeChurch, Ministry Pass, PC Study Bible, Preaching Library, and Sermon Central. Scripture from the New International Version unless otherwise noted.