To Christians God's promises in the Bible are part of reality; the promises and the reality are not two separate phenomena.
Consider the promise of Jesus' return (or second-coming). The night before his suffering Jesus promised to his disciples, "I will come back." Through John one of his beloved disciples Jesus said in the book of Revelation 4 times, "I am coming back soon." There is also a parable of ten virgins - five wise, five foolish - which is predicated on the promise of His second coming.
On June 21, 2013 on leaving LA for Redding one of my grand daughters (Marie) gave me a "Farewell Card". There she wrote, "You are the greatest grandpa ever!" Then she added, "Please take a good care of Morgan until I come back." She gave me another farewell card addressed to Morgan her pet (cat). There she said to Morgan, "I will miss you Morgan! I love so much! But I will visit!..." Her promise to visit Downey is part of the reality. I know for sure that it will happen, this coming Christmas season!
The promise of Jesus' return is as real as the promise of Marie's promise to revisit. In fact being conscious of her promise, I assigned the corner shed as Morgan's private residence. For that purpose, I installed a cat door. Every day I make it sure that she be fed twice - once in the morning twice in the afternoon.
The members of His Church are recipients of the promise of Jesus' return. He is with his children in Spirit and in His Word, here and now. As a down payment, he deposited in the believer His Spirit, so that Jesus who is in the Father would be in the disciples who are in Jesus.But when he comes back he will be with them physically in a risen body, for on his return all who belong to him will be like him, just as it is written:
But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, who, by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body. Phi 3:19-20
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