What will take place in every person in whom the Spirit of God is dwelling?...

God the Father will impart resurrection life to the mortal body of that person by God’s Spirit who is dwelling in him. This is the first resurrection from the dead, and it will occur at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ from Heaven.

In our opinion, Romans 8:11 is an extremely important passage of Scripture. It is speaking of the redemption, the resurrection that will take place in us at the coming of the Lord.

Notice that our resurrection depends on the fact that the Holy Spirit is dwelling in us, and will issue from the Holy Spirit who is in us. The resurrection life is in us now, waiting for the Father’s time to be exercised. How can we be sure that the Holy Spirit is dwelling in us?

We can determine if the Holy Spirit is dwelling in us by the kind of behaviour we are manifesting. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance: against such there is no law (Galatians 5:22,23).

Divine love, joy, and peace demonstrated in our personality are an indication that the Spirit of God is abiding in us.

But if hatred, misery, unrest, impatience, harshness, selfishness, unbelief, hardness, lack of self-control are being revealed in our behaviour we need to ask the Lord Jesus if the Spirit of God is abiding in us, whether or not we speak in tongues and exercise spiritual gifts.

Doctrinal belief has little to do with the resurrection. The resurrection from the dead is the expected spiritual outcome of walking in the Spirit of God. The resurrection from the dead is not a reward for possessing correct beliefs of doctrine, accepted theology.

Multitudes of Christians are unaware of this. If they do not learn to walk in the Spirit of God they will not participate in the resurrection that will occur when the Lord returns. It is not that God will punish them for not walking in the Spirit; it is, rather, that they are not cooperating with the Holy Spirit in the forming of the resurrection in them in the present hour.

Jesus taught us the parable of the ten virgins so we may understand that the crucial issue, as far as the first resurrection from the dead is concerned, is the possession of "oil" (a type of the Holy Spirit).

They that were foolish took their lamps, and took no oil with them (Matthew 25:3).

The five were virgins. They possessed lamps, a type of the Word of God, the Scriptures. But they were not careful to maintain the Oil of the Holy Spirit of God.

The startling truth of Romans 8:11 is that the resurrection is at work in us now. The Spirit who will raise us up in the Day of the Lord is dwelling in us already. Our responsibility is to yield to the Spirit, to allow Him to direct our preparation for eternal union with the Lord Jesus Christ.

If we sow to the indwelling Holy Spirit we will reap eternal life.

If we do not sow to the Spirit, choosing instead to follow the desires of our flesh and human mind, we will not be part of the first resurrection. Paul informs us that if we live according to the appetites and passions of our flesh we will kill our spiritual life (Romans 8:13; Galatians 6:8).

It is possible for us to prevent our own resurrection by not sowing to the resurrection life that is in us.

If we continue to follow the Holy Spirit each day, then, when the Lord comes, our mortal bodies, our physical bodies, our spiritually dead bodies will be delivered from all sinful tendencies and given eternal life.

What a glorious answer to Paul’s cry, "Who shall deliver me from the body of this death?"!

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