In Romans 8:9 Paul writes, “You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him.” Therefore anyone who belongs to Christ has the Spirit of God within them. How then do we belong to Christ? Jesus In John 7:38-39 said, ‘“Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.’” Now this he said about the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were to receive, for as yet the Spirit had not been given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.” So first, Jesus had to be glorified before sending his Spirit. Now that he had been glorified, it simply becomes a matter of belief. By believing in Jesus (his death and resurrection for us) we receive the Spirit. It is through faith that we belong to Christ. In 2 Corinthians 5:5 Paul, writing about our future home in the presence of God, says, “He who has prepared us for this very thing is God, who has given us the Spirit as a guarantee.” In other words, we have the Spirit indwelling us at the moment of salvation as a deposit guaranteeing our eternal inheritance. The presence of the Spirit in us, is now a foretaste of what will come when we are in the presence of God the Father. This indwelling is permanent, as Jesus promised that the Spirit would be with us forever (Jn 14:16). The immediacy of this action is best illustrated by Ephesians 1:13 where Paul writes, “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.” The reception of the Spirit comes immediately with the reception of the truth resulting in faith.