So that we ourselves glory in you in the churches of God for your patience and faith in all your persecutions and tribulations that ye endure: which is a manifest token of the righteous judgment of God, that ye may be counted worthy of the kingdom of God, for which ye also suffer: (II Thessalonians 1:4,5)

We are in travail. Christ is being formed in us. Our self-life is being brought down to death. We are decreasing, Christ is increasing. Pain, fear, sorrow, frustration, denial, are part of the process of Christ being formed in us.

A woman when she is in travail hath sorrow, because her hour is come: but as soon as she is delivered of the child, she remembereth no more the anguish, for joy that a man is born into the world. (John 16:21)

After we have suffered for a season God will give us the peaceful fruit of righteousness. Our sorrow will be turned into joy because Christ is being formed in us and will abide in us to a greater extent than we have known.

In this day-by-day outworking of Christ in us we attain the resurrection from the dead, to use Paul's expression in the third chapter of Philippians.

If by any means I might attain unto the resurrection [out-resurrection] of the dead. (Philippians 3:11)

Notice Paul's emphasis on the forming of Christ in the saints:

My little children, of whom I travail in birth again until Christ be formed in you, (Galatians 4:19)

Is Christ being resurrected in you today? If so, you are experiencing an inner travail as Christ overcomes and transforms each part of your personality.

The inner resurrection is taking place in us now. If we expect to participate in the first resurrection from the dead, at the coming of the Lord, we must experience the necessary inner resurrection beforehand. The current doctrine, that all who profess Christ will be resurrected and will ascend when the Lord returns, is incorrect according to the Scriptures. The first or out-resurrection must be attained.

If by any means I might attain unto the resurrection [Greek, out-resurrection] of the dead. (Philippians 3:11)

We will experience the needed inner transformation if we allow Jesus to have His perfect, unhindered way in our life.

We must forsake all other interests in order to have Christ formed in us and abiding in us. We must make Christ the Center of all we think and practice.

Our first, adamic personality is required to submit to the death of the cross. Then the new man comes into view, who is our personality reborn and filled with the resurrection life of Christ. The new creation is alive forever. Now we are able to know and have fellowship with the Father.

The Kingdom of God is the resurrection of Christ in the believer.

And ye now therefore have sorrow: but I will see you again, and your heart shall rejoice, and your joy no man taketh from you. And in that day ye shall ask me nothing. Verily, verily, I say unto you, Whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my name, he will give it you. (John 16:22,23) (from Kingdom Concepts)