Overview:
This week's column discusses the importance of knowing our spiritual DNA, which refers to our spiritual needs, authority, and destiny. The article encourages readers to celebrate their spiritual and natural fathers on Father's Day, and to recognize the authority they have as followers of Jesus Christ. It also provides a quote from a preacher that reminds us to focus on our relationship with God.
For years, some of my guilty pleasures were the judge reality shows like Judge Mathis and Judge Lauren Lakes’ Paternity Court. My reasons for liking those shows varied but I must admit that I loved watching the drama of the paternity tests and their results. I don’t really watch them at all now partially because it was perplexing to me how much information about their personal lives people were willing to share on television. I was also surprised at how hearing the words “You are not the father… or, you are the father” could bring such joy or pain. And it all came down to three letters: DNA. In some cases, it was obvious through physical appearance who was the father. In other instances, it took DNA to prove it.
DNA or deoxyribonucleic acid are the intriguing molecules that prove paternity on these shows. DNA determines the physical characteristics that we inherit from our parents like eye color, height, and body type. Unless you are a twin, you have a unique DNA that no one else on the earth shares. DNA stores information, can pass traits from generation to generation and, most importantly, answers questions about who you are in small pieces of hair, nails, skin, sweat, tears, and blood, etc. It’s only been through the use of modern scientific advances that we’ve learned how useful DNA can be. In some cases, it has set the wrongly convicted free from prison sentences.
For some, our actions and behaviors may make us and others question our spiritual DNA – Destiny, Needs, and Authority – as we do not exemplify Christ. However, our Spiritual DNA involves answering questions about who we are in our spiritual lives. Job 23:14 clarifies, “So he will do to me whatever he has planned. He controls my destiny.” Have you allowed someone else to determine your destiny? Are you walking in your destiny and do you recognize God’s plan for your life?
Knowing your spiritual DNA also involves asking whose authority you are under. Who do you have authority over and how do you handle it? Have you given your authority away through sin and disobedience? And if you did, how do you get it back? We have to recognize where our authority comes from and what it is to be used for. Romans 1:5 says, “Through Christ, God has given us the privilege and authority as apostles to tell Gentiles everywhere what God has done for them, so that they will believe and obey him, bringing glory to his name.”
Knowing our spiritual DNA can change your life. It can tell everyone who your spiritual parents are and what traits and behaviors you’ll be passing on to others. Here are some powerful words preached by my late spiritual father Rev. Dr. Jerome E. McNeil that I often think about and apply in my life – “Don’t let what is happening around you distract you from what is happening in you. The miracle isn’t walking on water but who you are walking with.”
This Father’s Day, I encourage you to celebrate your father (spiritual or natural)! Happy Father’s Day to all the natural, adoptive and spiritual fathers who selflessly take time to model God the Father’s love for us.
Shewanda Riley is a Dallas-based author of “Love Hangover: Moving From Pain to Purpose After a Relationship Ends” and “Writing to the Beat of God’s Heart: A Book of Prayers for Writers.” Email her at preservedbypurpose@gmail.com or follow her on Instagram @shewandawrites.