The previous article discussed the idea of taking a spiritual DNA test to determine if we belong to God. Professing Christians who have doubts about their salvation are often told to re-pray a prayer for salvation and get re-baptized to settle the doubts. I also stated in the previous article that the bible does not give us examples of this method to settle doubts. Rather the bible does give us something to test if we belong to God. We know from the bible that the Holy Spirit produces fruit in the children of God (thus we are calling this fruit His DNA). The bible also expressly says in Romans 8:9 “But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his.” How serious do you consider this statement to be? Very serious I hope. The biblical test of salvation is to examine the fruit (DNA) of the Spirit in our lives.
It stands to reason that if the Holy Spirit living in us produces specific fruit then those who are “born again” will possess the DNA, or fruit of the Holy Spirit.
In Galatians 5:22-24 Paul describes the fruit of the Spirit as love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, & temperance. I find it necessary to state that salvation does not occur by identifying with the fruit (DNA) of the Spirit. Rather, the fruit (DNA) of the Spirit identifies those who belong to God. Perhaps this illustration will clarify my point. Pretend someone knocked on your door and said “hi I am your daughter”. While you may be certain that she is is not your daughter she may continue to insist she is. Furthermore, she wants you to take responsibility for her. That right she wants all the benefits of being your child. Now she is wiling to take you to court to get you to take responsibility for her. What options do you have? First you may contact an attorney to represent you, and he will likely advise you to order a DNA test. If the girl in question possess your DNA then the judge is likely to conclude she belongs to you and order you to take responsibility for her. This means she not only identifies herself as your daughter but her DNA identifies her as your daughter. However, if the DNA test concludes that she does not posses your DNA then the judge will conclude that she is not your daughter and order her to cease identifying as belonging to you.
Many people identify as belonging to God. They even want God to take responsibility for them. They pray and tell God what they need/want from Him. They expect God to respond and answer those prayers. In this case they are identifying with God’s family; however God has given us a DNA test to administer to see if our DNA identifies us as His children or not.
In the next article we will look closer at the DNA test and its results