Your Driver's License

Well, as usual I over-studied for my North Carolina driver’s license exam!  Since I haven’t had to take a written test for renewals of my California license since I was sixteen, I figured that I’d better do a little bit more than just brush up for this one!  But after all that, the examiner only asked me about a half a dozen questions pertaining to regulatory signs and that was it!

So I am officially a resident of our new state and go can forth and get license plates for the car and register to vote!  And after five years of using an expired license, my wife now has a current legal government ID card!  Which means no more long winded explanations needed at doctor’s offices, airports, for insurance and so on!

It was interesting that in order to apply for the driver’s license and Piper’s ID card, I had to provide numerous legal forms of ID like my California license, social security card, as well as a current utility bill to confirm our address.  For my wife I needed to produce her birth certificate and official correspondence from Social Security that listed her SSI number.

That experience got me to thinking about our legal identification as members of the family of God!  Ephesians 6:10 tells us, “Finally my brethren, be strong in the Lord; and in the strength of his might.”  That scripture to me is like the right I now have to drive in North Carolina.  Sure, I could have kept my California license and driven around just fine, until I got pulled over for something!  Then I’d get in trouble for being a permanent resident using an out of state license.  I had that happen in Oklahoma when we were going to school there a few years back.  The officer was not real happy that I was driving a car that had been given to us with Oklahoma plates and I still had my California license.  Although I didn’t get a fine since I was considered a student and therefore a temporary resident, he still was not pleased and let me know it!

As a permanent resident in God’s kingdom, you and I have legal rights to stand on as one of those whose strength is in the power of God’s might.  If one was to write Ephesians 6:10 as it was meant according to original Greek, it would state: “Finally my brothers and sisters, be empowered in or by the Word and stand in the dominion its ability.”  In other words, in Him and His abilities we have the approval to go forth and be blessed to be a blessing! 

That scripture is our license to go forth in the power and ability of Christ!  To go anywhere He tells us to go and successfully do whatever He commands us to accomplish for Him… and if the devil pulls us over and questions us, all we have to do is pull out Bibles (or more likely the Word that we have hidden in our hearts) and show him our official license (or standing in Christ), and he’ll have no other course of action but to let us go.  Just like that Broken Arrow, Oklahoma police officer driving an unmarked vehicle had to do with me and my daughter who were going to be late for our finals!

So keep that scripture license with you at all times.  When you come under scrutiny by the enemy of our souls, just tell him that “I am empowered by the Lord and stand in the dominion of His abilities… and you have to flee from me!”  Have a great weekend.  Go for a drive and have some fun!  And keep asking yourself… “What or Whom am I expecting today?”