5th Gear: Free Will Driver’s License

5th Gear: Free Will Driver’s License

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Have you had to take away a parent’s driver’s license? It is excruciating for everyone
involved. For you, the pain is knowing the pain you are inflicting on your parent. For
your parent, well, let’s think about why it is so very painful for anyone to give up their
driver’s license.

What are we really giving up? Our independence, our ability to do what we want when
we want – to go anywhere, anytime we like. In short, we are giving up our freedom. And,
we are now dependent on others.

That dependence on others is perhaps the most troubling.

Several years ago, we had 721 Ministries’ “Free Will Driver’s Licenses” made up. We
then handed them out to the men, but with this caveat: “Do not take one unless you are
willing to turn in your Free Will License to your Heavenly Father.”

To give up our independence, our ability to do what we want when we want, to go
anywhere, anytime we like, is terrible! But I would ask, “How did all that ‘Self
independence’ actually work out for you?”

One thing I can promise you, with no concern about overselling it: Dependence on
Jesus is the 5th Gear Life that is truly life. (1 Timothy 6:19)

Once we surrender our Free Will Diver’s License to Jesus, we are suddenly, and for the
first time, actually free! Ponder this declaration – and warning – from the Holy Spirit in
Galatians:

It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let
yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery. (Galatians 5:1)

Paul is constantly stressing the freedom of our life with Jesus. But the warning is there
as well:

… and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.

What is that yoke of slavery? Your Self. A slave obviously has no free will. And our
innate Slavery to our Self is the worst kind of slave driver. A slave has no freedom, but a
follower of Jesus has, because, “It is for freedom that Christ has set us free.”

Jesus drives this home:

Jesus replied, “Very truly I tell you, everyone who sins is a slave to sin.  35  Now a
slave has no permanent place in the family, but a son belongs to it forever.  36  So if
the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed. (John 8:34-36)

A real-life example of no-free will:

Recently a man told me about cursing and “popping the bird” at someone in traffic. He is
a fine man, well-mannered, bright, and with a fun sense of humor. He was absolutely
mortified and ashamed of himself and tried to explain what had him so unhinged at that
moment. (Argument with his wife. The recent political news.)

Now I ask you, was this ordinarily fine man operating in his free will when he popped the
bird? (Sorry for repeating that, it’s just fun to say.)

I say he was not. What came out of his mouth and on his hand was a product of
anything but his free will.

May you, my friend, surrender, give up, your Free Will Driver’s License, so you may
experience the freedom of Jesus’ free will, as you learn