Welcome to Buoy, a Life in Deeper Water podcast.

Episode 97. From Him, Through Him, and Back To Him (I am a Glory Girl)

Hello human.

We have all the time we need to meditate on, to boast about what our timeless God is doing in our lives. Every moment has the potential for reconciliation of heaven and earth in my own spiritual growth.

How God’s Son is revealed in my actions, and what my purpose is, contributes to that reconciliation. Because our goal is to live in God’s ultimate reality, where Heaven and Earth are one.  

This is such an amazing spiritual place to be. What I didn’t discover until 97 BUOYs later is the awe-inspiring nature of God’s reconciliation in this, the middle of His story.

Colossians 1:19

 

19 For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, 20 and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.

“and through him to reconcile to himself all things,” – Paul says – through His Son’s sacrifice who has been with Him for all time, He makes peace.

We see the movement of how He reconciles by just living on earth. He uses reconciliation as a template for nature. Everything draws back to Him.

Sunrise to sunset to sunrise.

High tide to low tide to high tide.

Dusk to dawn to dusk.

Child to man to child.

Eternity to mortality to eternity.

That our creation is powered by His movement to bring everything back to its origin.

And it wasn’t until I was reading through the Bible in late 2023, early 2024 that I felt the full weight of Romans 11:36. When I had freshly experienced the history of the Israeli nation over two thousand years, then the coming of Jesus to earth, His death, burial, and resurrection, and the work of establishing the first church by His apostles. When Paul burst out in praise at the end of that chapter. It was then I saw the most clearly where I had been.

It began with God. It all happened through God. And everything returns to Him. And it is understanding the movement of the fall, the need for reconciliation, that His chosen people, and all people were meant to return to Him. This is my first time to begin to explore what this all means. I think it is a longer work, but such a presence in my witness already.

Verses 33-36 are a “doxology,” means “a word of glory.” It is an eruptive statement of praise to the God who is worthy of all glory-words, and more.

Romans 11:33-36

New International Version

 

Doxology

 

33 Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and[a] knowledge of God!

    How unsearchable his judgments,

    and his paths beyond tracing out!

34 “Who has known the mind of the Lord?

    Or who has been his counselor?”

35 “Who has ever given to God,

    that God should repay them?”

36 For from him and through him and for him are all things.

    To him be the glory forever! Amen.

Romans 11:36

Christian Standard Bible

 

36 For from him and through him

and to him are all things.

To him be the glory forever. Amen.

Before I continue, just a quick side note to this musician, author, and all things lived by “the road not taken.” Andrew Peterson—discover his amazing work; and you might enjoy this doxology, sung beautifully.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qhrIRUJUvf8

https://www.andrew-peterson.com/home

Three things are seriously game-changing for me in verse 36.

1. Origin
2. Movement
3. And the power of prepositions

Yes, I said, “In the power of the prepositions.” An understanding of spiritual GPS that sorts out all the ways we are confused about our relationship with God, our journey. It made me want to write a book about The Power of Prepositions in God’s Word. Because prepositions are about the order of things, the origin of things. The relationship of people and things to each other.

Let’s just start here, with one verse. On this premise. If we get the power source wrong, we fight for turf that isn’t ours. If we get who the Giver is wrong, we try to create what the Creator says we will have.

If we are unplugged in what we receive from Him, unplugged from what we do through Him, we will be unplugged from being a vessel to bring His glory back to Him. No reconciliation.

I am talking about three prepositions:  From. Through. To.

36 For from him and through him

and to him are all things.

To him be the glory forever. Amen.

Before I go on, just for the sake of a quick grammatical clarification a preposition is a word or group of words used before a noun, pronoun, or noun phrase to show direction, time, place, location, spatial relationships, or to introduce an object.

I think of a preposition as the movement that defines the relationship of one object to another. Most important God to me, to you, to us.

Because how we connect with God defines how we connect with each other.

From God

When we understand each movement, if we get the order and direction spiritually right, we will live toward, and can rest in the beauty of how God reconciles all things.

Every single gift that defines my spiritual walk is from Him, for the purpose of using it to the goodness of others through Him, all for the purpose of bringing the service bounty back to Him. When this happens, His glory is illuminated throughout His heavens.

Like when lightning lights up the sky in a summer storm.  

How is this a revelation, really? It answers to how we get it wrong all the time. It requires that we know Him.

How do we learn the power of “from”? No, “from God.” Because we are not clear about what is from God and not from God. Getting clear on from-God becomes a powerful discerning agent about what is not-from God. This becomes an incredible superpower for our purpose. For what’s His to do, for how I stay focused on that, and let the “not from’s” go.

The “not-froms” are from our human nature, the part of that nature that serves no Godly purpose.

Here’s an obvious one. Fear is not from God. He doesn’t welcome me to my day by saying “Good morning, Kathryn. I have a little fear planned for you today.” It does not come from Him. But many people hold fear close as a form of caring, loving someone or perhaps caring about the future. And trying to prevent that fear from happening. I do that. Some believe that fear is from God for the purpose of strengthening us. But that’s not what He does. He may test us, but never tempt us. He does not create fear in our lives. He creates faith. He does not create fear. He creates fortitude.

Anxiety, worry, stress, depression, guilt. All easy to recognize, entertaining the masses via a culture that just won’t let go.  

Harder to recognize: impatience, deception, dishonesty, pride, ego, self-elevation, shadowed thinking, self-serving motives, procrastination, time, hurry, pace, tempo, discomfort, ridicule, bad humor, bad faith, distraction, idol worship, false images, jealousy, envy, exploitation, earthly gain. And.

My affirmation: I pray for clarity on origin. I pray for clarity on what is from God.

We come to know God only by His revelation. He tells us who He is and what He is like, and He shows us in ways we can understand through His Son. When we know what is from God, it defines what He wants us each to do through Him.

Through God, I Love, I Serve

So, verse 36 says, 36 For from him and through him…

What we receive from God gives us what we need to be obedient in our life through Him. There is no part of our actions that shouldn’t be done through Him. That every way we serve is through Him. It came from Him. His work. His power. His love. His grace. His Word is filled with narrow, but illuminated paths to my understanding about living within the spirit, a life through Jesus. I can’t go further right now. But to know this: God is reconciling things through His Son in my life, to bring Glory back to Him.

To God

The “from” and the “through” are defined by divine origin. He gives us all the things from Him, to use through Him, and it comes back to Him. All the things we do in obedience return to Him. This defines who the Creator is. This defines our path. This defines our destination.

What is the destination? His glory. Here on His earth, and in His heavens.

Hey Glory Girl, He Is Bringing His Glory Back Through You

God gives us what we need to bring His glory back to Him. I have never thought this before. I did not know this until He put it on my heart.

My life purpose is to be obedient to what is from Him, and take the “from” to serve others through Him, so His glory returns to Him.

I am a Glory girl.

I have His Son to make God’s reconciliation possible through my life.

I have the Holy Spirit to connect the from, through and to in my earthly life. 

From. Through. To.

What is not as easily understood, but one of the most powerful principles of this is that so much of what we think is needed to live just falls away.

When I position the From-Through-To as a question, that builds on itself, it is like the lightning in a summer storm sky. A revelation, my inner apocalypse. Clarity at the beginning of my every next step that is about to be reconciled by God.

The Question:

Am I obedient to what is from God?

Am I obedient to what is from God to do this thing through His Spirit?

Am I obedient to what is from God to do this thing through His Spirit to bring glory to Him?

36 For from him and through him

and to him are all things.

To him be the glory forever. Amen.

Because this is His movement through my life. Over and over again. Reconciling my moment over moment over moment. Through high spirit-tide, low spirit-tide, high spirit-tide. And again.

No wonder I love the sound of the ocean. It is the rhythm of God. And rhythms have always been my narrative.

It frees me to ask all kinds of questions to get super clear about God’s presence in my life. Because that’s the bottom line. Connecting to His presence in my life. He is always there.

I travel back and forth via one preposition. To.

From God to not-from God.

Through Him to not-through Him.

To Him … and not-to His glory.

It is amazing what hardwiring the reconciliation question into my day does for clarifying His presence.

It clarifies what matters to Him. And that’s what I care about. Living a simple life from God, through God, to bring His Glory back to Him. In this, I am reconciled.

Because reconciliation is from God, through His Son.