Soaking

Let the message about the Messiah dwell richly among you, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, and singing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs, with gratitude in your hearts to God.

Colossians 3:16 HCSB

It has been over 2 years now that my friend Don Molinari passed away.  As this morning’s verse came across my email I could not help but reflect on one of the greatest inspiration’s I have received from Don.

Don was a rock. I mean a solid, hard hitting, man of a man, tested and tried in his faith and enduring a career of construction well into his later years. A marine, a father, and an awesome testament of the power of the Holy Spirit in someone’s life. I have a handful of men that have surpassed the common levels of love and commitment and Don Molinari is in the group. Now, residing over us with Christ our King, I can imagine Don’s huge smile as he is watching his family legacy carry on and witnessing the lives of so many continue to flourish in God from the help he and his wife Fran invested in.

One of my greatest takeaways from my friendship with Don was a bit of a “catch 22”. For the first part of his message to me hurt like hell but the result of his words catapulted my faith AND life unto a different level. A level of Spirit “filled-ness” that I have yet to recover from. In the spring of 2014, I found myself in a place of comfort. I was comfortable in my faith, in my work, in my home, in fact, there was such comfort that I could have even been labeled complacent. Does that word resonate with anyone? Complacency can really be a dangerous place. Comfort and complacent can by themselves be ok but in the life of a believer, not so much.

Don Molinari was NOT always a soft hearted man, in fact, his wife and children could recall many years that his hard heart and strong will took over and left him less than desirable to be around. God changed him… and I was blessed to be on the receiving end.

One evening, in our marriage small group, Don called me out in front of everyone. This tough brick laying marine gave this rough handed concrete guy a run for his money. I was confronted with Don’s words that I didn’t really know and trust God. As this struck me as rude and inconsiderate, the words were true.

You see, I had an opportunity to walk through a door that had been opened by God, yet my fears and hesitations kept me from moving. I was stuck. I didn’t want a change and could not see the blessing of the challenge. As I left the group that evening I was truly broken. Broken down to the point of tears, begging God to give me the eyes to see His plan and vision for myself and my family, and pleading for God to show me the strength to walk through that open door. Don put it so simply, “if you’re not going to go get what God has already laid out in front of you, someone else will.” He continued, “Stop being such a wussy with your faith and act like a man.”   ouch…

A week or two went by and I returned to that small group with my wife. Although my mind hadn’t caught up with my actions, I was going to face the challenge and shortly thereafter, i was on my way to Texas, leaving everything I new to start a new adventure. Was I scared? yes. Did I have fear? yes. Did God show up and take over? You bet He did.

BIG TIME.. Every single move I made, God was there, Every person I met, every decision, He cleared the way. Every hesitation was eliminated by His Spirit and things just clicked, one move after the next, after the next.. right up to today, almost 4 years later. Still reaping the benefits of that mustard seed faith move.

The day I left Illinois, Don Molinari shared a CD with me of this crazy sermon. This message was named “soaking” by Grahm Cooke and I still enjoy it to this day. A simple message of the words God might be saying to us day in and day out if we simply accept His Fatherhood over us and dwell with the Spirit. I’d be happy to share that message with anyone that asks or you can find it HERE… https://soundcloud.com/brenden-kurtz/1-01-soaking-prophecy-cd

In all fairness, if you do choose to listen, you just have to listen to the ENTIRE CLIP. Some may not get into it, but for Don Molinari and myself, it was not hard to sit through. It really felt great and I go back to it so often…

Soaking…

Let the message about the Messiah dwell richly among you, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, and singing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs, with gratitude in your hearts to God.

Colossians 3:16 HCSB

When His message dwells richly among us there is little that can hold us back. Admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms, with gratitude in our hearts. There is SO MUCH to be found in our King! What is holding you back today from unleashing the Spirit ?

Soaking…

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