Shell Crackers: God’S Promised Visions and Dreams, Will Test Our Faith

By Trent Bolesky

Will there be Christians living in the Great Tribulation? Answer: yes! The book of Revelation clearly describes several distinct and intriguing groups of saints living in this horrendous time. In this thrilling second book in the trilogy, Shell Crackers describes Gods process and purpose for one such group.

This is an active, thought-provoking work that has the potential to drive readers into a time of personal searching and reflection and ending in a deeper and richer faith! Discover for the first time the whos, the hows, the whats and the whys behind Gods fulfilling of His scriptural promises to send us visions and dreams soon!

You will be shocked, stunned, and amazed, and yet you will find yourself in a peaceful place, undoubtedly craving more. There is more to come in the third and final culminating thriller in this trilogy: Faith Bombs!

• Language: English
• Publisher: Inspiring Voices
• Release date: Jul 10, 2013
• ISBN: 9781462406753

Trent Bolesky

Trent has been married for 19 years and has two teenage daughters. You see him holding a handpainted picture of his son T. J. who died in a car crash in 2010. He works as a Senior Pharmaceutical Sales rep, and loves to teach, ride bikes, attend oldie car shows, and play tennis.

Book preview

PRELUDE

Visions and dreams will test our faith . . . not our Bible knowledge!

It has been some time ago that I witnessed and experienced a vivid life like dream, and an intense powerful grand vision from the Lord.

Yet, I still bask in the lingering afterglow effects and their unique influences on my life.

I see things differently. I understand and process things uniquely. And it is a direct result of that limited and temporary access that I was granted by God to view eternal and holy things in an alternate dimension, through His explosive grand vision.

Some might suggest that individuals like me, who have seen God’s supernatural creativity expressed through His masterful visions and dreams, have a somewhat loose theological grid which then allows us to fall more easily and comfortably on the side of an experiential style of faith.

The problematic thoughts which I seem to have regarding that idea or suggestion is, that this vision and dream were sent to me by God, and this was not by my own personal choice!

I have never chosen to have an experiential type of faith, in any way.

My doctrine and theology have always erred on the side of ultra conservative, in almost every possible way.

Additionally, this was a distinctly onetime event and not a previous or ongoing bent that I possessed, which then allowed me to lean more heavily towards an odd experience such as a mysterious vision, or a supernatural dream from the Lord.

It is because of this, that I will suggest the idea that maybe those who have never been exposed to these experiences may have it backwards. And that in actuality, those who have no training, no doctrines, or even any thoughts developed around the Bible’s promises of prophetic visions and dreams are instead, possibly the ones who have the true loose theology.

Because I had this singular experience of a vivid life like dream and a grand vision from our omnipotent God, I have out of necessity been forced to develop a tight doctrine and sound theology. One that stands up under the microscope of scrutiny around these Biblical doctrines of dreams and visions that the Lord of Heaven promised to send us in His Holy Bible.

The most interesting thing which I have clearly seen, is that those who assure me that they are the most fundamentally sound, when pressed; seem to have little or no tight or sound doctrine developed on dreams and visions form the Lord at all.

They have not refined any balanced Biblical approach to discern God’s truths with any certainty, through His intended messages to come from these Bible-promised doctrines of visions and dreams from the Lord.

Therefore, because they have no doctrine or sound theological training in these areas, and no firm thoughts on the matter, it appears to me that they struggle in their thinking. They then appear to waffle back and forth between other conservative doctrines, and yet, at the same time acknowledging that the Bible does make some small reference toward these things that we do not completely understand. Things like prophetic visions and dreams, and the experiential side of our faith possibly becoming a reality for us all.

I will go on to demonstrate, that I believe this creates an enormous problem, and that it also ultimately allows for a contradiction in their thoughts, or the other option, which would be that their befuddled arguments may have the Word of God actually contradicting itself.

With little doctrine developed on these issues, and therefore the propensity to waffle back and forth, what I have witnessed, is that those who believe that they are the most fundamentally sound, may have instead actually become the individuals with the loose theology.

This loose theology has gone as far as allowing this camp to make conflicting statements to me which, in reality, have the Bible actually contradicting itself.

So does the Bible contradict itself, or do these individuals contradict themselves?

All I know for sure, from my perspective, is that one of these has to be the case, and I do not believe that the Bible contradicts itself.

We will definitely take a much closer look at answering this critically important question, and examining the possible solutions.

Some have made statements on one hand that say, I acknowledge that the Scriptures predict a time before the coming of Christ when there will be visions, and dreams, and prophecy, according to Joel.

And then on the other hand, they make a Biblically contradictory statement such as, Well if prophetic visions and dreams include revelations or instructions from God, then we should be adding that to our Bibles, and we cannot do that, because our Bibles tell us that cannot happen, therefore, we must necessarily toss these visions and dreams aside.

Do you understand the potential of waffling back and forth, and the huge problem that this creates?

Do you see that riding both sides of these theological fences, means that those who may stubbornly refuse to develop a sound theology in the areas of visions and dreams, are quite possibly the camp with the true loose doctrine?

Individuals who have been there or will soon go there and experience the incredible visions and dreams for themselves will likely, out of necessity, be the ones who will develop the tight doctrines for this loose thinking camp. An odd thinking camp, where some strangely believe that they are more doctrinally sound, for having no theology or training prepared in this area at all.

I will repeat though, the true theme of this book… God intends to test our FAITH through visions and dreams . . . not our Bible knowledge or doctrinal positions.

It will therefore not matter in the least if you were trained at Moody Bible Institute, or Dallas Theological Seminary, or anywhere else for that matter.

No training of man, can replace the intimate individualized way that our Father God will require each one of us privately and personally to pray to Him.

To listen for His voice, one-on-one, face-to-face, no one else telling you what to think, or what to believe.

No dozens of Bible verses for you to quote on the topic. No relying on your background or training. No putting this into the same old categories.

This is a new category: Visions + Dreams.

One without a ton of sound doctrine.

One specifically designed by a loving God, so that you cannot rely on your background, or your training, or a multitude of Bible references.

This is finally just about you and Him alone!

God wants your… FAITH!

Do not quote your Bible to Him… don’t you think He already knows what the Bible says, you know, being the author and all?

So many of us who have faithfully served in our churches for years, have unwittingly gotten into the rut of serving others above all else.

Don’t get me wrong, we do serve others and we should, its great work, but above all else . . . we serve an audience of ONE! And He wants to witness our faith!

Our audience of ONE is God alone!

Personally I can attest to you, that as a result of experiencing the dream and the vision that God sent me, I have become vastly more doctrinally sound and theologically conservative.

I know this sounds somewhat odd, and maybe even backwards to many of you, but I have developed a much tighter and more conservative grid surrounding the doctrines of God’s promised prophetic visions and