.
I don't think I understand that reasoning. But I also know that people chase after highs.
Epi is right that the bible is full of experiences and personal encounters with God. A lot of them wouldn't be written there if someone hadn't spoke of them, shared them, with others. How would anyone know an angel came to zecharia or what the angel said if zecharia didn't tell anyone, for example?
If God arranges for you to be with a small group of people and you start to be a body together, you have to get over your fear at some point and trust and love the rest of the people enough to share or you will be holding back to the detriment of the whole group/body.
How do you think they came to agreement to send out Paul and Barnabas? Do you think one man said he heard it from the Holy Spirit and they went with what the one man said? Or do you think the different members heard different things that...coalesced, to the point where they were confident what the Spirit was saying? One of them might have come in the morning with 50.00 and said, okay you guys, this might sound weird but...I heard this quiet voice that said give Paul and Barnabas 50.00. I have no idea what for, but I brought the 50.00, and I'm not completely sure about anything here. Then a few hours later, another person may have showed up and said, okay guys, this is going to sound weird, but I think I heard that I was to bring a new pair of shoes for Paul, I seemed to hear a quiet voice say: take a pair of shoes for Paul. And so on.
Now, it does not work, those frenzied meetings of running after a high. That's not a body working as it should, soberly (But with joy and wonder). And it requires a desire to give for the whole body, not a prideful desire to be seen as important or as one who God speaks more to.
So...no, I don't think sharing experiences or what we think we might have heard (even if we aren't sure or confident, because it's only happened once, that it didn't just come from our own head) is a problem. I think refusing to speak for fear of looking foolish would be the problem.
I just don't see a huge megachurch being able to move together, honestly. I think small groups can come to that kind of unity, and I think a few small groups can function together and visit one another's meetings and who knows how video internet might help in that? But a megachurch working and moving together in that extreme intimacy? I just don't see it, personally.
Running after a high, I think that really answers a lot!
I think . . .
Some people are in competition with each other over who has had the most "sacred" experience.
Some people have an experience, and then spend the rest of their life seeking a repeat experience.
Some feel the need to have an experience to relieve their insecurities.
Some people feel threatened by other's experiences, as they are . . .
. . . disagreeing with the theological context
. . . thinking that such things don't happen
. . . so completely unable to relate to what is being described.
I've wondered myself how it was the Holy Spirit called out Paul and Barnabas in Antioch. Detail isn't given, but I think that if it were, it would be used as a recipe.
I agree with you that the larger the church the more difficult to have an intimacy with the others, that's one of the reasons my wife and I changed to a smaller church some years ago. And the small groups are best yet as we are truly coming to know each other.
It think it can be very difficult sometimes to be able to separate our theological differences from our service in love. It doesn't matter so much whether I believe the exact same things as someone else, God still intends for me to care for the needs of others, in all senses.
I've not made much a practice of talking about my supernatural encounters with God because it seems there is so much involved to properly contextualize things, and I'm not intrested in just making a display of myself.
I suppose I just wait until it seems appropriate, and then say what seems to be useful.
We should never ever ever in my opinion share our supernatural encounters with God as being the goal, or something necessary for the Good Christian Life. Or as something that unless you've experience this, your walk, or your life, is incomplete. I believe God gives us all we need.
If someone receives more, I think it is because they needed more. Like what you were talking about being remedial, and this grand vision is solely to bring me to the same simply faith share by those who have not received this vision.
And of course, like you say, we can be afraid to share.
Good post, and some good things to think about!
Much love!