Hearing His Voice
Many people mistake hearing the voice of God as intimacy. This is why they think that men and women of God (aka prophets) are intimate with the Lord.
Well, Jesus said "My sheep hear My voice." (John 10:27). If you are a believer, you hear His voice. It doesn't represent intimacy. It simply means there is a relationship.
You can hear the voice of your spouse regularly. It represents relationship, but it doesn't mean that both of you have intimacy. We need to be clear what intimacy really represents.
This is why some can hear the voice of God so accurately but they don't become like Him. They don't grow in character. Yet they are 'anointed' (in the term that we are used to) in the prophetic realm. Because you can train yourself to hear Him so accurately without intimacy just as you can train yourself to recognise the voice of a human without intimacy.
The Old Testament prophets and the disciples of Christ (before His resurrection) could hear His voice so accurately but they were not intimate with Him.
Intimacy requires surrendering. If we don't learn to surrender every aspect of our lives to Him, we can continue to hear Him accurately; we can continue to recognise His voice accurately; we can continue to prophesy on others accurately, but we will NOT grow in intimacy.
Intimacy with Him comes by surrendering and giving that area to Him. Only yielding can result in Christ-likeness, in becoming like Him in that area.
The proof of intimacy is not hearing His voice. The proof of intimacy is becoming Love (John 15:8).
Don't mistake hearing His voice with intimacy. Instead, hear His voice and start surrendering whichever area He tells you to, so that we can become like Him in nature and character..
