Muriwai - land, sea and sky
The psalmist declares:
The heavens are telling the glory of God;
and the firmament proclaims his handiwork.
Day to day pours forth speech,
and night to night declares knowledge.
There is no speech, nor are there words;
their voice is not heard;
yet their voice goes out through all the earth,
and their words to the end of the world. (PS 19: 1-4 NRSV)
It's a relatively common biblical understanding that observation of the creation causes humanity to conclude that God must be real, or how else did this amazing planetary system with all it's wonders even exist? Certainly my knowledge of God is enhanced by immersion in nature; land, sea and sky.
This general revelation of God through the creation is augmented by more specific speech from the Almighty to those who have a mind to listen. Psalm 85:8 for instance says this; 'Let me hear what God the Lord will speak, for he will speak peace to his people, to his faithful, to those who turn to him in their hearts.'
There are examples in scripture in which God takes a firm initiative in communicating with people for a particular purpose (e.g. Saul/Paul on the Damascus Road). However, more generally, God tends to speak to those who are attentive and whose hearts desire to hear from God.
So times of stillness and paying attention reap rewards. By way of illustration, the expansive photo above contains some water-tanks with tagging on them. They are not obvious at first glance. To read what was on them (assuming it made sense) one would have to first notice them and pick a way down the hill to get closer for a better look.
So it is with hearing God's voice. Very few people of faith have an easy conversational flow with the Lord. We need to slow down, listen, observe and persevere, taking ourselves closer to the source. Zoom in to where God is speaking. We can expect the Holy Spirit to help us, as in faith we seek God. Paul in Romans 8: 26-27 reminds us;
In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans. And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for God’s people in accordance with the will of God.
My prayer is that as individual believers and as a faith community, we attend to God's speech which flows forth through the creation and in Christ through the Spirit.