The word of God came to John in the desert.

God has a special predilection for silence, hiddeness, spiritual poverty and humility.  It was not to a city or even to an inn in a town that the Christ child came but to a stable in the country.  All were occupied with their affairs while the incarnate Word was laid in animal feed trough (Luke 2.7).  It was not in the great wind, nor the earthquake nor the fire by which God met Elijah at Horeb but rather silence (1 Kings 19.12).  Jesus himself went into the desert to be alone with God.  Not content to have the privacy of a room or even a secluded orchard, Jesus rose very early in the morning while it was still dark and went out to deserted places to pray (Mark 1.35).

We must not think we have to go to the desert to hear God's Word, or create special conditions around ourselves before God can speak.  Those who do so are likely to hear themselves talk to themselves and mistake their own voice for God's (a phenomenon we see occurring and whose content is even making it into popular books which are passed off as Revelation).  The parable of the sower indicates that all different types of people hear God's Word.  But only the heart which does not have Satan as its constant companion or the world's cares, riches and pleasures can hope to hold the word fast in an honest and good heart and bear fruit in patient endurance (Luke 8.11-15).  In other words only the heart which is like a desert.