Hank Smith: 00:05 Hello, my friends. Welcome to followHIM Favorites. My name is Hank Smith. I’m here with the amazing John Bytheway. Hello John Bytheway.

John Bytheway: 00:13 Hi, Hank.

Hank Smith: 00:14 If you’ve been following followHIM Favorites this year, we’re taking a single question from each week’s lesson and talking about it.

Hank Smith: 00:20 This lesson is on the Book of Ruth and the first three chapters of 1 Samuel. We’re taking our question from 1 Samuel 3, in which Samuel hears the voice of the Lord, but doesn’t know it’s the voice of the Lord. He thinks Eli is calling him. And so he goes to Eli, “What did you want?” And Eli says, “It’s not me. Go back to bed.” This happens a couple of times until Samuel finally realizes, “Oh, wait, that’s the voice of the Lord.”

Hank Smith: 00:48 A common question I get is, “How do I tell the difference? How do I know if it’s the Spirit, the voice of the Lord, or just my own thoughts?” So, I think this is a good time to bring this up, John. How would you help someone say, “How do I distinguish between the Holy Ghost and my own voice?”

John Bytheway: 01:06 Such a good question. I remember hearing David O. McKay, somebody saying that the conscience speaks through our own voice, or it sounds like our own voice. Sometimes when the Holy Ghost or our conscience speak to us, it’s in our voice. I think one of the really helpful ways is, you know this, Hank, in the Book of Mormon, what is it, Moroni 7, “Does it lead you to do good? Does it lead you to believe in Christ?”

John Bytheway: 01:28 Sometimes if you’re not sure, what is it asking you to do? Is it asking you to do something good that strengthens your faith in Christ? And then you can know with a perfect knowledge it’s of God if it’s asking you to do something good. That’s consistent with what you know about the gospel. So, that helps. I just love, if teenagers are asking the question, that right there is awesome.

Hank Smith: 01:49 Just the fact that you’re asking the question means you’re on the right track and you’ll get there. It’s something you learn over time. It’s very much a line upon line thing. I remember Elder Packer saying he listened as an apostle to the exact same voice he heard when he was a deacon. He said, “But the signal’s much clearer now.” It’s the same voice. You’re just learning to kind of tune in. A lot of our listeners have never used a radio where they actually had to tune it in but what you’ll find in life is that you’re just tuning that radio to get that signal even clearer.

Hank Smith: 02:24 John, one of my favorite descriptions of the influence of the Holy Ghost is in Doctrine and Covenants 11:12, 13. You can always remember it, 11:12, 13, where the Lord says, “Put your trust in that Spirit which leadeth to do good, to do justly,” meaning to be honest. “To be humble, and to judge righteously.” He says, “This is my Spirit.”

Hank Smith: 02:47 So, if you are feeling like you want to do good, you want to be honest, you need to be humble, and you’re not judging people, you’re maybe making judgements about situations but you’re not judging others, he says, “This is my spirit. You can know for a fact, that’s my Spirit.” And then he goes on in 13 to say, “I will impart onto you of my Spirit, which shall enlighten your mind,” so this idea of promptings, this idea of enlighten your mind, something comes into my head and wow, I’d never thought of that before. That’s usually not something I would think to do. And he says, “Which will fill your soul with joy.” So I take that to mean that whatever the Holy Ghost is telling me here, it’s making me feel good. It’s uplifting me. It’s making me feel edified inside and encouraged.

Hank Smith: 03:30 That’s part of what we’re learning here in 1 Samuel 3, when the Lord says, “Samuel,” and he says, “I’m ready. I’m ready.” It’s learning to distinguish that feeling. Not just a voice, but that feeling of, oh, this is really like you said, John prompting me to do something good.

John Bytheway: 03:46 I love that 11:12, 13. And it goes with Moroni 7. Too often, we might overthink it and think I have to have this burning feeling or something like that. Well, that happens sometimes to some people. Doesn’t happen to everybody. It’s so simple to be able to do what you’re saying. Is it asking me to do good things? To do right things? Then you can know, Hey, that was a good influence. That was a good impulse I just had. That was a good prompting, we might say. We will grow in our understanding of how to get those messages.

John Bytheway: 04:15 I just like what Samuel said, “Speak. Thy servant heareth.” That’s so good. It’s like, I’m ready. What do you want?

Hank Smith: 04:22 Remember in the Book of Mormon, who is it that calls Mormon as a child. He says, “You’re quick to observe.”

John Bytheway: 04:28 Ammaron.

Hank Smith: 04:29 Ammaron. You’re quick to observe this idea of, hey, I can see that when you get a prompting, you go. You act. You’re obedient. You’re quick to be obedient. If it’s a good thing, John, I feel like, Hey, move forward. Move forward. Is that the Lord? Or is that me? Hey, if it’s a good thing, move forward. If you’re trying to do what’s right. You’re trying to keep the commandments. You’re reading and praying and really trying to make the Lord the number one priority in your life, don’t worry too much about, oh, is this me? Or is this the Lord? When you’re trying to unite your will with his, those voices can become one and the same at times.

John Bytheway: 05:07 Well, I do think that’s part of the test of life is the Lord saying, “I wonder what they’ll do if I don’t send a prompting,” and that’s why we choose the right. We don’t have to always be compelled or prompted. We choose the right because we know what’s right.

John Bytheway: 05:20 I wonder sometimes if the Lord tests us that way. What will they do when I don’t prompt them? Hopefully we have enough of a testimony to say, “I’m doing the right thing.”

Hank Smith: 05:28 Yeah. I’m going to do good here. What does the Lord say? Yeah. I don’t want to have to command you in all things.

John Bytheway: 05:33 Slothful servant is compelled in all things.

Hank Smith: 05:36 Yeah. I want you to do many things of your own free will and bring to pass much righteousness,

John Bytheway: 05:41 King Benjamin. I cannot tell you all the ways that you can sin, but this much I can tell you. Watch yourself and your thoughts and your deeds. Just stay on that covenant path. Sometimes you’ll be prompted to, but even if you don’t, you know what the covenant path is. You know how to stay on there. That’s I think what President Nelson might remind us, stay on the covenant path.

Hank Smith: 06:00 As you move forward, doing what John just said, just staying on that covenant path, you’ll be able to turn around one day and look back and Eli, the high priest says to Samuel, he says, “It is the Lord. Let him do what seemeth with him good.” Like, you’ll see that you were being directed far more than you thought you were.

Hank Smith: 06:19 I’ve noticed that in my life, John. Here I am trying to make good decisions, trying to stay on the covenant path and I look back and I can go, “Oh wow. Look at all these things that fell into place.” When maybe I wasn’t thinking, “Oh, that’s a prompting. That’s a prompting. That’s a prompting.” I’m just trying to do my best and doors and doors and opportunities were opening for me. And you look back and you go, “Oh wow. It was the Lord and he’s doing this as seemeth him good.” It says Samuel grew and the Lord was with him. I think you can trust that too. The Lord’s going to be with you.

John Bytheway: 06:52 He’ll guide you sometimes, even when you don’t feel it, if you are striving to be on the covenant path. I love that because that’s me too. I look back. Wow. I was being helped back then. I didn’t even realize it at the time, but that was a better decision than I thought it was and I think it’s because the Lord helped me there and I didn’t even realize it.

Hank Smith: 07:09 I think it was Elder Bednar who said, “You can learn from the times when you feel the spirit, but you can also learn from those times where you don’t feel the spirit because the promise of the sacrament is that they will always have his spirit to be with them.” So the rare thing should be when I don’t feel like I want to do good, when I don’t feel like being honest, when I don’t feel like judging righteously and I’m having those times and the spirit has withdrawn, I can learn from wow, how that feels.

John Bytheway: 07:37 I can learn from listening to the great and spacious and giving them heed to remember Elder Bednar saying, “We heeded them not.” Right? I know that feels different and I know it does.

Hank Smith: 07:48 That cold hollowness. You can say to yourself, “Wow. I may not know what the Holy Ghost feels like exactly, but I know what it feels like when it’s gone.” I’m going to stay away from those situations.

Hank Smith: 07:59 Join us next week for another followHIM Favorites. Come join us for our full podcast. We’re talking to Dr. Gaye Strathearn about these chapters and I think you’re going to love her. She is just a wonderful, brilliant scholar and she’s got a great accent. Come check it out.

John Bytheway: 08:13 Yeah. Got to hear it.

Hank Smith: 08:14 Join us next week for another followHIM Favorites.