Hank Smith: 00:02 Hello everyone. Welcome to another followHIM Favorites. John and I are sharing a single story to go with each week’s lesson. John, we’re in Jacob: 1-4 and you’ve told me you have an experience to share.

John Bytheway: 00:15 I do. There’s something in Jacob 4:13. There’s one word that I just love. Okay, so Hank, I’m going to quiz you first. What is the definition of truth given in section 93, the Doctrine of Covenants.

Hank Smith: 00:26 Oh, John, you’re asking me to know my scriptures.

John Bytheway: 00:28 Truth is a knowledge of things as they are, as they were and as they will be. Something like that as that.

Hank Smith: 00:35 As they are to come. Something like that, right? It’s a knowledge of things as they are. As they are and as they are to come.

John Bytheway: 00:40 Okay, so go way back, Hank. I’m 17 years old, I don’t even know where you are. Probably pre-mortal existence. I was bowling at Fairmont Bowl and I remember looking at the end of the lane and there’s a little number one that says First ball and a number two that says Second ball. It was a green number one and Hank, it looked like an 11. And I remember going, “Did they change the rules? What’s wrong?” I’m pushing on my head and the one is going… and I’m like, “Why? There is something wrong with my eyes.” So I finish bowling. I say, mom, “I got to go see an eye doctor.” And the eye doctor says, “You have astigmatism.” And I’m like, “Bless you.”

  01:17 And he said, “No, you have astigmatism.” I’m like, what’s astigmatism? He says, “Your eyes are shaped more like a football than a basketball.” And I was like, “Oh, I watched too much football.” And Hank, I can’t even express. This was heartbreaking. My plan was to be a fighter pilot. You had to have 20-20 vision to be a military pilot. And all of that went out the window right there. I don’t know what it is now with LASIK, but that was all gone. I remember going a few weeks later and picking up my glasses. I remember putting those glasses on. Hank, I don’t know how long my vision had been blurry from distance and close. That’s astigmatism. It was distorted at any length. And I put on those glasses and it was like the first time you saw a high-definition television and just went, “Whoa.” That’s how I felt. I put them on. I can see the leaves in the trees so distinctly. My mom’s driving me home. I’m like, “This is amazing.” Next time I went bowling, it’s like 11, 1, 11, 1.

Hank Smith: 02:17 You’re like, “I can see.”

John Bytheway: 02:18 This is so sharp and everything was so clear and defined. I had no idea how long, like I said, it had been distorted for me. Well, here’s the thing. Today we have resources like crazy. You can ask a question in the air, you can ask Google or Alexa or Siri, and they will tell you the way they think things are. And AI will tell you the way they think things are from their database. And there’s a chance it might be true. So we’ve joked about this before. If you lack information, ask Google. If you lack wisdom, that’s a different question. So when you get to Jacob 4:13, he has something better than Google, than Alexa, than Siri, than chat GPT. And this is what he says in Jacob 4:13. In Jacob 4:13, he adds one word to that definition of truth in Section 93. And I just love it.

  03:11 Let me start. “Behold my brethren, he that prophesieth let him prophesy to the understanding of men. For the Spirit speaketh the truth and lieth not. Wherefore it speaketh of things as they really are and of things as they really will be.” I just love the extra word really in there. So many sources that’ll tell you something. But I don’t want AI, I want II. I want Infinite Intelligence to tell me. And the spirit will speak of things as they really are and of things as they really will be. All of us as much as possible get in places where the spirit of the Lord is and then we can sense things the way they really are. And that’s how I felt, first time I put on those glasses.

Hank Smith: 04:01 Oh, I love it. Fantastic. I love the idea that I didn’t know I couldn’t see until I saw.

John Bytheway: 04:09 And then I went, “Oh, this is the way things really look.”

Hank Smith: 04:13 This is what it’s like to see. And we can go through that same thing spiritually. “Oh, I can see. I can see.” Why don’t we see if you really see.

John Bytheway: 04:21 See the way things really are.

Hank Smith: 04:23 I bet you sing Amazing Grace differently, right?

John Bytheway: 04:26 I once was blind, but now I see.

Hank Smith: 04:29 He’s like, “I’ve felt that brother.” John, well, I think families all over the planet are grateful you didn’t become a fighter pilot, but you became a church speaker and you’ve blessed a lot of lives.

John Bytheway: 04:41 Maybe in the next life. I don’t want to shoot anybody. I just want something grossly overpowered. That’s what I tell people.

Hank Smith: 04:47 I want to fly. What’d you say? Fast and low. I’ve heard you say that before.

John Bytheway: 04:51 Yeah. I want to go really fast and really low. Really low. That’d be so fun.

Hank Smith: 04:55 Come join us on our full podcast. It’s called followHIM. You can get it wherever you get your podcasts. We’re with Dr. Barbara Morgan Gardner this week. You’re going to love what she does with this first half of Jacob. And then join us next week for another followHIM Favorites.