Come Follow Me Mosiah 29 – Alma 4: Insights By Gogo Goff

I hope you enjoy some insights from my Come Follow Me Mosiah 29 – Alma 4 (If you missed last week’s insights for Come Follow Me Mosiah 25-28 click here). Save this pin to read later.

Judgments and great destruction.

“And if the time comes that the voice of the people doth choose iniquity, then is the time that the judgments of God will come upon you; yea, then is the time he will visit you with great destruction even as he has hitherto visited this land.”
Mosiah 29:27

Often people put stock in this candidate or that candidate, this party or that party to ‘fix’ America (or any other nation). But this verse teaches us that the problem is deeper, and the answer is not with candidates or parties or politics.

The problem is we have a culture of sin, increasingly the people choose sin over righteousness. If we do not reclaim the culture, the people in power even if they are “ours” will have little power to stand against the coming judgment and destruction, that God will send AS THIS VERSE PROMISES.

So what can we do? We can try to sway the voice of the people, not by campaigning for R or D. But by sharing the gospel, persuading them to choose Christ over Sin. Once the people return to Christ, He will be our King. Let us stand against sin, and be the voices of reason, love, and Christianity.

 Finding peace in persecution.

“And thus they did establish the affairs of the church; and thus they began to have continual peace again, notwithstanding all their persecutions.” Alma 1:28

A false idea that many people have is that peace means everything is good and easy. This verse says they had “continual peace” but it also said they had “persecutions”. How can there be peace if we are being persecuted?

Peace is a fruit of the Spirit. The people of Alma learned the lesson of John 14:26-27 Jesus Christ tells us to accept the Spirit and the peace He gives us.

As we follow Christ His spirit will bring us Peace. No matter how dark the storm may seem, no matter how hard it gets we can count on the character of God.

A Leader Who Cares.

“Now Alma, being the chief judge and the governor of the people of Nephi, therefore he went up with his people, yea, with his captains, and chief captains, yea, at the head of his armies, against the Amlicites to battle.”
Alma 2:16

The Book of Mormon teaches us a lot about how a true leader acts. And this verse is just one example; real leaders do not tell others what to do and watch, they lead their people and give them an example to follow. Alma was the Chief judge, he is important, and would be a target to kill. But he went at the head of the army, he led them into battle, showing them the cause was worth his very own life. The same with Captain Moroni, and many other leaders throughout the history of the scriptures. I recently listened to a conference talk that expressed some amazing thoughts on leadership:

“If I were to ask you, “Who is the greatest leader who ever lived?”—what would you say? The answer, of course, is Jesus Christ. He sets the perfect example of every imaginable leadership quality.

But what if I were to ask you, “Who is the greatest follower who ever lived?”—wouldn’t the answer again be Jesus Christ? He is the greatest leader because He is the greatest follower—He follows His Father perfectly, in all things.

The world teaches that leaders must be mighty; the Lord teaches that they must be meek. Worldly leaders gain power and influence through their talent, skill, and wealth. Christlike leaders gain power and influence “by persuasion, by long-suffering, by gentleness and meekness, and by love unfeigned.”

In God’s eyes, the greatest leaders have always been the greatest followers…Leadership is an expression of discipleship—it is simply a matter of helping others come unto Christ, which is what true disciples do. If you are striving to be a follower of Christ, then you can help others follow Him and you can be a leader.

Your ability to lead does not come from an outgoing personality, motivational skills, or even a talent for public speaking. It comes from your commitment to follow Jesus Christ. It comes from your desire to be, in Abraham’s words, “a greater follower of righteousness.” If you can do that—even if you aren’t perfect at it, but you’re trying—then you are a leader.”

The Greatest Leaders Are the Greatest Followers
By Stephen W. Owen, April 2016.

Jesus Christ is the ultimate example of a leader showing a cause was worth His life, Christ not only championed the Plan of Salvation, provided the perfect example to follow, He led the battle against sin, and He died for us to enable us to overcome sin and death, but more than dying He conquered death and lives again! He truly is the greatest leader.

The Power Of Prayer.

“Nevertheless, the Nephites being strengthened by the hand of the Lord, having prayed mightily to him that he would deliver them out of the hands of their enemies, therefore the Lord did hear their cries, and did strengthen them, and the Lamanites and the Amlicites did fall before them.”
Alama 2:28

In recent months the phrase “thoughts and prayers” has come under fire, saying that prayers don’t do anything. But that can’t be further from the truth. Sure prayers (faith) without action (works) is dead. But action without prayers is hopeless.

If you really want to change the world and overcome Satan we do need action, but we must have prayers!

Reaping our rewards.

“And in one year were thousands and tens of thousands of souls sent to the eternal world, that they might reap their rewards according to their works, whether they were good or whether they were bad, to reap eternal happiness or eternal misery, according to the spirit which they listed to obey, whether it be a good spirit or a bad one.”
Alma 3:26

Our actions carry rewards. If our actions are evil our rewards will be evil if our actions are good our rewards will be good. But we don’t just want “a good reward” our desire is exaltation! The actions that reap those rewards are temple covenants. We must strive to make, all the temple covenants. And far more important we must KEEP our temple covenants.

But we are human, and we don’t always keep our covenants. So then what? Is our eternal reward lost? Well, our covenants are broken and must be repaired and renewed. But how do we do this? Repentance and partaking of the Sacrament is the only way to repair and renew a broken covenant!

Losing face With God.

“And this he did that he himself might go forth among his people, or among the people of Nephi, that he might preach the word of God unto them, to stir them up in remembrance of their duty, and that he might pull down, by the word of God, all the pride and craftiness and all the contentions which were among his people, seeing no way that he might reclaim them save it were in bearing down in pure testimony against them.”
Alma 4:19

Alma was not ashamed, he recognized sin and in the spirit called it out. If I had to picture him as an apostle today I see him being like Elder Holland, someone who is willing to bring some of the “baptist” fire into the gospel that sometimes we need.

A sad trend I have noticed is members of the church is they are apologizing for Jesus Christ’s Gospel and His servants. Instead of bearing pure testimony “Joseph Smith was a Prophet of God”. They will say “I know Joseph was not perfect and made mistakes, but I believe he was a prophet”.

Or “I don’t agree with the Prophet of gay marriage/Ordained Women” Or out of fear of offending those around us we water down or don’t even share out testimonies.

But be warned, what happens if we water down our pure testimonies to save face with man we stand in jeopardy to lose our eternal reward.