Come, Follow Me 3 Nephi 20-26: Insights By Gogo Goff

I hope you enjoy some insights from my Come, Follow Me 3 Nephi 20–26 (If you missed last week’s insights for Come, Follow Me 3 Nephi 17-19 click here). Save this pin to read later.

The Father.

“And they shall believe in me, that I am Jesus Christ, the Son of God, and shall pray unto the Father in my name.”
3 Nephi 20:31

Something I noticed as I read 3rd Nephi 20 was how often Christ was saying “the Father” told me to say X or do Y, it felt like every other verse talked about the Father. So I decided to do a quick search and find out how many times in 3rd Nephi it says “the Father” it says it 106 times. (19 in Chapter 20 alone!)

For some references In ALL of Holy Writ “The Father” is used only 457 times, it is used…
180 times in The Book Of Mormon
127 times in the New Testament
77 times in the Doctrine and Covenants
61 times in the Old Testament and
12 times in the Pearl of Great Price

What hit me was that it is used 71 times in the Gospels, Matthew (3), Mark (5), Luke (4), and John (59), but it is found 106 times in just 3rd Nephi!

Clearly, Jesus Christ knew that the doctrine of the Father would be corrupted and assaulted in the apostasy and the last days, He taught the doctrine of the Father clearly and defended the divinity and actuality of the Father to the world that has all but rejected the Father for the Gnostic view of God, the Trinity.

We believe in the Father, we believe in His Son, Jesus Christ. We believe in the doctrines outlined by Prophets and Apostles past, present, and future as they are all the same. God loves us, He sent His Son to die for us and to bring us home.

Thomas Jefferson and the Restoration.

“For it is wisdom in the Father that they should be established in this land, and be set up as a free people by the power of the Father, that these things might come forth from them unto a remnant of your seed, that the covenant of the Father may be fulfilled which he hath covenanted with his people, O house of Israel;” 3 Nephi 21:4

This land is choice land, the founding Fathers were inspired to established a nation of liberties where the Gospel could be restored, where a Church could be established and a covenant fulfilled.

The Founding Fathers were not perfect men, but many of them were inspired men who had a role to play in the restoration, many of them actually appeared in the St George Temple to President Willford Woodruff and asked for their work to be done as they did their part in the plan to bring about the Restoration.

Thomas Jefferson was Deist he did not believe in the apostate Christianity of the time, he was one of the most prominent founding Fathers. He noticed what was coming just before he died he wrote a letter to a friend and he said, and I quote.

He saw the coming truth but he died in 1826 4 years before the Gospel and Church were restored. For more about the restoration check out 3 things you did not know about the restoration! (Click Here)

The heritage of a servant.

“No weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper; and every tongue that shall revile against thee in judgment thou shalt condemn. This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord, and their righteousness is of me, saith the Lord.” 3rd Nephi 22:17

Five summers ago I was living and working in Greenville South Carolina. I was the only active member of all my team, everyone else would go do things on Sunday, I was always being invited to break the Sabbath. so I decided to avoid temptation I would go out with the missionaries all day every Sunday.

On July 1st, 2015 I was driving home on Neely Ferry Rd, I came around a bend just north of the LDS Chapel and there was a car in my lane, it was dark and wet so I swerved to miss the car, I swerved towards the forest, and he swerved away from me.

He continued on as if nothing had happened, but in the processes of swerving I ended up going off the road, I lost control and in the attempt to regain control my car jackknifed and proceeded to enter the ditch and roll into the woods.

The feeling was surreal, glass was shattering, things flying all around me, but I was calm, I knew I had been about His business, and that I had been keeping all my covenants and if it was my time I would be ok. My car ended up face down resting against a tree, but I was unharmed.

A stranger helped me get out of the car and I waited on the edge of the road for the EMT’s to come. My coworker who was behind me witnessed it thinking I had died, the car that was in my lane did not stop, but the one behind him did.

As I sat there everyone kept asking me to retell my story, as more and more people showed up I would explain what I have just written. Everyone would exclaim “God must have a plan for you.” When the EMT’s showed up they shook their heads and said “Boy, we use body bags in accidents like this. God saved your life.”

My nonmember boss gave me a ride home, as we drove I called up some of the sells reps who I knew were members and I asked them to come to give me a blessing, they asked if everything was ok, I replied, “no, I should be dead.” They came and gave me a blessing, as they laid their hands upon my head they proclaimed I had witnessed a miracle and that I would witness a further miracle I would quickly recover from the accident.

The next morning I was dreading, I’ve been in a fender bender before and the whiplash is dreadful, but as I awoke, I actually felt better than I did the night before! I called my boss and told him I would need a ride to the car rental place but that I would be able to work that day. He was shocked and confused, but you almost died last night? The reply? “But I got a Priesthood blessing.”

He refused to let me work alone that day and instead I rode and worked with him, giving me a chance to talk a lot about Priesthood blessings  By the end of the day he shook his head and said that I would probably feel it the next day, but July 3rd rolled around and I felt good to go, so I worked a full 12 hour day.

In sharing this story with the missionaries, Elder Arnoldson shared this verse, he said I had acted like a servant, and received a servant’s heritage. I ended up being able to testify of Miracles and Priesthood blessings throughout the rest of the summer as all the sells reps would tell their customers that I had been in a rollover and walked away.

Are our actions becoming of a Servant of the Lord? Will we be blessed with their heritage?

The Value of Scripture.

“And Jesus said unto them: How be it that ye have not written this thing, that many saints did arise and appear unto many and did minister unto them?”
3 Nephi 23:11

I LOVE this story, Jesus asks for their records and HE asks them, didn’t I tell Samual the Lamanite to prophesy to you? They reply yes, and he did! And His reply is this verse…

The scriptures matter, so much so that 4 whole chapters (about 1/4th of the Chapters of Christ’s ministry to the Nephites) He is either giving them scriptures or correcting their records.

The Bible and The Book of Mormon are valuable, we must not take them lightly: “The early Saints were rebuked for treating the Book of Mormon lightly, are we under any less condemnation if we do the same.”
Ezra Taft Benson.

Robbing God of our offerings.

“Will a man rob God? Yet ye have robbed me. But ye say: Wherein have we robbed thee? In tithes and offerings.”
3 Nephi 24:8

Every time I’ve ever heard this verse talked about in the Church it is always only the tithes we talk about, but never the offerings. The Church’s welfare program is one of the largest non-governmental welfare programs in the world, and it is arguably the most effectively run program in the world.

It is funded and run by the offerings of the members of the Church, the Law of the Fast dictates that we are to fast 2 meals each Fast Sunday and give the money we would’ve spent on the food as a ‘freewill offering’ to the welfare program of the Church.

Many members do not understand that part of observing the law of the fast is paying this fast offering. Similarly, some members will rationalize away giving what they can. The story of the widow’s mite is important to remember!

Of our fast offerings, President Spencer W. Kimball said. “I think that when we are affluent, as many of us are, that we ought to be more generous. Instead of the amount saved by our two or more meals of fasting, perhaps much more—seven times more [should be given]—when we are in a position to do it.”

Fathers

“And he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers, lest I come and smite the earth with a curse.”
3 Nephi 25:6

This verse directly deals with Family History and Temple work, but for me, today, it took on a new meaning. As I read this the memories of the father figures in my life started to race into my mind. My Bishops and Seminary teachers, my scoutmasters, and home teachers. My friend’s dads.

As some of you do/did not know for a while growing up my dad was not able to be in my home. It was hard, but my ward stepped up and the men helped father me and continued to do so when my dad was able to come home. It has also brought to my attention the War on Men and Fathers that is being waged.

I’ve been studying the role of Men and Fathers and it hit me. The two distinctive features of our Heavenly Father that Satan is most jealous of is the fact He has a body and His role as Father, two things Satan has been eternally denied.

Satan via the Trinity has all but destroyed mankind’s knowledge about God’s physical body, effectively teaching Christianity God and Satan are both spirits without bodies. But in recent years, he has stepped up the attack on the position of Father. By attacking the Family and the need of a Father, attacking Men and attacking the role of Women Satan has launched the largest offensive against God since the concept of the Trinity.

We must remember, the War on Fatherhood is but the War in Heaven raging still, it is an attack of Heavenly Father. We can not and must not let Satan prevail, we fight back by being Fathers to those around us. When we act like our Father we teaching the world why the most important title of God is “Father”.

“Trying” our faith.

“Behold, I was about to write them, all which were engraven upon the plates of Nephi, but the Lord forbade it, saying: I will try the faith of my people.”
3 Nephi 26:11

Often we forget that one of the main reasons we’ve come to earth is to have our faith tested and tried. Like so many other things in life the only way to truly grow your faith is to have it pushed to the extreme edge, for when we are stretching we are growing.

Our faith is forged through our trials, and as we remember that “We doubt not the Lord nor his goodness. We’ve proved him in days that are past” (Hymn 19).

As you think about faith ask yourself…
Do you have the faith to keep working towards the temple when temptations are waging a daily war?
Do you have the faith to forgive someone who has abused you in the past?
Do you have the faith to go back to church, even though you’re alone?
Do you have the faith to try one more time?
Do you have the faith to repent?

Remember the plea of the beggar when he realized he lacked faith. “Lord, I believe; help thou mine unbelief.”