Come, Follow Me Insights by Gogo Goff Doctrine and Covenants 30-36

I hope you enjoy some insights from my Come, Follow Me for Doctrine and Covenants 30-36. If you missed last week’s insight, Doctrine and Covenants 29 click here for it. Please share this with your friends or use this picture to save this pin to read later

Trusting in the Lord.

“Behold, I say unto you, David, that you have feared man and have not relied on me for strength as you ought.”
Doctrine and Covenants 30:1

David Whitmer was one of the three witnesses. David had heard of Joseph from Oliver Cowdery in April 1829, when Oliver stayed the night at the Whitmer farm in Fayette NY he told them he was traveling to meet Joseph in Harmony PA, Peter Whitmer told Oliver to write the Whitmers when he discovered if Joseph really was a Prophet or a fraud.

Oliver arrived in Harmony and shortly thereafter was called to be a scribe to Joseph, he wrote the Whitmers telling them that it was true, Joseph was a Prophet. He also told them about the persecutions they were experiencing and asked if they could come to the Whitmer farm in Fayette.

David asked his father if he could go to PA to find out for himself if Joseph was a real Prophet and if he was to invite him to come to the Whitmer home to complete the translation of the Book of Mormon. His father told him that if he could get the fields plowed early he could go. David worked all day the next day but was unable to finish plowing their family’s fields.

The next morning his sister inquired about the men David had hired to plow the field, confused David asked her what she was talking about. David’s sister told the family that the night prior 2 men and appeared in the middle of the night and she watched as they plowed the fields by lantern light. David raced out of the house into the field to find the plow in the freshly plowed field.

David told his father what happened to which his father replied, this work must be of God for he sent his angels to prepare the way to get Joseph and bring him here. David set off that morning, he did not even write Joseph or Oliver to warn them of his coming. As he walked into Harmony PA one week later Joseph and Oliver were there, waiting for him. Confused at how they knew Oliver told David last night Joseph told me that God had sent you and that you were saying in an inn outside of town and that you would arrive this morning. David now with two witnesses knew Joseph was a Prophet.

David brought Joseph back to his farmhouse where Moroni appeared to the three witnesses, the Book of Mormon translation was completed and on April 6th. 1830 the Church was organized. Even with all these miracles, although he never denounced his testimony of the Book of Mormon and that Angel Moroni appeared to him, David fell away from the church and never returned. He had failed to learn this one lesson. Taught in Doctrine and Covenants 30:1 Trust in the Lord, and do not fear men. Trusting in the Lord prevents apostasy, let us prevent apostasy by trusting in the Lord.

Patience in affliction.

“Be patient in afflictions, revile not against those that revile. Govern your house in meekness, and be steadfast.”
Doctrine and Covenants 31:9

Afflictions and trials will always be part of our lives, they refine and define who we are. We would be wise to apply this council to Thomas B. Marsh and to be patient in our afflictions.

“Patience in affliction and adversity means to persist firmly and never forsake that which we know to be true, standing firm with the hope that in the Lord’s due time we will gain an understanding of that which we do not understand now and which causes us suffering.”
Elder Angel Abrea

Prayer.

“And they shall give heed to that which is written, and pretend to no other revelation; and they shall pray always that I may unfold the same to their understanding.”
Doctrine and Covenants 32:4

One of the most repeated commands in all of the scriptures is the command to pray. God wants to bless us, He wants a relationship with us. We do this by prayer. Ask yourself, when I pray am I talking with my Father? Or am I speaking words to a far-off deity, not actually expressing how I feel. God is our loving Father, He wants to commune with us through prayer.

“A loving God is as close as a prayer.”
Carol F. McConkie

The Bible and the Book of Mormon.

“And the Book of Mormon and the holy scriptures are given of me for your instruction; and the power of my Spirit quickeneth all things.”
Doctrine and Covenants 33:16

Jesus Christ here declares that the Book of Mormon AND the holy scriptures are for our instruction. It is foolishness to think that we do not need the Bible because we have the Book of Mormon.

When used together the Bible and Book of Mormon testify of Jesus Christ and the Gospel. It is important to remember most of our most cherished doctrines are found are found in the Bible and not the Book of Mormon. The Book of Mormon teaches us about the Spirit world (Alma 40), but it is the Bible that teaches us of the work taking place in the Spirit would (1 Peter 3:19) We NEED both to establish the Doctrine and the Kingdom.

The greatest surrogate of the Book of Mormon would be Ezra Taft Benson, he taught countless sermons on the importance and how we as a church come under condemnation for taking it lightly. , if we would fall under condemnation for taking the Book of Mormon for granted, would we not also face the same judgments for taking the Bible lightly? Let us hearken to the counsel of a Prophet and use the Bible and the Book of Mormon together!

The Divinity of our Creation vs the Condition of the Fall.

“My son Orson, hearken and hear and behold what I, the Lord God, shall say unto you…”
Doctrine and Covenants 34:1

Doctrine and Covenants 34:1 is just a single of many examples of God addresses a revelation with the verbiage “my son” For example, in Section 11:23 He used “Hyrum, my son” in the First Vision He said, “Joseph, my son” in 31:1 “Thomas, my son” and in Section 9, Oliver Cowdrey was referred to as “my son” three separate times! The same holds true for the Pearl of Great Price, Moses and Enoch were both had God address them as “my son.”

BUT WHY? Why is the very first thing that God does when he interacts with His humanity to establish that they are His children? That is simple, Joseph B. Wirthlin taught the answer, “We see ourselves in terms of yesterday and today. Our Heavenly Father sees us in terms of forever. Although we might settle for less, Heavenly Father won’t, for He sees us as the glorious beings we are capable of becoming.” He is clearly establishing that we are His offspring with the ability to become like God! Dieter F. Uchtdorf put it this way, “Remember that you are of the royal house of the kingdom of God, [sons and] daughters of Heavenly Parents, who reign throughout the universe. You have the spiritual DNA of God.”

God seeks to help us understand the divinity of our creation. To make the divine potential achievable God sent His Son, Jesus Christ, to overcome ALL the effects of the fall. Satan knows that if we focus on the divinity of our creation he loses all power to tempt us. So rather than focusing on WHO we are, Satan seeks to have us define ourselves by WHAT we currently are (IE, the conditions of the fall). These temporal labels, things like fat, ugly, stupid, smoker, drinker, a sinner are things we commonly understand Satan seeks to get us to self-identify by. But Satan also seeks to get us to use labels of political party, nationality, and race because ANYTHING we are willing to supplant and replace our identity with is a win for Satan. Whereas if we focus on WHO we are he can not. Recently more and more people within the Church, including the elect, have started to advocate the need to use labels and to categorize people by race, and focus on this temporal characteristic of the fall. This is not in accordance with the scriptures and is a victory for Satan.

In Moses chapter 1 right after God calls Moses and explains that he is his son, Satan comes to tempt Moses, and the VERY FIRST THING he does is to challenge Moses’s identity as a Child of God. Today Satan still seeks to have us label, categorize, and identify ourselves and others by ANYTHING other than the Divinity of our Creation. With those labels and categorizes He can then divide us and separate us. Because if we reject the temporal conditions of the fall in favor of our Divinity then Satan loses his power to tempt us. President Marion G. Romney taught that “we mortals are in very deed the literal offspring of God. If men understood, believed, and accepted this truth and lived by it, our sick and dying society would be reformed and redeemed”

The Mission of Joseph Smith.

“And I have sent forth the fulness of my gospel by the hand of my servant Joseph; and in weakness have I blessed him;”
Doctrine and Covenants 35:17

I served my mission in New England, I was trained in Sharon Vermont. I spent 7.5 months there, I spent over 1/4 of my mission in the “land of Joseph” testifying of his call as a Prophet of God. I want to take this opportunity to share my testimony of the Life and Mission of the Prophet Joseph Smith. I have spent months of my life on the hills in Sharon VT, I’ve walked on the banks of the Susquehanna River, I’ve traversed the trails of the Hill Cumorah, and I’ve knelt in a grove of trees in upstate new york. In each of these places, I’ve had the chance to ask, “Father, are the stories real? Did it really happen? Is Joseph a true Prophet? The answer resoundingly and repeatedly has been “Yes, he is a Prophet!” I echo the words of John Taylor.

“Joseph Smith, the Prophet and Seer of the Lord, has done more, save Jesus only, for the salvation of men in this world, than any other man that ever lived in it.”
John Taylor

The Call To Share.

“And this commandment shall be given unto the elders of my church, that every man which will embrace it with singleness of heart may be ordained and sent forth, even as I have spoken.”
Doctrine and Covenants 36:7

Often we mistake the call to serve as confined to a full-time mission. That is NOT what the Lord has intended. The Lord does not want 75,000 missionaries around the world. He wants every member to be a missionary, instead of having 75,000 we could have 100 times if only half the church followed the prophet, that would be 7.5 million missionaries!

The Prophets have made the call loud and clear for over 50 years the call has been made “Every member a missionary” I think it is about time we harken to that call. Whereas we may not be called to serve a mission, we are called to share the Gospel. We can bring light into the world of darkness and bitter hate, we can bring Christ into their lives! And by so doing show our love for Him.