They that be with us

In the third Chapter of 1st Nephi, we get a glimpse into the minds of Nephi and his brothers.  After having first asked for the plate, and then offered to buy them, the brothers are now hidden in a cave, waiting for their enemy to end his pursuit.  Laman and Lemuel have had enough.  They see that they are on a fools errand, and are ready to turn around and go home.  However, their stubborn brother, Nephi, has made an oath (a very sacred oath as I understand it) on his life.  And so, they begin to beat him.  As they do so, an angel appears and tells them to knock it off.  Before he departs he promises them, "Behold, ye shall go up to Jerusalem again, and the Lord will deliver Laban into your hands." (vs 30)  The older brothers, still not understanding a the crucial gospel principle, immediately turn to faithless murmuring: "How is it possible that the Lord will deliver Laban into our hands.  Behold, he is a might man, and he can command fifty, yea, even he can slay fifty, then why not us? (vs 31)
Laman and Lemuel did not yet understand what Nephi had understood before they even left on the journey: "I know the Lord giveth no commandments unto the children of men, save he shall prepare a way for them that they may accomplish the thing which he commandeth them." (vs 7).  Had they understood the principle, they may have said what I imagine Nephi was thinking.  "I know that God can do this, but how will he pull it off?  Laban can command fifty, yea even he can slay fifty; surely he could slay us.  How then will he accomplish this task through us?  Nevertheless, let us go to Jerusalem and accomplish the will of the Lord." (no reference, I made it up).
This principle is taught again and again in the scriptures, however.  And we, unlike Nephi, have dozens of examples of it to guide our lives.  There seems to be a hidden principle in these stories too.  Not only will God accomplish his will through the faithful, but he will almost never do it in the way that we would have expected.  So, when moving forward with faith, prepare to be stretched to your limit before you see God's hand come to your rescue.  A few examples shall suffice.

• Elisha and his city were compassed about by a huge army.  Vastly outnumbered, his servant was beginning to panic: "Alas Master!  How shall we do?"  At this point Elisha tells his companion, "Fear not: for they that be with us are more than they that be with them." (2 Kings 6:16)  He then prays this his companion's eyes may be opened, and his companion sees the mountains filled with horses and chariots of fire.
• The early saints, marching to the aid of their suffering friends in Missouri - on what would be known as Zion's Camp - are entering into enemy territory.  As a mob begins to close in on them, a mob they would have been powerless to stop, the Lord steps in.  He doesn't give them the strength to fight back.  Rather, he sends a sudden and forceful storm to batter his enemies into retreat.
• The armies of the Nephites, about to fall to their enemies are aided, not in some miraculous way, nor by being strengthened themselves.  Rather, he sends an army of young men, the very young men who they have tried desperately to keep OUT of the fight.  Yet this noble army not only turns the tides of the battle, but escapes without a single fatality.  
• And back to Nephi.  He enters the city without a plan.  Simply acting in faith, expecting the Lord to fulfill his promise.  Nephi never could have imagined that he would kill a man that day.  And when the Spirit whispers that he should do so he balks.  His faith is tried, and he eventually follows the prompting and obeys the command.

The message to us is clear.  The Lord is in control.  He will rarely act in the way we expect, but he will always prepare a way for us to accomplish his commands.  It will rarely be easy, and it will often require us to stretch to our limit, but if we act in faith, he will prepare the way for us.