Acting in faith

 For members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, there's a well-known story in the book of 1 Nephi chapter 3. 

Just prior to this, the prophet Lehi left Jerusalem with his family because the wicked people in the city were going to kill him. In chapter 3, Lehi tells his four sons that God has instructed them to return to the city to get their family history and scriptures (which were engraved on brass plates) from a powerful man named Laban. The scriptures are needed because the Lord is going to lead the group to a new land.

Nephi's two oldest brothers, Laman and Lemuel, don't want to go. We don't know all the reasons why, only that they said it as a "hard thing" that they're being asked to do. My guess is they know the reputation of Laban and don't know how they'll be able to convince him to give them the brass plates.

We don't really know what the third son's (his name was Sam) response was. But it probably wasn't like Nephi's.

When Lehi tells Nephi (who is the youngest son) about the commandment the Lord gave for them to return, Nephi's reply is known by most primary children in the Church. He said:

"I will go and do the things which the Lord hath commanded, for I know that 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." (1 Nephi 3:7 https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/scriptures/bofm/1-ne/3?lang=eng) 

The statement shows Nephi's faith, trust, and confidence in the Lord. To highlight this, note the following "I know that the Lord giveth no commandments unto the children of men, save he shall prepare a way for them that they may accomplish the thing".

How can he know? Here's the thing, he doesn't know the hows or whats. He doesn't know the details of how it will be accomplished. What he knows, and this is where his faith is foundational, is that the Lord will open the doors, cause things to occur, and the end result will happen, which, in this case, is to get the brass plates.

The brothers first make two attempts. 

In the first attempt they decide one of them would go to Laban and ask him. They draw lots and Laban ends up going. He fails. Laban actually gets angry with him and accuses him of being a robber. Nephi's brothers wanted to throw in the towel and go back to their parents in the wilderness, but Nephi has another idea.

We don't know what Lehi did as a profession, but whatever he did he had a lot of wealth. Nephi's idea is to go to their house and get their riches to buy the brass plates from Laban.

They take the gold, silver, and other riches to Laban. He refuses the offer but he wants their riches. So after they leave and he sends out his servants to kill them. In the effort to escape, the brothers had to ditch their stuff, and it fell into the hands of Laban.

Losing all their gold, silver, and riches for nothing infuriates the two older brothers and they start beating Sam and Nephi. An angel of the Lord appears and rebukes them, and then tells them to "go up to Jerusalem again, and the Lord will deliver Laban into [their] hands." (1 Nephi 3:29)

As soon as the angel is gone, Laman and Lemuel start complaining and murmuring again, wondering, "How is it possible that the Lord will deliver Laban into our hands? Behold, he is a mighty man, and he can command fifty, yea, even he can slay fifty; then why not us?" (1 Nephi 3:31)

There are lots of people who think they would believe if God shows them a sign. For most people the truth is this doesn't change unbelief. Throughout the family's journeys Laman and Lemuel had several divine interventions, opportunities that one would think they'd start believing.

Here's the catch. Once you know something, such as when there's a physical manifestation, it's not faith. 

Faith is very different than knowledge. Faith is a principle of action and power. 

Faith comes from acting towards a belief. It's acting on a hope in something that is believed to be true, even though there is no physical manifestation of its truth.

After faith is exercised comes the trial of faith. That's when we're tested. After the trial comes the "miracle", when what we saw with an eye of faith becomes physically manifested and faith becomes knowledge. The big difference is this knowledge now further strengthens faith, and it gives us more faith to act.

When knowledge comes before faith, faith is not strengthened. 

For Nephi, God had commanded them to return to Jerusalem to get the brass plates. That was good enough for him to act. Now an angel just told them the Lord would deliver Laban into their hands. Despite the beating from his brothers, Nephi's probably feeling really confident now. His faith just got a shot of truth from an angel.

After trying to give his brothers a pep talk, Nephi tells his brothers "Now behold ye know that this is true; and ye also know that an angel hath spoken unto you; wherefore can ye doubt?" (1 Nephi 4:3).

In Nephi's mind, all they needed to do was return to Jerusalem, to act on what they were told to do, and Lord would deliver Laban to them, and, as a result, they'd get the brass plates. Nephi was forward looking.

On the other hand, Laman and Lemuel were living in the past. They'd failed twice at getting the brass plates from Laban, and they'd almost been killed. Their focus was on past failures and they were unwilling to believe that future attempts could end differently.

After Nephi's talk, Laman and Lemuel were still upset and mostly unwilling, but they went with Nephi and Sam back to the city. Nephi had the three older brothers wait outside the city while he went in.

I've always thought this was interesting, that Nephi went in alone. My guess is he didn't want his brothers murmuring, their lack of faith, to mess things up.

Nephi figured if the Lord were to deliver Laban to him, he'd need to head towards Laban's house. But Nephi didn't know what exactly he was going to do. He states simply in verse 6 of 1 Nephi chapter 4:

"And I was led by the Spirit, not knowing beforehand the things which I should do."

That is how we act in faith. We know our desired outcome. We know the general direction to head. But most of the time we don't know beforehand the things--the steps, the processes, etc.--that will end up being done to achieve our goal.

It's the taking a step into the dark and hoping, believing, that the next step will be illuminated.

We just have to take that those steps.