Alma 57:26

And now, their preservation was astonishing to our whole army, yea, that they should be spared while there was a thousand of our brethren who were slain. And we do justly ascribe it to the miraculous power of God, because of their exceeding faith in that which they had been taught to believe—that there was a just God, and whosoever did not doubt, that they should be preserved by his marvelous power.

Faith is the key to power. When we have faith in God's power, we unlock his power in our lives. 

Now,  Helaman points out that thousands of patriotic and righteous Nephites died in battle while the two thousand stripling warriors all survived. Surely God did not love the Nephites less than the Lamanite youths. Yet he demonstrated his power on their behalf to a greater degree than he did on behalf of the fallen Nephites. The difference must have been in the nature of the faith of Helaman's boys. Their faith drew down the powers of heaven in a way that the Nephites' faith could not. Captain Moroni obviously had great faith and personal righteousness. His army had the faith to follow him,  but they may have had more faith in Moroni than in God. They had faith that God would bless and prosper the army but not themselves personally. The young warriors, however, had faith that God would preserve them personally and individually.

God can be as specific in his power as we are in our faith. If we have specific faith, God will manifest specific power.

The lesson of the stripling warriors is that God has the power to save us. He can protect us from the enemy of our souls, even if others around us seem to be succumbing. If we have faith in him, even though we may be wounded, he will heal us through the atonement of Christ and bring us home safely to him.

Alma 57:25

And it came to pass that there were two hundred, out of my two thousand and sixty, who had fainted because of the loss of blood; nevertheless, according to the goodness of God, and to our great astonishment, and also the joy of our whole army, there was not one soul of them who did perish; yea, and neither was there one soul among them who had not received many wounds.

Christ can save every single obedient individual who has faith in him and goes to battle for him. Not a single one of us needs to be lost. We will surely receive many wounds from our sins and mistakes, but Christ can heal them all. He will not lose us if we don't want to be lost.

Alma 57:21

Yea, and they did obey and observe to perform every word of command with exactness; yea, and even according to their faith it was done unto them; and I did remember the words which they said unto me that their mothers had taught them.

We defeat the adversary through exact obedience. We must trust that we are receiving good instructions, and then we must do all in our power to follow those instructions. We call this being diligent in keeping the commandments. It us our only sure defense. We do not keep commandments to earn points or to buy our way into heaven, but to minimize the damages of mortality and to protect ourselves from the constant attacks of Satan from the outside and the traitorous natural man on the inside. Christ saves us and redeems us, but he can work only with a willing heart that can be taught by the Holy Spirit. Blessings are predicated on obedience to law. When we keep the commandments, we qualify ourselves to receive the Holy Ghost, who teaches us how to come unto Christ and receive salvation from his hand.

Alma 57:4

But the people of Antiparah did leave the city, and fled to their other cities, which they had possession of, to fortify them; and thus the city of Antiparah fell into our hands.

For all his blustering, Satan is a coward at heart. If we stand up to him and refuse to bargain, he will back down. When we take an unequivocal stand against a temptation, he will abandon it and pour his energies into some other weak area of our lives. We may not be able to drive him out all at once, but if we take him on one step at a time, with a full determination to not yield, and leaning on the arm of God for support, we can gain the advantage in increments until we have squeezed the adversary out of our lives.

Alma 56:46

For as I had ever called them my sons (for they were all of them very young) even so they said unto me: Father, behold our God is with us, and he will not suffer that we should fall; then let us go forth; we would not slay our brethren if they would let us alone; therefore let us go, lest they should overpower the army of Antipus.

We may not be victorious in every battle, but when the Holy Ghost confirms to us that God is with us, we can enter the fray unafraid of the outcome. God's power can make up for our lack of experience and even skill. We just have to be willing to try.

Alma 56:29

And the Lamanites, thus seeing our forces increase daily, and provisions arrive for our support, they began to be fearful, and began to sally forth, if it were possible to put an end to our receiving provisions and strength.

We make Satan nervous when he sees us preparing to defend ourselves against his temptations. The more we prepare, the more unsettled he becomes and the bolder he becomes in trying to get our attention and distract us from our preparations. Just when we think we are finally starting to make progress, everything seems to go wrong. It is a great sign that we are going in the right direction when the opposition increases.  Satan is never a gracious loser.

Alma 56:22

And it came to pass that we kept spies out round about, to watch the movements of the Lamanites, that they might not pass us by night nor by day to make an attack upon our other cities which were on the northward.

Who is our spy who can tell us what the adversary of our souls is up to? Is it not the Holy Spirit?

Alma 56:5

Therefore it sufficeth me that I tell you that two thousand of these young men have taken their weapons of war, and would that I should be their leader; and we have come forth to defend our country.

The stripling warriors chose a prophet and priesthood leader to be their military commander. It mattered not that he was not a seasoned fighting man or that he lacked military experience. For people of faith, the first concern about a leader is his faith. If he believes God can and will direct him, every other deficiency can be overcome.

Alma 55:33

And now it came to pass that it was expedient for Moroni to make preparations to attack the city Morianton; for behold, the Lamanites had, by their labors, fortified the city Morianton until it had become an exceeding stronghold.

When our sins become habits, they can be hard to break. Addictions can become so powerful that we appear powerless to loosen the chains that bind us. Sin repeated and indulged in becomes iniquity, which can be a mighty chain indeed. We need both strength and strategy to overcome such a mighty and deeply embedded adversary. God is the strength, and Christ's atonement is the strategy.

Alma 55:31

But behold, the Nephites were not slow to remember the Lord their God in this their time of affliction. They could not be taken in their snares; yea, they would not partake of their wine, save they had first given to some of the Lamanite prisoners.

When we remember God in our afflictions, then those afflictions are a blessing to us. Everyone has afflictions. The difference is how we respond to them. God's purpose in allowing affliction is to draw us to him and give us a weight against which our faith can push to build strength. The natural man wants to avoid all affliction and live a life of ease, but he is always frustrated, for comfort is not the goal of mortality. If we embrace the natural man, we curse God for our trials. On the other hand, if we embrace God and his will, though we will still have trials, the outcome will be to our eternal advantage and glory.

Alma 55:20

But he had obtained his desires; for he had armed those prisoners of the Nephites who were within the wall of the city, and had given them power to gain possession of those parts which were within the walls.

How do we arm our inner selves with power over the sins of the natural man who holds us prisoner? We fortify ourselves with righteousness. We pray regularly and sincerely. We study the scriptures diligently. We make and keep covenants. We listen intently to the Holy Spirit. And we rely on Jesus Christ.

Alma 54:20

Nevertheless, I will grant to exchange prisoners according to your request, gladly, that I may preserve my food for my men of war; and we will wage a war which shall be eternal, either to the subjecting the Nephites to our authority or to their eternal extinction.

The war we fought in heaven against Lucifer and his followers continues here in mortality. It is a war of power and pride. It is the war that goes on within each of us. The question is always the same: who will be in charge? Who will run the show? It is a question we must answer within ourselves every day and every hour. Is God in charge of our lives, or is Satan? We get to make that choice constantly.

Alma 53:21

Yea, they were men of truth and soberness, for they had been taught to keep the commandments of God and to walk uprightly before him.

Personal integrity is a source of personal power. Walking uprightly does not mean never making mistakes, but it means we are honest about our mistakes and are accountable for them. When we are honest, God can trust us and help us.

Alma 53:20

And they were all young men, and they were exceedingly valiant for courage, and also for strength and activity; but behold, this was not all—they were men who were true at all times in whatsoever thing they were entrusted.

Youth, courage and strength are important, but obedience was the greatest trait of the stripling warriors. Through obedience, weak things become strong. If we want more strength, we must find a way to be more obedient.

Alma 51:21

And thus Moroni put an end to those king-men, that there were not any known by the appellation of king-men; and thus he put an end to the stubbornness and the pride of those people who professed the blood of nobility; but they were brought down to humble themselves like unto their brethren, and to fight valiantly for their freedom from bondage.

Before we can do battle without, we must win the battle within. We must conquer ourselves and put down the natural man and his pride. Satan doesn't usually have to mount an all-out attack from the outside because he knows he has a strong and treacherous ally already on the inside. He just needs to stir up the natural man from time to time. Our internal enemy makes enough commotion to keep us occupied, distracted, and off balance almost all the time. He is well ensconced within us, and we lack sufficient power on our own to dislodge him from his strongholds. We may be able to harass him, but we cannot win without a strategy and additional power. Christ and his atonement are the reinforcements we need, and the Holy Ghost conveys the strategy from headquarters. The battle plans are in the scriptures. If we obey our captains, the living prophets, we can overcome and force the natural man to surrender. But we must be diligent and faithful.

Alma 50:23

But behold there never was a happier time among the people of Nephi, since the days of Nephi, than in the days of Moroni, yea, even at this time, in the twenty and first year of the reign of the judges.

Our happiness is not dependent on external circumstances. The Nephites were in terrible danger, surrounded by enemies, and threatened on every side, but they were still happy because they were keeping the commandments.

Alma 50:1

And now it came to pass that Moroni did not stop making preparations for war, or to defend his people against the Lamanites; for he caused that his armies should commence in the commencement of the twentieth year of the reign of the judges, that they should commence in digging up heaps of earth round about all the cities, throughout all the land which was possessed by the Nephites.

We cannot let down our guard or think that we have ever beaten Satan as long as we live on this earth. He never gives up on us, and so we cannot give up. Even when Christ commanded Satan to depart from him after the temptations in the wilderness, the scripture says that Satan departed only for a while. We must always be vigilant and prepared.

Alma 49:23

Thus the Nephites had all power over their enemies; and thus the Lamanites did attempt to destroy the Nephites until their chief captains were all slain; yea, and more than a thousand of the Lamanites were slain; while, on the other hand, there was not a single soul of the Nephites which was slain.

The message here is that we can have all power over the enemy of our soul. If we do not let him in, but resist his every attempt, he can do us no mortal harm. We may sustain an occasional flesh wound as he batters at our defenses from without, but he cannot have any real, lasting effect.

Alma 49:4

But behold, how great was their disappointment; for behold, the Nephites had dug up a ridge of earth round about them, which was so high that the Lamanites could not cast their stones and their arrows at them that they might take effect, neither could they come upon them save it was by their place of entrance.

In another war metaphor, the ridges of earth we dig up to shield ourselves from the stones and arrows of temptation vary depending based on our need. We barricade ourselves against impure thoughts by filling our minds with good things. We put up fences of humility to protect us from pride. We cut the supply line of pornography. We build walls of daily service to ward off selfishness. We prepare resorts of prayer to keep the communication line open with headquarters. We stockpile scriptures to ensure we have sustenance to withstand a siege. We make sure we have a good supply of the living water of revelation. If we are prepared, we need not fear.

Alma 49:2

And behold, the city had been rebuilt, and Moroni had stationed an army by the borders of the city, and they had cast up dirt round about to shield them from the arrows and the stones of the Lamanites; for behold, they fought with stones and with arrows.

The "war chapters" of Alma are rich with metaphors. In this case Moroni used wisdom in strengthening the weakest cities. We should likewise recognize our weaknesses and try to strengthen ourselves in these areas. Satan certainly knows our weaknesses, and he will strike us first in our most vulnerable spots. If he succeeds once, he will keep picking at that scab. He may win a battle, but if we are wise and seek God's strength to shore up our weaknesses, Satan will not win the war. Properly prepared and defended, we can turn away his attacks and disappoint him.

Alma 48:20

And thus they went forth, and the people did humble themselves because of their words, insomuch that they were highly favored of the Lord, and thus they were free from wars and contentions among themselves, yea, even for the space of four years.

Note that it was during this time of peace that Moroni prepared for war. The times of peace in our lives are not the time to slack off. They are opportunities to gather strength and prepare. Peace in this life does not last forever. Only peace in the next life is enduring. This life is a time of testing, and another test is always around the corner.

Alma 48:7

Now it came to pass that while Amalickiah had thus been obtaining power by fraud and deceit, Moroni, on the other hand, had been preparing the minds of the people to be faithful unto the Lord their God.

Whether we see the adversary or not, we can be certain he is preparing to trap us and defeat us. We must thus be ever preparing our resorts in which we can find safety when the inevitable attack comes. If we wait to see the whites of the enemy's eyes before we start to load our muskets, we'll be overrun before we ever get to fire a shot.