STEP TWELVE

Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these steps, we tried to carry this message to alcoholics, and to practice these principles in all our affairs.

It is emphasized that there is absolute necessity of demonstrating these principles in all my affairs with complete willingness to help others. It is imperative to work with others as they have worked with me. Faith without works is dead, and how appallingly true it is for the alcoholic! It means that I must be diligently attuned to acquiring the teachings of AA and to incorporate the principles and ideals into my way of life, so that I can give away what I have learned, in order that I may keep it. We are all learners and we are all teachers.

For if an alcoholic failed to perfect and enlarge his spiritual life through work and self-sacrifice for others, he could not survive the trials and low spots ahead. If he did not work, he would surely drink again, and if he drank, he would surely die. Then faith would be dead indeed.
Question comes up that I’m jittery and alone and how can I carry this message to other alcoholics? I couldn’t do that, but you can. You forget that you have just now tapped a new source of power much greater than yourself. With willingness, patience, open mind, labor and spiritual backing, we have accomplished all this.

In order to serve the divinity in humanity effectively, we have to consciously feel God's presence in those we are serving. While we are speaking to someone, we have to feel that we are speaking to the divinity within that person. Otherwise, if we are just helping someone in our own way without any conscious feeling of dedication to the Supreme, that work cannot be considered as a form of manifestation or as meditation in action. If we pray and meditate (Step 11), we will feel that God is inside everybody and it is a living reality and then this mental belief becomes a real to us. At that time we will consciously serve each person precisely because we know and feel that God is inside him and serving him is serving God.

If we do not see God, truth, or light in our action, then our physical mind may not be convinced of the value of the things that we are doing. Today we will serve someone and tomorrow we will say, "Oh, he is such a fool! He has no aspiration, no good qualities! Why should I serve him?" If we look at an individual without prayer and meditation, we will separate the person from the conscious. But if we pray and meditate, then we will see the divinity inside each person and our work will be a dedicated service, which will help us to make spiritual progress.

There are many people who work fifteen, sixteen hours a day. But their action is not dedicated service. They are only working mechanically to make money and take care of their outer responsibilities. But if we really wish to dedicate our life to God and mankind, then prayer and meditation will enable us to do so. Consistent application of the Steps, and in particular the daily review of the 10th Step and the meditation of the 11th Step, is a marvelous agency of personal change. It contributes a distinctive, fourfold, creative encounter that shapes the process of change.

Abandon yourself to God, as you understand God. Admit your faults to Him and to your fellows. Clear away the wreckage of your past. Give freely of what you find and join the fellowship. We shall be with you in the Fellowship of the Spirit, and you will surely meet some of us as you trudge the Road of Happy Destiny.

Still, any member's progress is uneven at best. Backsliding into old reactive habit patterns occurs, as Denial creeps back in the mind. It provides a setting amongst our fellows that is intrinsically so much more appealing than the life we had been leading, that the seeker of sobriety tends to stay the course, no matter what happens and who’s Spirit has been awakened, more actualized, buoyant, and compassionate.

From these perspectives, the AA approach would seem a slow process of unlearning and personal restructuring. The beginning member, it turns out, is first simply learning how to unlearn. Then the receptive process of relearning opens up. As it unfolds on its own, it seems to reconnect the person with what we are now, new and vital relationships. We are life's ageless, immanent, everyday miracles. We are "The Beloved!!" We are the One we have been waiting for!!

Conclusion:

• Abandon yourself to God as you understand God.

• Admit your faults to God and your fellows.

• Clear away the wreckage of your past.

• Give freely what you find and join us.

May God bless you and keep you - until then.

So Be It.