Our Spiritual Awakening Allows Us to Help Others

Our Spiritual Awakening Step 12. Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these steps, we tried to carry this message to other addicts, and to practice these principles in all our affairs. AA.org.

How It Works
Practical experience shows that nothing will so much insure immunity from drinking as intensive work with other alcoholics. It works when other activities fail. This is our twelfth suggestion: Carry this message to other alcoholics! You can help when no one else can. You can secure their confidence when others fail. Remember they are very ill.

Life will take on new meaning. To watch people recover, to see them help others, to watch loneliness vanish, to see a fellowship grow up about you, to have a host of friends – this is an experience you must not miss. We know you will not want to miss it. Frequent contact with newcomers and with each other is the bright spot of our lives. – A.A. Big Book p. 89.

“Brothers, if someone is caught in a sin, you who are spiritual should restore him gently. But watch yourself, or you also may be tempted. Carry each other’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ.” Galatians 6:1-2.

Cornerstone – Hillsong (2012).

My Hope and Nothing Less is Built on Jesus’ Blood and Righteousness.

I dare not trust the sweetest frame, but wholly trust in Jesus name.

The joy of living is the theme of A.A.’s Twelfth Step, and action is its key word. Here we turn outward toward our fellow alcoholics who are still in distress. Here we experience the kind of giving that asks no rewards. Here we begin to practice all Twelve Steps of the program in our daily lives so that we and those about us may find emotional sobriety. When the Twelfth Step is seen in all its full implication, it is really talking about the kind of love that has no price tag on it. – Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions, p. 106.

Step 12 gives me the satisfaction of helping others. I am uniquely suited to help others that have suffered the same addiction as I have suffered with. Although I did not plan on being in the role of the recovering addict, I find myself in that role because of the choices that I have made. It now becomes my duty as well as my joy and privilege to find others suffering in a similar way and to help them in the best way that I know how. It completes the cycle of life and I get to play a wonderful part in it. – From 12Step.org

Helping others is a significant part of the program, and there are many ways the program gets passed on. When you live the program and share it with others, you are carrying the message, especially when you sponsor new members. In practicing the Twelfth Step you will find that:
By witnessing to others, your appreciation of the program and the program’s impact on your life deepens.
By hearing the stories of new members, you are reminded of where you were when you started.

By modeling to others, you become aware that you need to practice what you preach.

By giving to others, you develop bonds with new people who really need you

By helping others, you give what you have received.

By supporting new beginnings, you revitalize your own efforts.

– A Gentle Path Through the Twelve Steps, by Patrick Carnes, p. 197.