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The Big Book contains promises in several of the Steps, and in the chapter A Vision For You. These are all promises or predictions of mental, emotional and spiritual changes that will occur in us as we progress through the program of recovery. These can be seen as the stages of a gradual "spiritual awakening as a result of these Steps." The 12 & 12 contains brief summaries of each Step that are similar in nature. | |
"When we sincerely took such a position, all sorts of
remarkable things followed. We had a new Employer.
Being all powerful, He provided what we needed, if
we kept close to Him and performed His work well.
Established on such a footing we became less and less
interested in ourselves, our little plans and designs.
More and more we became interested in seeing what
we could contribute to life. As we felt new power
flow in, as we enjoyed peace of mind, as we discovered
we could face life successfully, as we became conscious
of His presence, we began to lose our fear of
today, tomorrow or the hereafter. We were reborn."
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Fourth Step Promises
"If we have been thorough about our personal inventory, we have written down
a lot. We have listed and analyzed our resentments. We have begun to
comprehend their futility and their fatality. We have commenced to see their terrible destructiveness. We have begun to learn tolerance, patience and good
will toward all men, even our enemies, for we look on them as sick people. We
have listed the people we have hurt by our conduct, and are willing to
straighten out the past if we can."
Fifth Step Promises
"We pocket our pride and go to it, illuminating every
twist of character, every dark cranny of the past. Once
we have taken this step, withholding nothing, we are
delighted. We can look the world in the eye. We can
be alone at perfect peace and ease. Our fears fall from
us. We begin to feel the nearness of our Creator. We
may have had certain spiritual beliefs, but now we begin
to have a spiritual experience. The
feeling that the drink problem has disappeared will often come
strongly. We feel we are on the Broad Highway,
walking hand in hand with the Spirit of the Universe."
Ninth Step Promises (The Twelve Promises)
"If we are painstaking about this phase of our
development, we will be amazed before we are half
way through. We are going to know a new freedom
and a new happiness. We will not regret the past nor
wish to shut the door on it. We will comprehend the
word serenity and we will know peace. No matter
how far down the scale we have gone, we will see
how our experience can benefit others . That feeling
of uselessness and self-pity will disappear.
We will lose interest in selfish things
and gain interest in ourfellows. Self-seeking
will slip away. Our whole attitude
and outlook upon life will change. Fear of people
and of economic insecurity will leave us. We will intuitively
know how to handle situations which used to
baffle us. We will suddenly realize that God is doing
for us what we could not do for ourselves."
Tenth Step Promises
"And we have ceased fighting anything or anyone--
even alcohol. For by this time sanity
will have returned. We will seldom be interested in liquor. If
tempted, we recoil from it as from a hot flame. We
react sanely and normally, and we will find that this
has happened automatically. We will see that our new
attitude toward liquor has been given us without any
thought or effort on our part. It just comes! That is
the miracle of it. We are not fighting it, neither are
we avoiding temptation. We feel as though we had
been placed in a position of neutrality--safe and
protected. We have not even sworn off. Instead, the
problem has been removed. It does not exist for us.
We are neither cocky nor are we afraid. That is our
experience. That is how we react so long as we keep
in fit spiritual condition."
Eleventh Step Promises
"If we have carefully followed directions, we have begun to sense the flow of His Spirit into us. To some extent we have become God-conscious. We have begun to develop this vital sixth sense."
A Vison For You (Beginners Promises)
"Yes, there is a substitute [for alcohol] and it is vastly more than
that. It is a fellowship in Alcoholics Anonymous.
There you will find release from care, boredom and
worry. Your imagination will be fired. Life will mean
something at last. The most satisfactory years of your
existence lie ahead. Thus we find the fellowship, and
so will you...
"You are going to meet these new friends in your own
community. Near you, alcoholics are dying helplessly
like people in a sinking ship. If you live in a large
place, there are hundreds. High and low, rich and
poor, these are future fellows of Alcoholics Anonymous. Among them you will make lifelong friends.
You will be bound to them with new and wonderful
ties, for you will escape disaster together and you will
commence shoulder to shoulder your common journey.
Then you will know what it means to give of yourself
that others may survive and rediscover life. You will
learn the full meaning of 'Love thy neighbor as thyself.'"
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