Therefore, we deduce that our understanding of God’s will starts with surrender of our wills to Him and with charitable loving acts of service to others. The answer to our prayer for such understanding comes with the least effort when we are busy on spiritual missions of help and service. We are, to the best of our ability, gaining a knowledge of God’s will by the practice of faith, honesty, and unselfish service.
(Being naturally thick-headed and bull-necked about my recovery I tend to fight everything, to complicate everything. As a defense I've tried to boil my sobriety down to its bare essence. In a practical sense I've never improved on this four word recipe: Seek God - Serve Others. This is how I find a connection with my Higher Power - through my interaction with other people. That's how my Higher Power is revealed to me. That's where I get my direction. Not by sitting in my hidey-hole and thinking deep thoughts.)
The power (to carry out God’s will) is developed as we surrender self-centeredness, and by prayer and meditation “We improve our conscious contact with God” when we forgive and help others.
(Again with the helping others . . . .)
We mistake our own willfulness for Divine Will and by sheer will-power accomplish certain objectives. The true source of such power soon becomes evident. We find ourselves out of harmony with others.
(Again with the fucking other people . . . I am so sick of having to think about other people. Other means "a different one." The implication is that it's not me.)
Psychology teaches us that emotions and feelings are sources of energy. Human energy is at its maximum and is most constructive in form when the mind and body are activated by this worthy emotion: Love. It is reasonable to believe, therefore, that the power to carry out God’s will must come from the inspiration and energy that are to be found in the emotion of love.
(Love is mentioned in our literature 78 times - hate is mentioned 10. See the emphasis? See what's important?)
(From a member’s letter): I fully admitted my helplessness as an alcoholic and knew that it would take power outside of my own to save me from insanity or an alcoholic death. My awakening was progressive, to which each step contributed a part.
Some members acquired a spiritual awakening quickly. Others required weeks and months of A.A. effort and association before they were awakened to an inner feeling of God’s presence.
(It's funny to see how much of an overlap there is between the last part of Step 11 and the first part of Step 12. We end 11 by asking our Higher Power for the grace and wisdom to see what his will for us is and then to put that plan into action; then in 12 we start by acknowledging that our Step work has produced a spiritual awakening. In fact, it is THE result of working the Steps. It's the whole point. We're doing all of this crap because we need to be awakened spiritually. The primary goal isn't to get sober - although that's the ultimate payoff - but to have this spiritual awakening, at which point getting sober is a hell of a lot easier.)
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