The Twelve Steps
 A Spiritual Discipline for all Christians
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                                                                                                                                   Spiritual
    Goal (1)              Step (2)                    Related Biblical Text (3)       Discipline
Peace
with
God
1.  Admitted we were powerless over the effects of our separation from God - that our lives had become unmanageable.
 

2.  Came to believe that a power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.

3.  Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood Him.
 
 
 

I know nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature.  For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out.  ROMANS 7:17
 

For it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose.PHILIPPIANS 2:13
Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God - which is your spiritual worship.

 
Submission
 
 
 
 
 
Conversion
Peace
with Ourselves
4.  Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.

5.  Admitted to God, to ourselves, and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs.

6.  Were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character.

7.  Humbly asked Him to remove our shortcomings.

Let us examine our ways and test them, and let us return to the Lord.    LAMENTATIONS 3:40 

Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed.  JAMES 5:16a   

Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up.  JAMES 4:10  

If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.  1 JOHN 1:9

Confession
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Repentance
Peace with Others 8.  Made a list of all persons we had harmed and became willing to make amends to them all. 

9.  Made direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others.
 
 
 
 

10.  Continued to take personal inventory and, when we were wrong, promptly admitted it.

Do to others as you would have them do to you.  LUKE 6:31
 

Therefore, if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there in front of the altar.  First go and be reconciled to your brother; then come and offer your gift.  MATTHEW 5:23-24

So, if you think you are standing firm, be careful that you don't fall.  1 CORINTHIANS 10:12

 
 
 
Amends
 
 
 
 
 
 
Confession
Keeping
the Peace
11.  Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God as we understood Him, praying only for knowledge of His will for us and the power to carry that out.

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

Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly.  COLOSSIANS 3:16a
 
 
 
 
 

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.  GALATIANS 6:1
 

 
Prayer
 
 
 
 
 
 
Ministry
(1)Goal statements taken from Power to Choose:  Twelve Steps to Wholeness.  Mike O'Neill, Sonlight Publishing Inc.  (2) This version of the Twelve Steps differs from those of Alcoholics Anonymous in only two places.  In Step One "powerless over alcohol" has been changed to "powerless over the effects of our separation from God,"  Some other version of the Twelve Steps for general audiences change Step One to read "powerless of our human condition."  Step Twelve has been changed from "to other alcoholics" to "to others."  (3) Related Scripture and parallel discipline taken from The Twelve Steps - A Spiritual Journey, Recovery Publications, Inc.
 
 
 
 

 
 
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