Complimentary Story
August 2026I won’t keep you guessing. The answer is yes! Many that may read this article believe in the power of God and the Holy Spirit. But what if you struggle with the concept of God, or a “power greater than yourself” and do not consider yourself a Christian? It is not necessary to be a Christian to recover. Kindly allow me to share a few thoughts and such about God and recovery that I have experienced and learned.
In terms of recovery from addictions, turning to God is not a new concept. I will focus this article on a few points and illustrations looking historically going back to the mid 1930s and the birth of Alcoholics Anonymous and I will relate much of this article to some of AA’s concepts as much of “recovery,” as it is known today, and also it’s twelve steps, simply because they historically have the best record of success keeping people sober.
In the book titled “Alcoholics Anonymous,” it states “God could and would if He were sought” — help a person recover that is. I believe and think it is accepted that the AA program and its twelve steps is considered a spiritual program. Actually prayer, surrender, and a decision and commitment to turn one’s will and life over to God was the foundation of what has become the AA program as it is known today.
AA co-founder, Bill Wilson, is known to have experienced a profound and dramatic “Spiritual conversion” type of experience that resulted in him never drinking any alcohol again. Bill Wilson was a hard-core alcoholic — no stranger to hospitalizations and detoxes and his life was just about destroyed.
He had been a very successful functioning person at one time. He believed there was some “power greater than himself” but wasn’t a believer in God. He could not stay sober and wanted to not drink. He found himself again and again drinking and needing to drink daily just to not go into severe withdrawal.
Before his spiritual conversion he had been consulting with some clergy seeing if some spiritual help might assist him. He was at a point of desperation again. About this time, an old friend and drinking buddy came to visit him. The old hard drinking buddy told Bill he was sober and he had been attending, shall I say a “religious movement,” that had helped him stay sober and he came over to share it with Bill. Bill was impressed with the friend and could tell something had changed with him. The friend told Bill that God did for him what he could not do for himself. They discussed the religious meetings the friend had been attending.
So, when the friend left, Bill continued his drinking and within a short period of time ended up in the hospital again in severe alcohol withdrawal on the verge of “DT’s” — delirium tremens. He lay there broken, desperate and afraid of himself and the future.
So, the story goes that he’s lying in the hospital bed thinking of what the friend told him about God and all and he called out “if there is a God let Him show Himself. I’m willing to do anything if it can remove this obsession from me.” Suddenly peace came over him, and the room was bathed in a white light for a period of time, and he said he felt a wind of a spirit blow through the room, and he felt a new consciousness and thought that he was going to be alright.
He never had another drink of alcohol for the rest of his life, which was many years. He said he believed he had been visited by “the God of man.” I describe this event to simply share this history as recorded truth. He went on from this point to devote his life to helping alcoholics stay sober and with fellow recovering friend named Dr. Bob Smith, develop the fellowship of Alcoholics Anonymous.
AA literature states, “lack of power is our dilemma.” AA talks of being powerless over alcohol. AA literature also instructs that “God could and would if He were sought” — provide help and hope and sobriety and that AA literature also states that “what we have is a daily reprieve from alcohol contingent on maintaining our Spiritual condition.”
I wish to suggest that while recovery history, and life on earth for that matter, documents many events of a powerful and remarkable Spiritual conversion in peoples’ lives, it is safe to say these are the exception rather than the rule concerning recovery. Rather, most people, by turning to God and living and working the twelve steps, can and do stay sober — and sane. And although this article focuses much on AA and God, please know there are other very good programs for help with addictions, such as rescue missions and others, that focus and stress turning to God and offer much Spiritual support.
For additional information and hope and inspiration, please see the advertisement for my recently published book “I Just Said My Prayers And Showed Up - A former Addictions Counselor’s Experiences, Reflections and Opinions.” Thank you.
This is a chapter from my recently published book, “I Just Said My Prayers And Showed Up — Reflections of a former Addictions Counselor.” May it provide hope.
