Higher Power

A.A. CONCEPTS AND VOCABULARY

A.A.’s language for a power greater than oneself, left open enough for each member to understand honestly and personally.

STEPS TWO AND THREE • ROOM FOR INDIVIDUAL UNDERSTANDING

The concept in one sentence

A.A. opens a relationship to help beyond isolated willpower

The official Steps describe a Power greater than ourselves without requiring every member to use the same explanation. “Higher Power” is therefore not a single object that this page can define for everyone; it is A.A.’s open language for a source of help and direction beyond the individual self.

The movement of Steps Two and Three

From possibility to willingness

The Steps move from recognizing that help may be available to becoming willing to turn one’s will and life toward a chosen understanding of that help.

Become open to help

Step Two introduces the possibility that sanity and recovery can come through a Power greater than ourselves.

Practice willingness

Step Three turns that possibility into a decision about how one’s will and life will be directed.

What A.A. leaves open

The phrase is broad by design

Official A.A. material gives members room to speak about a spiritual awakening, a Higher Power, or God as they understand them. The page should preserve that room rather than quietly replace it with a definition A.A. itself does not require.

Not one required nameMembers may understand the phrase differently.

Not a private fantasyThe concept is connected to a lived program.

Not isolated willpowerThe direction is toward help and recovery.

Keep the concept practical

A Higher Power is discussed through the life it changes

Honesty

Admit what isolated willpower has not been able to do.

Openness

Allow a wider understanding of help than the self alone.

Decision

Become willing to direct life according to that understanding.

Action

Let the program make the idea visible in conduct.

Official A.A. material

Read the primary sources

The concept and its openness are grounded only in official A.A. pages and literature.

GSO pageThe Twelve StepsSteps Two and Three directly introduce a Power greater than ourselves and the decision to turn one’s will and life over.Official bookCame to BelieveMembers’ accounts of spiritual awakening, Higher Power, and God as each understands them.Official audioStep ThreeAn A.A. presentation of the decision to turn one’s will and life over to God as understood by the member.Official daily readingMaking A.A. Your Higher PowerAn official Daily Reflections treatment of the concept in recovery practice.