At the first meeting, I heard these ninth step promises and was amazed they could be made. After years of chaos, this seemed impossible.

I have a slightly different take on these promises. I call it the contract. The first and last sentences condition the promises to become fulfilled. They say:
If we are painstaking about this phase of our development, they will materialize if we work for them.
These things don’t happen simply because I stopped drinking. They need work—painstaking work. For me, this is key, and it doesn’t simply apply to the ninth step but to all twelve steps. I needed and still need to put in work for the promises to materialize. But what promises these ninth-step promises are! Let’s break them down.
1. If we are painstaking about this phase of our development, we will be amazed before we are halfway through.
I was amazed long before I was halfway through. I was amazed long before I got to the 9th step because I had already started to see the program’s effects. Some of these effects were:
- A spiritual awakening
- A clear mind
- I saw the recovery process at work in my life
- I had taken a fearless moral inventory of myself
- Impossibly, I was living a life of sobriety
2. We are going to know a new freedom and a new happiness.
This may already start before step 9. As we gain liberty from our substance abuse disorders and encounter our Higher Power, then freedom and happiness begin. How? We are no longer in charge of running the show. Yes, we make decisions and live life. We are now guided by our Higher Power to make decisions. We wait and think…think…think… before acting.
3. We will not regret the past nor wish to shut the door on it.
If we close off memories of what we were like, we risk forgetting what we were like and relapsing. If we regret our past actions, we risk hating ourselves, and that is also a risk to sobriety.
At the end of the day, this promise says we will be able to deal with what we were like. Self pity will no longer work for us.
4. We will comprehend the word Serenity and we will know peace.
Much of this ties into the previous promise: God, grant us the serenity to accept the things we cannot change. We can’t change what we were, but we can change what we become. That is what these AA promises are: they promise a new attitude and that we can change what we become.
5. No matter how far down the scale we have gone, we will see how our experience can benefit others.
Each of us plummeted to different depths, but every experience of anyone who comes into this 12-step program with a substance use problem can benefit someone else. We meet each other where we are. Some are homeless, some are actively working a successful job. Any experience is something someone else can relate to. Not every alcoholic is the same. Our experience has value in reaching out to the still-suffering alcoholic.
6. That feeling of uselessness and self-pity will disappear.
We now have a purpose, to help other suffering alcoholics. With this purpose, the feeling of uselessness and self-pity lessen. The more we help others, the deeper our spiritual experience is and the happier we can be.
7. We will lose interest in selfish things and gain interest in our fellows.
Our self-obsession will become a thing of the past as we experience the nearness of our creator. We will want to help those who need help. The bondage of self will disappear, and we will become interested in finding and maintaining a fit spiritual condition.
8. Self-seeking will slip away.
As we develop the right attitude, we will want what is best for people other than ourselves. We will constantly seek to become a better person as new power flows through us and we start to lead lives governed by spiritual principles.
9. Our whole attitude and outlook on life will change.
New attitudes will become the norm. We will spend a life of taking personal responsibility. This is a new life and we become the rightful owner of our lives not governed by active addiction.
10. Fear of people and economic insecurity will leave us.
We spent our lives afraid of other people and their reactions. We will correct mistakes as they happen, and this allows us to move without concern as we navigate the confusion of daily life. For many of us tired of past experiences, this is the most powerful of the promises.
11. We will intuitively know how to handle situations which used to baffle us.
Perhaps you were rude to a clerk at the grocery store. We learn to go back and make amends. Maybe a family member you’ve never gotten along well with calls you suddenly, but you’ll know how to talk with them for the first time in your life. Reactions will be less. These are examples of how we suddenly learn to handle situations that used to baffle us.
12. We will suddenly realize that God is doing for us what we could not do for ourselves.
We have handed over to our Higher Power, and these promises are the full manifestation of what Bill W called the fourth dimension of existence. He wrote: “I was soon to be catapulted into what I like to call the fourth dimension of existence. I was to know happiness, peace and usefulness, in a way of life that is incredibly more wonderful as time passes.”
This is the spiritual dimension, and our life is governed differently as we allow a new power to flow into our being.
In Conclusion
Remember, though, that this is a contract and that we need to do our part for the promises to be fulfilled. Without our actions, these are unrealistic promises, just wishful thinking. When we work at this step, and indeed all the steps of Alcoholics Anonymous, they become fulfilled and abundant.
Remember what Step 9 is:
Made direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others.
This is what we constantly need to be painstaking about for each of these promises to come true. The twelve promises of A.A. will materialize if we are painstaking about this phase of our development.
Note: Except where specified all quotes are from the Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous