AA is yet another subterfuge deployed by christian corporations to net new customers when vulnerable to inculcation.
The first step is worst thing to do to an addict but the best thing to do for a religion business. Telling a person that they are without power is worse than false. The second step draws a person in by substituting a higher power for the personal power that every individual is born with. The third step uses the word god and surrenders personal power to it. The "as we understand him" is a ruse to deflect scepticism. Once a person reaches and accepts step five, six and seven, the inculcation is complete. Personal power has been transfered to the religion business and a new customer and the new inculcate can be indoctrinated and manipulated by corporate religion.
Only one power exists within this universe; the power of decision. No higher power exists. Even a person wanting to allow the possibility of a creator, of any definition, will acknowledge that a creator would, first, decide to create and then apply a creating force. Decision, even then, would be the first mover, the source of all value. Without a god, decision is the first mover, the source of all value.
An addict has surrendered the power of decision to something other than themselves. AA leverages that condition by transferring that surrender to itself.
To any person or organization that wants to assist an addict, focus immediately on the power of decision. Help the addict realize that they have surrendered some of their power to a mindless, external, imaginary value upon which they rely instead of relying upon themselves and exercising their own power.
Nothing has power over an individual. Individuals are sovereign. The surrender of power is an impermissable abdication. We can delegate power to a government or an agency or an institution for specified, limited purposes. Even the delegation of power is problematic. The surrender of power is a betrayal of self. That betrayal produces its own punishment because duty to self, duty to exercise the power of decision cannot be escaped.