If you try to fill the bath but there's no plug in the plughole, the water will run out.
If you try to plant a plant but there's no pot to hold the soil, there is nothing stable for the roots to grasp.
What is the plug?
What is the pot?
Strong meetings, service, daily contact with strong AA members, and daily programme of Steps Ten through Twelve (self-examination, prayer, meditation, carrying the message, and practising the principles in all our affairs).
With these, the recovery Steps (One through Nine) are possible. Without these, they are not.
If you want protection in the shadow of God, you have to be under His wings.
What is required to invoke this protection?
Throwing off the yoke of the addiction / the devil / the ego / the lower self: the commitment to sobriety and abstinence at all costs.