In this episode, I read the next section of Chapter 2 from The Release of the Spirit by Watchman Nee, titled “Launching Out and Retreating,” where Nee describes the unstable pattern of advancing and withdrawing that often marks an unbroken outer man.

This section is longer, so I let the reading stand on its own—trusting the One joined to you in spirit to make clear what needs to be seen and understood as you listen.

The Release of the Spirit https://dci.org.uk/zipped/ReleaseOfTheSpirit.pdf

About Alex

Alex is from the UK and he teaches and disciples across nations after years serving in Poland. His heart is the maturing of sons, believers growing into the fullness of Christ and revealing His life on earth. He serves within Firm Foundation, a work the Father is unfolding, joining partners who carry the same call. Through the Firm Foundation Focus podcast, Alex helps sons mature in Christ, discover the Father’s eternal purpose, and live Their way of life.

Check out the Firm Foundation website for more information ffdiscipleship.co.uk

We continue Chapter 2, opening the section Some Practical Problems. This episode looks at the gap between what can be produced through preparation, thought, and even “revelation,” and what actually carries life, drawing from both the reading and a personal story of the Lord dealing with what was built independently from Him.

As this unfolds, the focus comes back to the breaking of the outward man as the first lesson in serving God, where everything we rely on is brought to nothing so that, as Paul writes, “death is at work in us… life… in you,” raising the question—what is actually being released through us?

About Alex

Alex is from the UK and he teaches and disciples across nations after years serving in Poland. His heart is the maturing of sons, believers growing into the fullness of Christ and revealing His life on earth. He serves within Firm Foundation, a work the Father is unfolding, joining partners who carry the same call. Through the Firm Foundation Focus podcast, Alex helps sons mature in Christ, discover the Father’s eternal purpose, and live Their way of life.

Check out the Firm Foundation website for more information ffdiscipleship.co.uk

We begin Chapter 2, reading the opening section, Before and After Brokenness. This episode looks at what is produced through thought and emotion, and what is released when the outward man has been dealt with, bringing a clear contrast between these two.

As this unfolds, we come to the question, which spirit is it?—and the reality that His Spirit and our spirit have become one, as we see the difference between initiating something in self and joining what He is already doing, and His life coming through as the outward man is broken.

About Alex

Alex is from the UK and he teaches and disciples across nations after years serving in Poland. His heart is the maturing of sons, believers growing into the fullness of Christ and revealing His life on earth. He serves within Firm Foundation, a work the Father is unfolding, joining partners who carry the same call. Through the Firm Foundation Focus podcast, Alex helps sons mature in Christ, discover the Father’s eternal purpose, and live Their way of life.

Check out the Firm Foundation website for more information ffdiscipleship.co.uk

We finish Chapter 1 by reading the final section, where Nee identifies two reasons the outer man remains untouched. This brings a direct close to the chapter, helping us recognise what holds this process back and why it continues for so many.

About Alex

Alex is from the UK and he teaches and disciples across nations after years serving in Poland. His heart is the maturing of sons, believers growing into the fullness of Christ and revealing His life on earth. He serves within Firm Foundation, a work the Father is unfolding, joining partners who carry the same call. Through the Firm Foundation Focus podcast, Alex helps sons mature in Christ, discover the Father’s eternal purpose, and live Their way of life.

Check out the Firm Foundation website for more information ffdiscipleship.co.uk

We continue through Chapter 1, reading The Timing in Our Brokenness and The Meaning of the Cross. This episode is split into two parts, first looking at how the Father carries out this work over time, and then what the Cross is actually doing within us.

As this unfolds, it becomes clear that delay in this work affects far more than our own lives, and that the Cross is not only something that has already taken place, but something that is working within us day by day — dealing with the self life so that the spirit can come through.

About Alex

Alex is from the UK and he teaches and disciples across nations after years serving in Poland. His heart is the maturing of sons, believers growing into the fullness of Christ and revealing His life on earth. He serves within Firm Foundation, a work the Father is unfolding, joining partners who carry the same call. Through the Firm Foundation Focus podcast, Alex helps sons mature in Christ, discover the Father’s eternal purpose, and live Their way of life.

Check out the Firm Foundation website for more information ffdiscipleship.co.uk

We continue through Chapter 1, moving into Nature Has Its Way of Breaking, where Watchman Nee shows that this is something God Himself undertakes through situations and circumstances over time. As we read, I reflect on recognising His hand in these moments, and how easily we can misunderstand what He is doing. This leads into some honest thoughts on prayer ministry, learning to stay with the Father and discern what He is doing in a person’s life, rather than stepping in too quickly and getting in the way of that work.

About Alex

Alex is from the UK and he teaches and disciples across nations after years serving in Poland. His heart is the maturing of sons, believers growing into the fullness of Christ and revealing His life on earth. He serves within Firm Foundation, a work the Father is unfolding, joining partners who carry the same call. Through the Firm Foundation Focus podcast, Alex helps sons mature in Christ, discover the Father’s eternal purpose, and live Their way of life.

Check out the Firm Foundation website for more information ffdiscipleship.co.uk

We begin Chapter 1 by reading the opening sections, The Importance of Brokenness and The Inward Man and the Outward Man. As this unfolds, Watchman Nee exposes how much can be done outwardly, even with sincerity, and yet still come from the outer man, leaving the spirit shut in. I share some reflections on how much of our zeal, worship, and activity can come from that place, including the tendency to gather around people and giftings, and why we continue to look for something external when the reality of His indwelling life has already been given.

About Alex

Alex is from the UK and he teaches and disciples across nations after years serving in Poland. His heart is the maturing of sons, believers growing into the fullness of Christ and revealing His life on earth. He serves within Firm Foundation, a work the Father is unfolding, joining partners who carry the same call. Through the Firm Foundation Focus podcast, Alex helps sons mature in Christ, discover the Father’s eternal purpose, and live Their way of life.

Check out the Firm Foundation website for more information ffdiscipleship.co.uk

This episode opens a new series working through The Release of the Spirit by Watchman Nee. I introduce where we’re heading, and then read the book’s introduction, which brings us straight into the central theme—why the outer man must be broken for the spirit to be released, and how much of what we call Christian activity can still come from the wrong source.

About Alex

Alex is from the UK and he teaches and disciples across nations after years serving in Poland. His heart is the maturing of sons, believers growing into the fullness of Christ and revealing His life on earth. He serves within Firm Foundation, a work the Father is unfolding, joining partners who carry the same call. Through the Firm Foundation Focus podcast, Alex helps sons mature in Christ, discover the Father’s eternal purpose, and live Their way of life.

Check out the Firm Foundation website for more information ffdiscipleship.co.uk

In this third episode of His Nature, My Nature, Alex takes us into one of the most revealing places of all—what actually comes out of us when pressure hits. Opening with Romans 8:35–39, the focus shifts from the idea of pressure to its purpose: not to separate us from the Father, but to expose the source we are living from. As Paul declares his deep persuasion, formed by revelation, we begin to see that pressure does not create something new—it reveals what is already within. And so the question becomes clear: when the moment comes, when there is no time to manage behaviour or present something polished, what is it that comes out?

Through the contrast of Peter and Jesus, this episode brings sharp clarity to the difference between the nature of Adam and the nature of Christ under pressure. Peter speaks with certainty before the moment comes, yet denies when the cost becomes real. Jesus, fully settled in the Father, walks through the same kind of pressure in quiet agreement, with nothing to defend and nothing to protect. And then we see the turning point—Peter in Acts 2, no longer reacting from self, but speaking from a completely new source. This episode draws the line clearly: pressure reveals the nature, and the life of Christ within is the only life that can stand, discern, and go with the Father, whatever comes.

Participant Guide

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1CghKe2NP9ZMslL3fq12ijjq6DhciUFuh?usp=sharing

About Alex

Alex is from the UK and he teaches and disciples across nations after years serving in Poland. His heart is the maturing of sons, believers growing into the fullness of Christ and revealing His life on earth. He serves within Firm Foundation, a work the Father is unfolding, joining partners who carry the same call. Through the Firm Foundation Focus podcast, Alex helps sons mature in Christ, discover the Father’s eternal purpose, and live Their way of life.

Check out the Firm Foundation website for more information ffdiscipleship.co.uk

In this episode, Alex continues the series His Nature, My Nature, building on birth determines identity.

In John 2, Jesus makes it clear that He knows what is in human nature. Many believed when they saw the signs, yet no change had taken place at the level of nature. What is in man is exposed, not by behaviour alone, but by the source within. From Cain to the Pharisees to Paul, both the evil and the good sides of the same nature lead to the same outcome, because the source remains the same.

This episode draws a clear line between the two natures. The old, hostile nature formed in Adam, shaped by the power of sin, and the new nature in Christ, received through new birth. The Cross did not come to improve what was already there, but to bring it to an end and establish an entirely new man.

Participant Guide

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1CghKe2NP9ZMslL3fq12ijjq6DhciUFuh?usp=sharing

About Alex

Alex is from the UK and he teaches and disciples across nations after years serving in Poland. His heart is the maturing of sons, believers growing into the fullness of Christ and revealing His life on earth. He serves within Firm Foundation, a work the Father is unfolding, joining partners who carry the same call. Through the Firm Foundation Focus podcast, Alex helps sons mature in Christ, discover the Father’s eternal purpose, and live Their way of life.

Check out the Firm Foundation website for more information ffdiscipleship.co.uk