Firm Foundation Focus

In this second episode of A Different Breed of Encouragement, we expose why flattery is so attractive to the flesh, and why Paul immediately recognised what was happening in the churches of Galatia. Beginning in the Garden of Eden, we trace the origin of flattery through the nature of Adam, discovering how it changes the way we speak, reveals the genuine needs the flesh is still trying to meet, is...

Paul warns the Galatians about people who were making much of them, paying court to them and trying to dazzle them. But why did he react so strongly? What did he see that they couldn't yet see? As we place Galatians 4:17 back into its setting, we discover that Paul wasn't simply listening to flattering words. He could see where these teachers were leading people. They wanted to draw these...

As we come to the final episode of Walking in the Spirit, we return to one of the most life-changing truths in The Normal Christian Life: God has only one answer to every human need, His Son. Through the gospel, we have been taken out of Adam and placed into Christ, receiving His life, His nature, and His indwelling presence. Looking back over the themes of this series, Watchman Nee brings us to t...

In this episode of Walking in the Spirit , we begin the final section of Chapter 10 of The Normal Christian Life by Watchman Nee and spend some time looking at a word that Paul uses repeatedly in Romans 8: walk . Nee draws attention to the fact that Paul tells us to walk after the Spirit , and that immediately raises a question. Why walk? Why not work, strive, achieve, accomplish, or produce? As w...

What does Watchman Nee mean by hypocrisy and playacting? In this episode of Walking in the Spirit, Alex continues through Chapter 10 of The Normal Christian Life and opens up a conversation around two words that have stayed with him since first reading this section: hypocrisy and playacting. They are words we usually associate with religion, pretence, and putting on a show for others, but Nee uses...

What does it mean to be harnessed by Holy Spirit? In this episode of Walking in the Spirit, Alex opens up a conversation around a picture that has become increasingly real in his own life over recent months. Drawing from Watchman Nee, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, and personal experience, he reflects on the tendency to become involved in situations simply because we care about people, have an opinion, or b...

Habakkuk declared that the earth would be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea. Here's my question: what if much of our talk about the glory of God, and much of our pursuit of the glory of God, has never been preceded by a clear understanding of what, or rather who , the glory of God actually is?" There is certainly no shortage of teaching on glor...

In this more conversational and slightly messy episode of Walking in the Spirit , Alex shares some personal reflections after reading another section from Chapter 10 of Watchman Nee's The Normal Christian Life . What begins with Nee's comments about Bible reading soon opens up a much bigger conversation about consistency, why so many of us start things and never finish them, and why determ...

We genuinely want to please God, and because we genuinely want to please Him, we have spent years believing that the answer must somehow be found in becoming a better version of ourselves. So we watch our behaviour, analyse our failures, measure our progress, make fresh commitments when we fall short, and then wonder why the Christian life feels exhausting. In this episode, we continue through Cha...

In this episode, we continue through Watchman Nee's teaching on the law of the Spirit of life and begin looking more closely at the law of sin and death. Nee shows that our problem reaches much deeper than individual failures. The law of sin and death continually finds expression through the flesh, through all those familiar patterns by which we learned to meet our own needs independently from...

In this episode, we begin exploring Watchman Nee's teaching on “The Law of the Spirit of Life” from Chapter 10 of The Normal Christian Life . Nee shows that the Christian life is governed by spiritual laws just as surely as the natural world is. The law of sin and death continually draws us back into self-reliance, while the law of the Spirit of life works through Holy Spirit to bring the life of...

As we continue through Chapter 10 of The Normal Christian Life, we begin uncovering one of the biggest shifts in the Christian life: Christ Himself is the answer to every human need. Holy Spirit has not been given to help self improve itself, but to bring into expression the life of Christ within us. “He is our patience... He is our purity... He is the answer to every need.” This episode also expl...

In this opening episode of Walking in the Spirit , we begin working through Chapter 10 of The Normal Christian Life and move from the frustration of Romans 7 into the liberty of Romans 8. Many of us understood what it meant to be “in Christ,” while still trying to live the Christian life through self effort, natural strength, and the self life with its fierce independence. But this chapter begins...

We finish Chapter 9 today by reading the final section, “Spiritually Receptive,” where Watchman Nee brings everything together around one confronting reality: brokenness opens a person to receive life from the rest of the Body. We look at how an unbroken intellect can leave a believer spiritually untouched for years, even while sitting faithfully in meetings, listening to teachings, and gathering...

We continue through Chapter 9 of The Release of the Spirit , moving into Nee’s section on “Mutually Corporate,” where he shows that true Body life only becomes possible through brokenness. A person may be active in church life, deeply involved with people, and passionate about fellowship, and yet still remain inwardly closed because self is still protecting, preserving, reacting, and resisting. Ne...

We continue through Chapter 9 of The Release of the Spirit, looking at spiritual receptivity and the openness that begins to appear when the outward man has truly been dealt with. Nee continues showing that a broken person becomes teachable, receptive, easy to help, and able to receive from others without resistance, defensiveness, or the constant need to protect themselves. We gather together man...

We continue through Chapter 9 of The Release of the Spirit, looking at another quality of meekness, what Nee describes as being “highly sensitive.” This section focuses on spiritual awareness, responsiveness, and the ability to recognise what is happening around us because the soul is no longer dominating everything through self interest, opinion, reaction, and independence. We talk about dullness...

We begin Chapter 9 of The Release of the Spirit, ‘Meekness and Brokenness’, where Nee starts looking at the qualities found in a broken person. In this first section we talk about being approachable, accessible, open to fellowship, easy to talk with, and willing to receive instruction and correction. Nee shows that when the outward man has been dealt with, people no longer encounter walls, defensi...

We finish Chapter 3 with something very clear. There is a law in how the Father works, and prayer does not change what He is doing. Nee brings it right down to something we can all understand, if you put your hand in the fire, you will get burned. And in the same way, if I continue in independence, holding onto what is in my hand, there are consequences to that, and I can’t pray my way out of it....

We stay in chapter 3 of The Release of the Spirit , with the focus on the “thing in hand,” and Nee brings in Balaam, which is very exposing. Here is a man recognised as a prophet, someone who speaks on behalf of God, and yet in this moment he cannot see what is right in front of him. The donkey stops because it sees the angel of the Lord standing in the way, and Balaam keeps going until he is forc...

This episode continues Chapter 3 as we read further into The Release of the Spirit by Watchman Nee, and I share some very personal reflections alongside the reading. From the illustration of The World’s Strictest Parents, to real-life examples, this shows that He does not circumvent the outward man, He deals with what is coming out of you, your reactions, your decisions, your resistance. We then l...

We begin Chapter 3, reading the opening section, Recognising “The Thing in Hand” , where Watchman Nee brings this into something very direct, showing that even after the outward man has been broken, what a person is already holding onto can still stand in the way. This “thing in hand” is whatever is already taking up attention, strength, and response when the Father calls. As this unfolds, he show...

We finish Chapter 2 today by reading the final section, Dividing the Outward from the Inward , and then I share one thought from Hebrews 4:12, where the Word of God, wielded by Holy Spirit, separates soul and spirit and exposes the true source of what is coming out of us. I open up a very personal area from my own life around the need to be seen, how that developed, and how Holy Spirit has dealt w...

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...

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 unders...