Firm Foundation Focus

It looked spiritual. It sounded right. But it came from the wrong source.

In this third episode of Knowing the Self, Alex continues through Watchman Nee’s The Messenger of the Cross and opens up three unflinching truths about the self-life—especially when it hides beneath ministry, gifting, and Christian activity.

This is the most dangerous version of self: the one that prays, leads, and teaches—but still draws from independence. And the Father lets it play out. Until it fails.

📘 Drawing from this cutting section of the book, and with insights from Tozer and Stanford, we uncover:

1⃣ “He wants to see such work go deeper and deeper until we believers are completely delivered from the dominion of self. What a pity that Christians should ruin the work of God.”

2⃣ “He is to learn to trust in God completely. But how difficult this lesson is! To know one’s self is to be deprived of glory; to deny one’s self is to make oneself suffer.”

3⃣ “They will realize how undependable they are when their works do not produce true and lasting fruit.”

🧭 Ask Yourself:

→ What have I built that still carried self at the center?

→ Am I measuring success by fruit—or by source?

→ Where has my gifting outpaced the breaking of self?

📘 Free PDF of The Messenger of the Cross: https://issacharpropheticcity.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/the-messenger-of-the-cross.pdf

📘 Listener’s Guide Here: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1CghKe2NP9ZMslL3fq12ijjq6DhciUFuh?usp=sharing

📘 Toxic Love by Malcolm Smith: https://amzn.eu/d/3MyQTmz

You didn’t just fall. He let you. This isn’t the start of healing. It’s the beginning of the end. Because what’s being exposed here isn’t weakness — it’s self. And self must die. In this second episode of Knowing the Self, we step deeper into the judgment already passed on the self-life. God does not wait for self to improve — He has already condemned it.

📘 Drawing from the second section of Watchman Nee’s The Messenger of the Cross (linked in the description), Alex reads and teaches through three cutting truths that expose why collapse may be your greatest mercy:

1️⃣ “But it is we who need these defeats and falls, for without them we are not able to know ourselves.”

2️⃣ “He allows us to sin, to fall, and to draw back. All these will cause us to know how utterly corrupted beyond natural help we are.”

3️⃣ “Self is always useless, is always judged by God, and should therefore continually be delivered to death.”

Ask Yourself:

→ Have I viewed my fall as failure — or as mercy?

→ Am I still surprised by sin — because I haven’t yet seen how corrupt self really is?

→ Do I agree with the Father’s judgment of self — or am I still trying to make it useful?

📘 Free PDF of The Messenger of the Cross is linked here: https://issacharpropheticcity.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/the-messenger-of-the-cross.pdf

📘Listener's Guide Here: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1CghKe2NP9ZMslL3fq12ijjq6DhciUFuh?usp=sharing

📘‘Toxic Love’ by Malcolm Smith:

https://amzn.eu/d/3MyQTmz

You didn’t just stumble into difficulty — you were led into exposure. The wilderness is where God proves what’s still living in the self.

In this opening episode of Knowing the Self, Alex begins the journey through Watchman Nee’s challenging chapter from The Messenger of the Cross — a chapter that unmasks the self-life, the spiritual-sounding version of ‘you’ that still tries to follow Jesus without surrendering to Him - because it cannot!

It’s about the good flesh — the eager promises, the disciplined devotions, the strong commitments that still come from self. And God must expose them.

We’ll unpack three cutting truths:

1️⃣ God already knows what’s in self — but He wants you to see it too.

2️⃣ Your confidence in self is the real issue.

3️⃣ The self-life plays the bride - but sleeps with the world.

Ask Yourself: 

→ Am I shocked by my failures — because I still trust in self? 

→ Have I mistaken eagerness for obedience — when it’s really self-preservation? 

📘 Free PDF of The Messenger of the Cross is linked here: https://issacharpropheticcity.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/the-messenger-of-the-cross.pdf

📘Listener's Guide Here: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1CghKe2NP9ZMslL3fq12ijjq6DhciUFuh?usp=sharing

📘‘Toxic Love’ by Malcolm Smith:

https://amzn.eu/d/3MyQTmz

The disciples asked Jesus to increase their faith. But Jesus didn’t give them more — He gave them a mustard seed.  In this follow-up episode, Alex takes us to Luke 17 and breaks open Jesus’ response: not a strategy to grow human faith, but a picture of divine life. The mustard seed isn’t about size — it’s about source.

We’ll unpack three anchoring truths:

1️⃣ Jesus Wasn’t Giving Them a Method for More Faith

2️⃣ The Mustard Seed Is Alive

3️⃣ You Were Created to Live by the Faith of Another

This is not about stirring up more belief — it’s about receiving the faith of the Son. His faith is alive. It uproots trees, forgives without limit, and moves mountains — because it comes from the One who overcame death.

Ask Yourself:

• Am I trying to grow my faith — or am I receiving His? → Do I see faith as something I perform, or Someone I live from? → What would shift if I believed the seed of God’s own faith is already in me?

Listener's Guide https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1CghKe2NP9ZMslL3fq12ijjq6DhciUFuh?usp=sharing

‘Toxic Love’ by Malcolm Smith https://amzn.eu/d/3MyQTmz

Before Pentecost, there were moments of great faith — the centurion who said, “Just say the word,” the woman who wept at His feet, even Peter who walked on water. But all of them, no matter how sincere, still lived from faith that could collapse.

Alex unpacks the kind of faith that existed before the resurrection — sincere, even commendable — but still sourced in the self. This is the kind of faith that recognises Jesus but hasn’t yet been joined to His life.

We’ll unpack three anchoring truths:

1️⃣ The Centurion — Recognition of Authority Without Indwelling Life

2️⃣ The Woman — Love-Born Trust That Still Came from the Soul

3️⃣ Peter — Revelation, Zeal, and the Collapse of Human Faith

This is a call to see the difference between soul-faith and Spirit-born faith. The old man can only muster his best efforts — but the new man lives by the faith of the Son.

Ask Yourself:

• Am I still trying to believe in Jesus — or have I seen that His faith now lives in me? → Have I confused emotional trust with spiritual union? → Am I still clinging to a sincere faith that collapses under pressure?

Listener's Guide https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1CghKe2NP9ZMslL3fq12ijjq6DhciUFuh?usp=sharing

‘Toxic Love’ by Malcolm Smith

https://amzn.eu/d/3MyQTmz

The new man is not the source of anything — he is the receiver of everything. Christ is your Life. Christ is your Love. Christ is your Faith.

In this third episode of No Other Foundation, Alex lays out the divine sequence of the Christian life: Life is given, Love is poured out, and Faith is awakened. This is the flow of the indwelling Christ — not performance, not pressure, but Person.

We’ll unpack three anchoring truths:

1️⃣ We live by the Life of Another.

2️⃣ We live by the Love of Another.

3️⃣ We live by the Faith of Another.

This is not self-sourced, soul-driven Christianity. This is the life of the Son being formed in you. You were never meant to produce anything. You were made to receive everything.

Ask Yourself:

• Am I trying to love God — or receiving the love He poured into me? → Do I live from knowing I’m loved, or still striving to earn it?
• Am I trying to generate faith — or yielding to the faith of the Son? → Do I believe that Christ’s own faith is already alive in me?
• Do I see the Christian life as something I must live — or Someone who lives in me?

Listener's Guide https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1CghKe2NP9ZMslL3fq12ijjq6DhciUFuh?usp=sharing'Toxic Love' by Malcolm Smith

https://amzn.eu/d/3MyQTmz

You weren’t just placed into Christ — Christ was placed into you. You now live by the Life of Another.

In this second episode of No Other Foundation, Alex unpacks the most present-tense truth of the Christian life: Christ now lives in you. Not improved. Not empowered. Replaced. The old life has ended, and the only life the Father accepts now lives within you — His Son.

We’ll unpack three anchoring truths:

1️⃣ Christ lives in you — not I, but Christ.

2️⃣ You live by the faith of the Son of God.

3️⃣ The only life the Father accepts is the life of His Son.

This is the divine exchange. You’re not trying to live for Christ. You’re learning to live from Him — His thoughts, His obedience, His strength. Christ is your Life.

Ask Yourself:

• Am I still trying to live for Christ — or have I let Him be my life? → Do I think Christianity is about following Jesus, or containing Him?
• Do I feel pressure to believe harder — or do I know I live by His faith? → Am I depending on my own consistency — or resting in His constancy?
• Do I think the Father is partnering with my self-life — or forming the life of His Son in me? → Am I offering Him my strength — or yielding to the only life He ever accepts?

Listener's Guide https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1CghKe2NP9ZMslL3fq12ijjq6DhciUFuh?usp=sharing

You weren’t just forgiven — you were relocated.You were taken out of Adam and placed into Christ.This is where everything begins. Not with trying to live for Jesus, but with being placed in Him.

In this opening episode of No Other Foundation, Alex lays out the most foundational truth in the believer’s life: you are now in Christ. Not partly. Not occasionally. But permanently — by the Father’s doing. This is your new spiritual location, your new lineage, your new humanity.

We’ll unpack three anchoring truths:

1️⃣ You were taken out of Adam and placed into Christ.

2️⃣ What happened to Him has happened to you.

3️⃣ Only what is in Christ can remain.

This is rebirth. You’re not a better version of the old you — the old man was crucified. You are a completely new man, created in Christ Jesus.

Ask Yourself:

• Am I still trying to fix Adam — or have I really seen that he’s been ended? → Do I believe I’ve been fully placed into Christ, or do I still think I’m stuck somewhere between the two?

• Do I think the Cross only forgave me — or do I know it also removed me from the old man entirely? → Am I living from the fact that resurrection gave me a new lineage?

• Do I still identify myself as a sinner trying to get close to God — or a son who has been placed in the Beloved?  You cannot be both a sinner and a son! → Am I building from placement, or still striving for proximity?

Christ is the Foundation - and there’s no other.

Listener's Guide https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1CghKe2NP9ZMslL3fq12ijjq6DhciUFuh?usp=sharing

If the priesthood has changed, why are we still ministering like Levites?  Why does worship still feel like work—and presence feel out of reach?

In this episode, Alex discusses one of the most deeply embedded assumptions in modern worship: that it’s our job to carry the presence or prepare the way. But Jesus didn’t come from Levi. He came from the order of Melchizedek—and if we are joined to Him, everything has changed. There’s no more outer court, no more sacred tribe, no more man who offers on our behalf.

Ask Yourself:

• Am I still seeing worship as a way to “enter in” or get God’s attention?→ Or do I know that I am already in, because Christ is in me?
• Have I taken on a role—like a modern-day Levite—thinking it’s my job to carry the presence or create access for others, rather than pointing to the One who already has?→ Or do I live and lead as one who is already a dwelling place?
• Do I believe someone else can mediate my access to God—through worship, prayer, or atmosphere?→ Or do I come boldly because Jesus has already made the way?
• Am I still ministering from the outside, trying to get close?→ Or am I ministering from within, because I am already one with Him?
• Have I recognised that the temple is no longer a place I go, but a person I’ve become?→ Do I live like the veil is gone, the priesthood has changed, and I am now His resting place?

Listener's Guide:

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

If you’ve already been placed, why do you still feel blocked?
In this episode, Alex unpacks what it really means to be seated with Christ and to draw near from a place you never left. From Hebrews 4 and 10 to Ephesians 2, we confront the self-life that still demands performance—and expose the real reason we shrink back. You’re not trying to get in. You’ve already been placed.

Ask yourself:

• When boldness rises in me, do I quickly suppress it out of fear of being “too much”? → Or do I trust that boldness is the natural posture of a son who’s already home?
• Am I still listening to the flesh that says I’m not enough, not ready, not clean? → Or am I letting the Spirit speak louder: that I am already in, already His?
• Do I shrink back when others misunderstand or question my confidence in Christ? → Or do I stay in alignment with what the Word says about where I live?
• Am I still trying to prove I belong before I speak, lead, or worship? → Or do I lead as one who already belongs—because Jesus brought me in?
• Do I define my access to God by how well I’ve done that week? → Or do I boldly approach every time, because of His blood, not my behaviour?

Listener's Guide:

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