This closing episode draws the series to its sharpest point. Alex reads the final section of Knowing the Self from Watchman Nee’s The Messenger of the Cross and uncovers three final realities: that even prayer can be driven by self-good; that confession without crucifixion is vanity; and that knowing the self is a lifelong lesson without which there is no true spiritual life. The series ends where the Cross always leads us — the end of self, and the daily expression of Christ’s Life.

📘 Core Truths from this episode:

1⃣ “Much seeking, prayers and faith appear to be directed towards God, yet within all these endeavors is most likely the anticipation of self-good.” Spiritual activity can look sincere, yet still hide self at the center. The Father allows defeat so that every false motive is exposed.

2⃣ “How vain it is for anyone to confess with the lips and even cry out for help if he fails to accept the principle of the cross in judging self.” Tears and words mean nothing if self is spared. Freedom comes only by agreeing with the Cross’s verdict.

3⃣ “Knowing the self is a lifelong lesson for a believer… outside of self-knowledge, self-examination and self-denial, there is really no way to spiritual life.” This is no one-time revelation. It is the ongoing mercy of God — exposing, judging, and stripping self until only Christ remains.

🧭 Ask Yourself: 

→ Is my seeking really for Christ, or still for myself?

→ Am I just confessing, or am I letting the Cross deal with self?

→ Am I willing to keep learning this lesson every day so that Christ lives through me?

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

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

**NEW AUDIO - 28 August 2025**

[It was brought to my attention that the original audio was in fact, the audio for episode 1 - so with huge apologies, HERE is the final episode of this series!]

This closing episode draws the series to its sharpest point. Alex reads the final section of Knowing the Self from Watchman Nee’s The Messenger of the Cross and uncovers three final realities: that even prayer can be driven by self-good; that confession without crucifixion is vanity; and that knowing the self is a lifelong lesson without which there is no true spiritual life. The series ends where the Cross always leads us — the end of self, and the daily expression of Christ’s Life.

📘 Core Truths from this episode:

1⃣ “Much seeking, prayers and faith appear to be directed towards God, yet within all these endeavors is most likely the anticipation of self-good.” Spiritual activity can look sincere, yet still hide self at the center. The Father allows defeat so that every false motive is exposed.

2⃣ “How vain it is for anyone to confess with the lips and even cry out for help if he fails to accept the principle of the cross in judging self.” Tears and words mean nothing if self is spared. Freedom comes only by agreeing with the Cross’s verdict.

3⃣ “Knowing the self is a lifelong lesson for a believer… outside of self-knowledge, self-examination and self-denial, there is really no way to spiritual life.” This is no one-time revelation. It is the ongoing mercy of God — exposing, judging, and stripping self until only Christ remains.

🧭 Ask Yourself: 

→ Is my seeking really for Christ, or still for myself?

→ Am I just confessing, or am I letting the Cross deal with self?

→ Am I willing to keep learning this lesson every day so that Christ lives through me?

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

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

Alex is joined by first time students Grace and Connor who share there experience of the Polish School. Listen in as they discuss the revelations that are transforming them from the inside out, and how they are maturing as the new man!

Recorded from the historic castle in Lwówek, Poland, this special In the Field episode of Firm Foundation Focus brings you into the heart of what God is doing in the nations. Alex is joined by friends Joe and Regan, as we share fresh stories, moments, and lessons from The Polish School of the 70.

SOAP Bible Study

https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLFHGnmXl-xUwsVNC54TRomuUZmDQaEF0N&si=r-r20a_RsCNAiXbr

This episode goes to the root: the refined self-life that still governs spiritual hunger, revelation, and even surrender. Alex reads from Watchman Nee’s Knowing the Self and uncovers how Holy Spirit applies the Cross—not as a distant truth, but as an inwrought work within. It is about the death of self. The pursuit of breakthrough, the wilderness of delay, and the daily denial of independence all come under one spotlight: the blade of the Cross.

📘 Core Truths from this episode:

1⃣ “If they learn to know one more thing, it is for the sake of glorifying self.”  Even revelation can become fuel for pride when self is still the source. Every hunger must be handed over to the Cross.

2⃣ “God is compelled to keep you in the wilderness longer…”  The wilderness doesn’t end until self is exposed. Delay is not discipline—it is the mercy of God confronting what still draws from the old man.

3⃣ “The cross is a principle… to deny self and depend on God.”  The Cross is not a crisis moment—it is a way of life. Holy Spirit applies it precisely, habitually, and deeply to every place where self still rules.

🧭 Ask Yourself:

→ Where am I still seeking revelation for self’s validation? Does my hunger for truth serve Christ—or is it a quiet attempt to prove that I’m worth listening to?

→ How do I respond when the wilderness drags on?  Do I view the delay as failure—or as the Father’s mercy, exposing every place where self still holds the reins?

→ Where is Holy Spirit applying the Cross right now?  What part of me is being pierced—brought to death so that Christ can finally live through me?

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

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

Some of the most spiritual-sounding forms of ministry today are keeping self alive. Inner healing, prophetic processing, even prayer ministry — when fueled by the wrong source — can preserve the very thing God has already judged. In this fifth episode of Knowing the Self, Alex exposes the hidden motive behind much of our ‘healing’ language: self still trying to stay in control.

This episode calls time on the version of ministry that comforts what God wants to crucify. It speaks to those who are still striving, still performing, still asking Jesus to walk with them into their pain — but who haven’t yet agreed with the Father’s verdict on self.

📘 In this reading from The Messenger of the Cross, Watchman Nee pulls back the curtain with three devastating truths:

1⃣ “God has one aim — to bring you to the end of yourself so that you may know yourself.”

2⃣ “You were the one active, and it was all for your own self.”

3⃣ “When a believer ceases to trust in himself, God saves him completely in that moment.”

🧭 Ask Yourself: → Am I asking God to heal what He wants to kill? → Is my pursuit of breakthrough really just a way to keep control? → What would it mean to stop expecting anything from self — and fall fully into Christ?

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

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

This episode focuses on the deeper danger: doing good in the strength of self. Alex reads from Watchman Nee’s Knowing the Self and explores how success—when sourced in self—reinforces resistance to the Life of Christ.

Barna’s national research shows that 92% of professing Christians operate from a syncretistic worldview—a blend of spiritual effort, cultural values, and religious performance. In that climate, self thrives. It builds fruit, gains applause, and takes the credit.

This episode confronts the form of spirituality that looks mature but flows from independence. When the source is self, it can never carry the life of Christ.

📘 Core Truths from this episode:

1⃣ “God would rather have His children sin than do good.”

2⃣ “Each time they do a good deed, they drift a step further from the life of God.”

3⃣ “More success results in more glory to self, hence prolonging the evil life 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

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