Spiritual Identity | Work with Purpose | February 2025
Description
Bill Spencer, Narrow Gate Executive Director and keynote speaker at the Work with Purpose Conference, dives deep into Spiritual Identity. He challenges us to question the narrative we’ve built about ourselves by revealing how society’s funhouse mirrors—like the distorted reflection in everyday selfies—can warp our self-perception. Bill explains that what we see, hear, and most importantly, feel, shapes our identity and that the story we tell ourselves sets the stage for our daily lives. Drawing from scripture, he contrasts these fleeting societal images with the eternal truth of being “me in Christ and Christ in me.” With key insights on how embracing our true identity in Christ transforms every thought, action, and purpose, Bill offers a compelling call to replace our distorted self-image with the unchangeable, redemptive truth found in God’s Word. For more videos like this, visit Kingdomatwork.com
who else to come talk to us today about identity than my friend Bill
Spencer morning you know what kills me everybody talks about how smart I am nobody ever
says the best looking guy I’ve ever met on the face of the Earth Bill Spencer
they say that a picture is worth a thousand words so here’s my first thousand
words really y’all got this one figured out
yet for those of you who are afraid that the inherent rights of the cheetah are
now being violated by this kind officer who’s obviously incredibly irritated because the cheetah is doing what the
cheetah naturally does let me explain there’s been a traffic
accident if we could back the camera away just a bit and get a wider
perspective a fuller context we would recognize that one of the vehicles
involved in the traffic accident is a Taxidermy
truck two of you caught up to the story right there I could hear it just a small Chu you were afraid you’re embarrassed
to admit that you caught up the Taxidermy truck has spilled some of its wees onto the road and some of the
people observing the accident have moved those wees over to the shoulder and now the police officer is
writing an accident report are you caught up
yet oh come on y’all I know it’s early but look I did this on purpose I’m the
first speaker in a whole Litany of people who are going to stand right here and give you incredible information all
day long 20% of what you hear in this
encounter you will remember let me say that again 20% of
what you hear in this encounter you’ll retain at the end of our time together
that means that as other speakers come out on the stage and begin to speak to you what I have to say will just Wayne
in your memory and by the time you get to the end of the day the likelihood that you’ll remember anything I had to
say is almost non-existent so a picture will embellish that because you’ll remember
40% of what you see in this encounter My Hope Is that you’ll go home today with
this picture emblazoned in your head and you’ll remember remember what we talked about because the picture will
reinforce it but here’s the thing while you remember 20% of what you
hear and 40% of what you see you’ll remember
70% of how you feel in this conversation that picture is just a
story Frozen in time we had to add context in order to
bring resolution so when I put that picture up and you focused in and everything else went away
and you had that sense of optimism that there must be some good outcome here your brain was being injected with a
substance called dopamine it gives you a sense of well-being optimism focus and as we
brought the Fuller context as we broadened your perspective and the story
came to a resolution that resolution kicks in another ingredient called oxytocin dopamine and oxytocin together
psychologist Psych iatrist biochemists they call that the Angel’s cocktail now there’s another cocktail
that can be induced in your brain and those are the conversations that are incredibly
stressful they have timestamps on them and expectations and they kick in a couple
of substances called cortisol and
anxiety and the story you tell yourself in any given moment will
dictate which one of those cocktails spin up in your brain it’s how you’re designed by
God so I want to ask this What story do you tell
yourself every day when you wake up about who you
are because that story that context that framework sets the stage for the
narrative that will play out in your life all day long who are
you why are are you here that’s what we want to talk about
in order to get into the meat of it I want to show you another picture and I’m just going to prepare you in advance
okay that actually just let me tell you this story that leads into the picture when I was a kid we grew up in North
Missouri I was a heart of the Midwest kid I was almost all the way up in the state of Iowa I did not live in a place where
there was great wealth and we were not a family of means so Winters in Aspen or
having brunch at the foot of the Eiffel Tower that was off the plate for us we didn’t do that our big outing was the
Missouri State Fair y’all State Fair anybody here by Applause State Fair anybody go to the state fair oh come on
wait no stop time that’s just pathetic listen State Fair the state fair is a magical magical
place we would get up early in the morning travel down Park our pickup truck in the grass parking lot with our
lunch in the cooler and the day would begin our family had rules the first
half of the day you had to stay in the front half of the Missouri State Fair which is all the exhibits geese ducks
cows pigs chickens rabbits how about the ginso knife guy or the Ronco slicer dicer peeler dude that that was the
first half of the fair and then we’d come back and we’d have that magical lunch sitting on the tailgate of the
truck cold Fried Chicken cold potato salad cold baked beans cold anything
cold in a cooler that’s what we ate and I thought it was Heaven I think the reason I like that
meal is cuz I knew what was coming next the second half of the fair was the back
half the carnival the Midway Missoura boasted a mile long Midway at the State
Fair now it’s not true it’s not really a mile long the truth is it’s a half a mile long this direction everything on
this side well that’s all the rides and attractions everything on this side that’s the fair food you go to the end
and you turn the corner make a U-turn and come back down this side now the fair food’s over here and the rising attractions are here so they make a
little lie out of it it’s a half a mile down a half a mile back since we didn’t really have means we couldn’t spend the
whole day in the carnival because you had to have tickets back there and I was a kid that learned how to make tickets
stretch you could burn through your your Carnival tickets and a heartbeat if you weren’t careful so you had to figure out
where to spend your time on on this side in the rides and
attractions there was a thing called the fun house and man you could burn some time up in the fun house if you’ve never been
in one let me describe it to you you hand your ticket to the fella you walk up and the first thing you encounter is
a set of steps going into the fun house they’re made of steel and they’re moving
left to right in alternating fashion now if you’re smart you’ll walk over and put
your hand on the rail and stabilize yourself as you go up no I’m a 9-year-old kid my goal is to run up
these things as fast as possible and on about step three down you go blood
coming down your shins your face is bruised up but you’re laughing for some reason that thing leads to the giant
spinning Steel Death Trap tunnel and you’re trying to get through this thing while it’s turning you I
remember the year that I finally got tall enough that I tried to do this
one and ride the whole thing around and it moves even slower than
this since I wasn’t strong enough to hold myself up when I got completely upside down my arms gave out and I
literally cracked my head in a way that I probably should have gone and gotten stitches so now I’m bleeding from The
Shins bleeding from the lip bleeding from the head and into the fun house I go giggling with
Glee eventually you make your way to the glass maze
now it’s not bleeding it’s just bruises because again as a kid you want to get through it as fast as you can so it’s po
oh by the time you get to the end you are so bloodied and so bruised and so hanged that you need something to calm
yourself CU if you walk out of the fun house and people see you coming out bleeding and ridden with anxiety
cortisol adrenaline if they see that they’re not spending their ticket to come in so they introduce you to
something called the Hall of Mirrors the Funhouse mirrors the fun housee mirror is the
best I remember one year I stood in front of a funhouse mirror my head was the size of a pee and my neck was 4 feet
long it was amazing so I thought I’d bring a picture
a story Frozen in time and show you a fun house mirror picture this is Gina
when she was 16 years old it’s not I’m lying it’s not Gina but at
least I got you looking right this is what a funh house mirror does it distorts the truth of who you
are we can all evidently see the girl that’s looking into the mirror and we
can see the reflection staring back at
her do you own a fun house mirror
what mirror do you look in what do you use as a reflective
surface to discover who and how you are that’s what we need to talk about
this morning I promise all of you do own a fun house mirror I want to introduce you
to one have you ever pulled out your phone and gone
click has anyone here never taken a selfie please hold your hand up if you’ve never taken a selfie
that’s what I thought I don’t see a single hand up in the air right now but
did you know that your phone is actually a funhouse
mirror 70% 70% of all people that visit a
facial reconstructive surgeon a plastic surgeon they show a selfy to their
doctor to explain why they want facial reconstructive surgery
but did you know that at this distance a bent arms distance I don’t know why everybody always takes pictures like
this nobody ever takes pictures like this I do and then they don’t do well on Instagram maybe it’s because they’re
looking at my nostrils I don’t know but anyway take pictures like this at a bent arms distance your nose will appear 30%
wider at the base than it actually is and your head will be 10% taller than it
actually is and that’s what you show to your doctor and say this is why I want facial
reconstructive surgery it’s a fun house mirror Dr poris Boris Passover of Rutger
Medical University he said I want him to realize that when they take a selfie
they are in essence looking into a portable funhouse mirror not my opinion
medical doctor and educator so I’ll ask it
again what do you use use to figure out who and how you
are what reflective surface do you use I can give you another funh housee mirror
that’s even bigger than your phone that you carry with you every single day and
you have used every single moment of your entire life if you’d like to see it just look
to your right go ahead do it look to your right now look to your
left some of you did move right is on this side left is on this
side here’s what we do we behave in the way that we choose
to behave think whatever speak whatever do whatever and then we watch the
reaction of everyone around us if they respond positively we learn
if they respond negatively we learn we mold ourselves into this image that gets
the response that we want to get from society but I’m telling you I’m I’m
promising you that’s a funh housee mirror society around you and their
reaction to you is based in the needs of the society and you pinging off that Society
is based in your need for approval and acceptance and that’s not the
truth it’s not the truth so let’s ask it
again who are you how do you figure it
out in Genesis chter 3 God was walking through the garden in the cool of the
evening and he called out and said Adam where are you you remember this story Adam said I’m hiding and God
says why and the first existential statement ever made by man about man comes next he
says because our heard you I was afraid because I was naked I am
naked and God said who told you
that see the inference is you didn’t get that from me Adam you didn’t get that from
me all the sudden another voice of identity was interjected into Adam’s
life Adam might have been naked the whole time we don’t know for real we know he was but it wasn’t something that he used
to define himself before that the only reflective surface the only interpersonal
interaction that Adam had day in and day out was God his Creator God defined who
Adam was and now another defining voice sets in and you’ve grown up with that
voice you’ve listened to it and we’ll ask the question question
again who are you how did you figure it
out we could do it this way I want you to picture someone that you are incredibly close to that is of the
opposite gender maybe it’s a wife a husband a brother sister mother father someone but
just pick someone that you’re really close to does everybody have it in their mind and you have to answer yes or no does everybody have it in their mind
good now I want you to imagine tomorrow morning morning you wake up and I don’t know why the stress of the day something
snapped inside your head and your first thought when you woke up I’m going to give you an example my wife’s name is
Stacy she is better looking than me she’s smarter than me she’s Kinder than me she’s more organized than me she’s
more congenial and person she’s better than me in every single possible way let’s say tomorrow morning I woke up and
my first thought was I am Stacy
I mean that’d be an upgrade for me right those of you who know Stacy should immediately and emphatically answer yes
right that would be an upgrade for you Bill I am Stacy let me ask you a question how would I
dress anybody weird it out right now CU it got really quiet when I said how would I dress how would I dress what
would my cell phone number be what car would I drive what calendar would rule my day what would my diet be you get it
everything I would do that day would emulate the truth that I believe I am
Stacy and everything you do every single moment of every single day is an
affirmation of what you believe to be true about yourself the question is who
told you who told you who you
are you act in accordance with what you believe to be true about
yourself so what resource did you use what I’d like to do today is give you a
quick exercise with two concepts and if you put these Concepts in your heart I
promise it will forever transform you let me say it again if you hide these two concepts in
your heart it will forever eternally transform who and how
you are the concepts are simple
the concepts are me in Christ and Christ in
me so let’s start with the first one me in
Christ there are 17 verses of scripture 17 passages of scripture in the New
Testament about Christ in me the other one and they’re fantastic you know them Christ in me the hope of glory or I’ve
been crucified with Christ nevertheless I live but it’s not me it’s Christ in me 17 of those did you know there are
170 passages 170 exactly 10 times as many
passages about me in Christ 2 Corinthians 5:17 says this anyone who is in Christ there it is is a new creation
old things have passed away behold all things are new do you believe
that anyone who is in Christ old things have passed away all
things are new that’s one you get a fresh
start a clean slate how about this one I’m a big fan
of the book of Ephesians now a lot of people aren’t because it’s a little bit difficult to read and here’s why in
English we have constructs that we put our communication syntax together with in Greek you can write kind of like a
musical score you can establish a theme and then just build on that theme if we
translate it over to English it looks like a run-on sentence but in Greek it’s just Paul getting more and more and more
and more excited to the point that it finally crushes him down to his knees in prayer and he says this big thankful
prayer and then he starts over again and it builds and it builds and it builds and it builds until oh my gosh I’m down in prayer
again so let me tell you how the book of Ephesians starts starting in verse three it says
blessed be the the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ who has blessed us
with every spiritual blessing in the Heavenly places in Christ just as he
chose us in him before the foundation of the world to be holy and blameless
before him in love having predestined us to adoption as Sons to himself in Christ
according to the good pleasure of his will to the praise Andor Glory of his grace by which he made us accepted in
the Beloved in him we have Redemption through his blood the Forgiveness of
sins according to the riches of his grace which he caused to abound toward us in wisdom and
Prudence having made known to us the mystery of his will that in the
dispensation of the fullness of time he might gather together together in one
all things things in heaven and things on
earth in Christ y’all that’s just about five
verses of this whole first half of the book that just screams again and again
and again these truths of what it means to be in Christ let me show you a quick
list verse three says we are blessed with every spiritual blessing
verse four says we Are Holy chosen blameless that we stand before him not
in judgment not in judgment in
love verse five it says we are adopted and man what I would give to have the
time to unpack to unfold to express to you what that
means we’re accepted and we are AC acceptable we’re redeemed forgiven and
we are rich in Grace we abound in wisdom and Prudence
we’re unified with heaven we are heirs we have an inheritance in heaven y’all it’s
guaranteed we’re filled with trust sealed with the Holy Spirit guaranteed
guaranteed to be brought home why because you are in Christ that’s it
because of one choice you made we do not have the time in this setting
to really unpack just that and this is just scratching the surface I’m not
talking about scratching the surface of what’s in the text of scripture I’m talking about just scratching the
surface of what’s in these verses I’m going to unpack one one of these verses very quickly so
that you can see the depth of what’s available if you are in
Christ verse three says blessed be the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ
who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the Heavenly places do you hear it blessed be the God and father of
our Lord Jesus Christ who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing you hear the word bless bless bless well let’s
take it apart bless it this first one it’s the word IG it has in the heart of it this
idea of adoration
adorable it’s that feeling you get when you picture a guy asking a
girl will you marry me see bless always means to go down to close
in and when a guy does this it’s because he adores that girl that he’s holding a
ring up to adoration adorable the adorable God and
father the God who deserves our adoration blessed be the God and father
of our Lord Jesus Christ okay we’ve got that established the second one kind of the same word it
just changes a little bit instead of UL this is eulogia and you might hear an English
word in that eulog eulogy
eulogy a eulogy is a final indelible
unchangeable Eternal spoken truth that’s what a eulogy
is the god who deserves our adoration the adorable God and father of our Lord
Jesus Christ has eulogized us spoken final unchangeable truths
about us blessed us with every spiritual blessing and that last word blessing ulo
it literally means an abundant commendation to commend abundantly so let’s put this
back in English like real simple Modern English let’s just say it in redneck
okay the adorable God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ has spoken a final
unchangeable indelible Eternal truth about us about you about me declaring
that we are to be abundantly commended in the Heavenly Realms why because we
are in in Christ you
chose you just said I have no hope if you stand me in front of the great right
throne and ask me to give an excuse or an explanation or a justification for
who and how I am I’m cooked but here’s my buddy Jesus he’ll
explain the whole thing that’s it you trusted him to represent you you are are hidden in
him and because you’re hidden in him everything that he is everything that he
represents is now you you were hidden with him on the
cross in the grave and just as he was raised to the fullness of Life the newness of life so too you were raised
in Christ but I’ll ask the question is that how you woke up this
morning when you developed the context in which
The Narrative of your day would unfold and you looked in the mirror is
that what you saw hey this
guy my father is in heaven extolling in
Commendation the goodness of who and how I am simply because I
trust Jesus
that makes me pretty Invincible I’m adopted as his
son I’m standing before God not in judgment in
love is that how you started your day What story do you tell yourself
about who you are ah yeah but Bill you you don’t know me you don’t you don’t know
me you’re right I don’t and neither do
you neither do you if you think that you know you better than God knows you you
need to back up and think that one through the omniscient God who knows absolutely everything that was
everything that is everything that will be everything that could or would be if that God you’re telling me that you know
you better than than he knows you because these 170 passages of
scripture these are unchangeable these are absolute yeah but you don’t know how I
act I mean if I adopted that I would feel like such a hypocrite okay let’s get that one out of the way right now
the word hypocrite is actually a Greek word it’s just a one for one translation in Greek Theater there were
two troops of actors there were the hectors there were the the actors themselves and they
played all the parts of men because all actors were men in Greek Theater but
there’s a lot more to theater than just male roles right so all of the other roles women nymphs kids bugs snakes
trees frogs whatever it was that had to be in the play they were played by a troop of actors who acted as if they
were something that they weren’t they are men but they’re acting like a woman now you know it’s that thing and that
tro group of actors was called the Hypocrites it was someone who was pretending to be something other than
what they actually
were who are you because it’s when you act opposite of God’s definition that you’re actually
hypocritical not when you stand in the fullness of that de that definition when you step up and say this is who and how
I am you are being fully and truly you
blessed with blessing adopted engrafted servant Saint son and daughter L and Triumph that’s
you and the more you tell yourself that story The more you’ll become you
fully that’s the first principle the second one if you’ll
memorize two verses of scripture and hold them in your
heart every every single day you’ll see this change come to
life Christ in
me Galatians 2:20 says we did it really quickly earlier let’s do it more slowly I have been crucified with
Christ nevertheless I live stop time out if you stopped right there that might be
the stupidest thing ever written in the Bible it would be Paramount to saying I was
once electrocuted in the electric chair nevertheless I live I have been hung by
the neck until dead nevertheless I live no no you don’t look when they hang you
up there on that thing you’re done okay I’ve been crucified with Christ nevertheless I live let me explain ah
see it’s not me it’s Christ in me and the life which I now live in the
flesh I live by faith in the Son of God who loves me and gave himself for me
Jesus said it this way in John 15 abide in me and I in you you see our
pattern abide in me that’s me in Christ and I in you that’s Christ in me and you’ll bear much fruit but apart from me
you can do nothing nothing nothing you
you can’t do that you can’t do that you can’t blink breathe walk talk you’re done if Jesus
ever leaves you you’re done
it’s Christ in you so let me ask you the
question is the constant thought inside your brain I want to live my life for
God or I would like for Christ to live his life through
me I’m going to give you the narrow gate answer we’ll just cut to the end it’s both and
John 15 abide in me and I in you but we don’t put a heavy foot on Christ Living
his life through me we put the heavy foot on me living my life for Christ that leaves you in control of you and
you’re not you’ve been crucified with Christ so let’s get to the second verse
how do I do that bill ah not so hard Romans 12 says I beseech you I beg you
therefore Brethren by The Tender Mercies of God
offer your bodies as a living not dead a Living
Sacrifice this is your and then translations get weird right here your reasonable act of worship let’s say that
one because Cal’s going to come out here and talk to you about worship this is your reasonable
service it’s not me it’s Christ in me and through me
therefore I offer this existence not so that I would be a representative for Christ that he could
literally live in and through
me is that how you see yourself who are
you I would advocate for this truth and until you discover the truth
of who you are in Christ until you discover the truth of
who you are in Christ and until you rehearse that narrative every day again
and again and again until your identity in him is fully
established you will never truly realize your purpose on this Earth what he wants to do through you is
something you’ve never dreamed dreamed will you let him will you like Romans 122 says offer
yourself as a living sacrifice for him to live
through in that moment your identity will be solid and your purpose will be
absolute at the close of every one of these talks we’re going to have some questions
I hope you’ll ask these honestly in your notebook with a pen if Jesus were to have full control
of your existence right now what would he say or do look before you look down at your notebook I know I just
referenced it I’m asking you stop look back up at me for just a
minute if Jesus were to walk in this room and inhabit my body right now and
and he wants to say something to Brad this feels a little audacious but we’re going to do it anyway what would he want to
say if he wanted to say something to the person sitting next to you what would he say if you gave him control of your
existence what would he say would it
be I see everything you do and I’m stunned at how well you
serve never stop until we see each other face to face
would he say that you imagine what would he say or do through you make a record
of that and then number two what habit most frequently blocks the truth of who
I am in Christ from being the normal experience of my daily life I just can’t
accept the fact that I’m holy righteous redeemed you take a minute and think
through those just for convenience sake I put a QR code on the screen
it’s got 30 passages of scripture hang them on your mirror memorize them study
them become fully you then your purpose will emerge
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