Shifting Realities
- Serge Da Rosa
- Oct 2
- 7 min read
For decades, I lived under the crushing weight of what I believed were daily attacks from the devil. Morning and night, it felt as if I carried a target on my back. That was my reality. It was the experience I lived and breathed.
But one day, in a moment of revelation, truth broke through: the devil had already been defeated, stripped of power, and rendered powerless by the cross.
“Having disarmed principalities and powers, He made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them in it” (Colossians 2:15).
From that day forward, I never again felt “attacked.” What changed? Not the external world but my perception. Truth exposed the lie I had partnered with, and in that moment, my reality shifted.
When I shared this with a friend, they reminded me: as co-creators with God, we shape the world we live in. Our agreement either builds illusions or aligns us with eternal truth.
The Realness of a Distorted Reality
A false reality outside of truth can feel just as convincing as the real thing. Illusions carry weight. They bind us with experiences that seem solid but are rooted in lies. This is why Scripture describes deception as bondage:
“The whole world lies in the power of the evil one” (1 John 5:19)—not because the evil one has power, but because humanity believes and lives within lies.
“You shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free” (John 8:32). Freedom comes not from external change but from inward awakening to truth.
Proverbs affirms the shaping power of the mind: “As a man thinks in his heart, so is he” (Proverbs 23:7). Moses echoed the same reality: “I have set before you life and death, blessing and curse. Therefore choose life” (Deuteronomy 30:19).
Our thoughts, alignments, and choices give shape to the reality we live. They become what we experience in life. Without truth, what we call “reality” may in fact be an elaborate illusion.
Surrender to Union: The Key to a Truth-Filled Reality
Shaping reality is not about sheer willpower, self-discipline, or “positive thinking.” Those may shift emotions for a moment, but they cannot anchor us in lasting truth. Reality that aligns with God flows only from union with Him.
Paul reminds us, “He who is joined to the Lord becomes one spirit with Him” (1 Corinthians 6:17). Union is not merely God being with us, but God being in us, intertwined spirit to Spirit. In this place of oneness, His thoughts become our thoughts, His desires shape our desires, and His truth governs how we perceive and live.
“In Him we live and move and have our being” (Acts 17:28). This is the blueprint of our existence. We were designed to live from the inside out, drawing life from union, not striving from separation.
Jesus modeled this perfectly: “I only say what I hear the Father saying, and I only do what I see the Father doing” (John 5:19, John 12:49). His life on earth was not about independent action, but complete surrender to union with the Father. Out of that union flowed truth, authority, and freedom as effortless overflow.
Outside of union, perceptions become distorted. We see through fear, lack, and illusion, which inevitably produces bondage. But abiding in union brings alignment: truth becomes the architect of reality. From this place, life is no longer about fighting off attacks, but about living in unshakable oneness where the Kingdom defines our experience.
Resistance vs. Surrender
Resistance is one of the greatest barriers to living in truth. It keeps us stuck, locked in cycles of illusion, unable to step into the fullness of God’s reality.
Why do people resist truth?
Truth challenges long-held beliefs. The Pharisees resisted Jesus because His teaching dismantled their traditions: “You nullify the word of God for the sake of your tradition” (Matthew 15:6-9). When truth contradicts what we’ve built our lives on, we often cling to the familiar rather than surrender to what God is revealing.
Fear whispers that some revelations are off-limits. In the garden, Adam confessed, “I was afraid, and I hid myself” (Genesis 3:10). Fear convinces us that stepping into deeper truth will bring loss, judgment, or danger, when in reality truth brings freedom.
Pride insists we already know. Paul cautioned, “If anyone imagines that he knows something, he does not yet know as he ought to know” (1 Corinthians 8:2). Pride closes the door to growth, keeping us from pressing deeper into the unfolding revelation of Christ.
But resistance doesn’t always appear as open rebellion. Sometimes it looks like reverence stuck in the past—building altars at the place of revelation. We take the word God spoke yesterday and camp there, turning what was once a doorway into a ceiling.
Israel fell into this pattern when they began worshiping the bronze serpent God had once used as a tool of healing (2 Kings 18:4). What had been a symbol of grace became an idol of nostalgia. Revelation was never meant to become a monument, it was always meant to propel movement.
God’s Kingdom is ever-expanding. His Spirit continually leads us from glory to glory (2 Corinthians 3:18). To resist this movement by clinging to past revelations is to miss the greater unfolding.
Surrender, by contrast, opens the way. When we yield to God’s voice, even when it challenges or stretches us, we are freed to move forward. Surrender says, “Not my perception, not my tradition, not my pride but Your truth, Lord.” It is the posture that allows us to live in constant unveiling, where yesterday’s revelation becomes the foundation for today’s, and today’s prepares us for tomorrow’s.
The Freedom of Surrender
Surrender, by contrast, frees us. It is an active yielding to God’s life within us. When we stop striving to control outcomes and instead entrust ourselves to His Spirit, we discover that true freedom begins where our resistance ends.
Trusting that God protects and teaches. Jesus promised the Spirit would “guide you into all truth” (John 16:13). Surrender rests in the confidence that God is not withholding wisdom. We can trust His guidance even when we cannot yet see the outcome.
Yielding to His leading into deeper truth. Paul reminds us, “All who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God” (Romans 8:14). Surrender means loosening our grip on preconceived ideas and allowing the Spirit to lead us into dimensions of truth that go beyond our traditions and comfort zones.
Allowing Him to move us beyond what we already know. Paul confessed, “Forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on” (Philippians 3:13-14). Surrender is the courage to release yesterday’s revelation so we can walk into today’s unveiling.
When we live surrendered, our thoughts, choices, and words begin to harmonize with Kingdom reality. Fear loses its voice, pride loses its grip, and truth takes its rightful place as the architect of our lives.
The result? Our experience begins to shift. We no longer interpret life through the lens of bondage or attack, but through the lens of union. Circumstances don’t control us—we engage them from God’s perspective. In surrender, alignment happens: our inner world reflects the Kingdom, and in turn, our outer world begins to manifest it.
Practical Application: Bringing Reality Into Alignment
Truth is not meant to be theory. It is meant to be lived. Revelation must move from insight to practice, from hearing to becoming. Here are three steps to bring your reality into alignment with God’s Kingdom:
Step 1: Awareness - Begin by identifying the areas where your lived experience does not match what God has declared to be true. Paul calls us to “examine yourselves, to see whether you are in the faith” (2 Corinthians 13:5). Awareness is about honesty—naming the lies we’ve believed, the illusions we’ve partnered with, and the ways fear, pride, or tradition may have shaped our reality. You cannot dismantle what you refuse to acknowledge.
Step 2: Replace - Once lies are exposed, they must be replaced. This is engaging words as the creative force it is. Words create worlds: “Death and life are in the power of the tongue” (Proverbs 18:21). Jesus affirmed that when faith speaks, reality bends: “Whoever says to this mountain, ‘Be taken up and thrown into the sea’… it will be done for him” (Mark 11:23). By confessing truth, we do more than repeat—it reshapes us from the inside out.
Step 3: Align - The final step is to live truth regardless of the situation you face. Alignment requires action. Paul writes, “We walk by faith, not by sight” (2 Corinthians 5:7). To align is to choose Kingdom perspective over circumstance, to pray from victory instead of for victory, and to act in trust that God’s reality overrides the illusion. Alignment transforms confession into embodiment.
When we walk these steps—awareness, replacement, and alignment—truth moves from head knowledge to lived reality. Our perception shifts, our choices shift, and in turn, our experience begins to manifest God’s Kingdom order.
Closing Charge: Choose Life, Choose Truth
Every thought, word, and decision is an act of partnership. We are either agreeing with Kingdom truth or reinforcing a distorted illusion. There is no neutral ground. Truth is living, creative power. When we engage it, reality bends and reshapes into alignment with God’s intent.
Pause and ask yourself:
Where in my life do I see contradiction to God’s truth?
Am I living by His perspective, or only my perception?
Do I resist what He reveals, or do I surrender to it?
Life in union transforms even hardships. Trials are no longer “attacks” to survive but opportunities for the Kingdom to manifest. As Paul declared, “In all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us” (Romans 8:37).
When truth governs our perception, nothing is wasted. What once looked like opposition becomes fertile soil for breakthrough. What seemed like loss becomes the stage for resurrection life. Every moment—whether joy or challenge—becomes an open door for God’s reality to break in and redefine ours.
So choose life. Choose truth. Choose union. Step beyond illusion into the ever-unfolding Kingdom, where your perception is shaped not by fear or deception but by the unshakable reality of Christ in you, the hope of glory (Colossians 1:27).
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By Serge Da Rosa
About the Author
Serge Da Rosa is co-founder of Urban Eden Community, a ministry dedicated to helping people discover their God-given identity and walk in the freedom of the new creation. Alongside his wife, Kristy, Serge facilitates weekly gatherings in Tulsa, Oklahoma that center around authentic connection, growth, and kingdom expression outside the walls of traditional religious systems.
Serge’s passion is to see people awakened to their union with God. Through weekly community gatherings, work in addiction recovery, community events, writing, teaching, and the Kings And Priests Podcast, he speaks into themes of identity, grace, purpose, kingdom and governance with clarity, depth, and hope.
Whether through a conversation, a gathering, or a written word, Serge’s message remains the same: You are in perfect union with God, empowered with God's Kingdom.
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