APRIL THEME – “SEEING THE RESURRECTION FROM GOD’S PERSPECTIVE”

BEATS FROM YOUR PASTOR’S HEART

STOP PICKING BACK UP WHAT YOU LAID DOWN

Isaiah 43:25, “I, even I, am he that blotteth out thy transgressions… and will not remember thy sins.”

One of the greatest struggles after a true moment of breakthrough is not the act of laying something down—it is the quiet, almost unnoticed habit of picking it back up again. You can have a powerful moment with God where something lifts, something breaks, and something changes, but if your thinking does not change, you can slowly drift back into carrying what God already removed. The enemy does not always try to stop your surrender; he often waits until after it, hoping you will reclaim what you were never meant to carry again.

FREEDOM REQUIRES AGREEMENT

God has already made a final decision about your past—He has blotted it out, removed it, and chosen not to remember it—but freedom is experienced when you come into agreement with that decision. Many believers live in a painful tension where they say they are forgiven but still think condemned, still feel guilty, and still respond as if their past is active, because they have not fully agreed with what God has declared. When you continue to revisit what God has removed, you are not just remembering—you are quietly disagreeing with Heaven, and your life will reflect whatever you consistently agree with.

THE OLD VOICE WILL TRY TO RETURN

Even after a genuine moment of release, the voice of your past will try to return, often in subtle ways through thoughts, memories, and familiar emotional patterns that feel automatic but are not authoritative. It may sound like you have not really changed or that you will always be defined by what you did, but those voices are not truth—they are echoes of what has already been defeated. That voice only gains influence when you agree with it, and agreement happens when you entertain it, rehearse it, or respond from it instead of rejecting it with truth.

DAILY DECISIONS PROTECT FREEDOM

Freedom is not just a moment you experience—it is a life you maintain through daily decisions, and those decisions are often made in small, unseen moments that shape your direction. It is in how you respond to a memory, how you process a feeling, how you speak to yourself, and how you choose to think that determines whether you walk in freedom or return to bondage. You do not maintain freedom by trying harder—you maintain it by consistently choosing truth over what feels familiar, because what you repeatedly agree with will ultimately shape how you live.

It is like taking a heavy backpack off your shoulders after carrying it for years, feeling the relief and the freedom, only to reach down later and pick it back up out of habit even though no one is asking you to carry it anymore. The weight did not return because it had authority—it returned because it was familiar, and many believers live weighed down not because they have to, but because they have not yet broken agreement with what they used to carry.

You are not just forgiven—you are free, and there is a difference, because forgiveness removes the debt but freedom requires you to stop living as if you still owe it. God is not holding your past against you, and He is not asking you to manage it—He is calling you to release it completely and live in what He has already finished. What He removed, He does not expect you to keep carrying, so stop returning to what God has already resolved and begin to walk in the freedom He has already secured.

WARFARE PRAYER

Lord, in Jesus’ name, I break agreement with every thought, memory, and label that tries to reconnect me to my past, and I declare that what You have removed is gone, what You have forgiven is finished, and what You have erased has no authority over me. Give me discernment to recognize every lie and the strength to reject it immediately, and help me walk in full agreement with Your truth so that I no longer carry what You have already taken. From this day forward, I will not return to what You have removed, but I will live in the freedom You have given me, in Jesus’ name, Amen.

DAILY CHALLENGE

When a past thought, feeling, or label tries to return today, refuse it immediately and say out loud, “That is no longer mine—I am free,” and continue forward without picking it back up.

MONDAY’S PRAYER REQUESTS

Dinay Rodriguez

Susan Bankston

David Franklin

Ann Stanley  

Britany Smith ~ Breast Cancer

Christopher & Yting Kelley

Danny Jarrard  

Ellen Boyd 

Jillian Gray 

Kim McClain’s Daughter, Amanda

Mary Williams

Mateen – Kim McClain’s Sister

Mike And Paula Ferris And Family  

Nancy Riley

Phillip Roach

Theresa Bain

Wes Knight

Amy Garner’s Dad

Andrea Nix– Friend of the Shelnutt’s

Angela Bryan’s Sisters

Annette Ford

Brando Echarte

Carol Lawhead – Riverside in Conyers

Darlene Kelley – Cancer Treatment

Darlene Wiggins

Debbie Foskey 

Deon Lotter

Don And Carol Franklin – Mae’s Cousins

Don Franklin’s Son, David

Doris Loyd

Dr. and Mrs. Davis

Ed Adkins – Friend of Brian Edwards

Ed Franklin’s Son In Law – Heart Surgery

Eric Magnusson’s Mother

Eric Ward

Friend of Linda Hodge

Gayle Sparks

Gloria Young

Jake Jenkins

James Burnette

Jean Partee

Jean Partee’s Sister

Jessica Headrick  

John McClain’s Mother

Joni Oberhage

June Cronan

June Cronan’s Sister

June Davis

Kailey Bateman

Kim McClain’s Mother 

Kim’s Sisters – Ann & Brenda & Mateen

Lillianna Magnusson’s Mom

Linda Mays

Lonzo Christian 

Lori Blount’s Mother

Mary Williamson – Dana Jackson’s Mom

Mrs. Franklin 

Nancy Brown

Nora Allison

Paul Bateman

Ron And Johnnie Barry – Friends Of Ashton & Glenda Bateman

Rose Fuller – Pruitt-Monroe Nursing Home, Forsyth GA

Roy Roach

Sandra Mitchell

Scott Lanier 

Scotty Nix

Stephanie Seivers – Friend of the Shelnutt’s

Steve Michaels

Tammy Shelnutt

Tom Witcher