Why Do I Still Struggle After Being Born Again?
1) Direct Answer
You still struggle because the new life is in you, but your body and human spirit have not been redeemed yet. The Holy Spirit in your inner man wars against the flesh. That conflict is a sign of life, not a sign that you were not born again. God allows the fight to train you, prove you, and make you an overcomer.
2) Scriptural Explanation
- The Bible says, “The flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh” (Galatians 5:17). That’s the battle you feel.
- Paul said he delighted in God’s law “after the inward man,” yet felt another law in his members (Romans 7:22-25). Then he declares, “There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus” (Romans 8:1-2).
- We “groan within ourselves, waiting for…the redemption of our body” (Romans 8:23). The soul is reborn now; the body’s redemption is future.
- Those sealed “with that Holy Spirit of promise” are “sealed unto the day of redemption” (Ephesians 1:13; 4:30). God keeps what He births.
- “Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin; for His seed remaineth in him” (1 John 3:9). The Seed in the soul cannot deny the Word. When a believer stumbles, he is grieved and confesses (1 John 1:9), and has “an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous” (1 John 2:1).
- God chastens sons (Hebrews 12:6-8). Correction is proof of sonship, not rejection.
- “Resist the devil, and he will flee from you” (James 4:7). “God…will…make a way to escape” for every temptation (1 Corinthians 10:13).
- Put on the whole armor of God and use the Sword of the Spirit, the Word (Ephesians 6:10-18).
3) Simple Clarifying Logic
- New birth changes your nature. You love the Word and hate sin. The struggle remains because you’re still in the same body with old habits pressing from the outside. The Seed inside cannot disbelieve the Word, but the flesh must be crucified daily. Feed the inner man with the Word and prayer, and starve the flesh by refusing its avenues (eyes, ears, thoughts, companions, places).
- Condemnation is the enemy’s voice; conviction is the Spirit drawing you to confess and walk on. If you can sin without grief, that’s danger; but if it pains you and drives you to Christ, that’s life.
4) Short Reinforcing Counsel
- Stay in the Word daily; speak it back to temptation.
- Pray and watch; avoid the doorways of the old life.
- Confess quickly; don’t hide. The Blood answers the accuser.
- Fellowship with the faithful; put on the armor.
- Remember: the battle means you’re alive. God started the work, and He will finish it.
Ask a Follow-up Question
What did the Laodicean Church Age (our age) Angel (- messenger) Say about this?
Ranked passages from the local William Branham sermon and Church Age Book database. Relevance is relative, not a statement of doctrinal certainty.
Stand still and see the salvation of the Lord
57-0629 §38
...that. And He said, "The things that I do shall you also; even more than this; for I go to the Father. Yet a little while, and the world sees me no more." Then if you'll be still in your heart tonight, just... I don't mean in your outward, I mean in your heart; settle it, and say, "Oh Christ, I love You. And I'm keeping still about this and that. Whether I shall take this, or take that, I'm taking You at Your promise. Please, Christ, tonight, let me see Your divine power displayed like You did in the days gone by....
You must be born again
61-1231M §77
If you're born of God, you're washed in the waters of the Word, separated from the things of the world, and believe God. You're dead. You're dead to your own thinking, dead to your own ideas, dead to everything else but God's Word; and it lives in you, working back through you, proving that it is God's Word. You say, "I'm dead to the world, Brother Branham." And deny God's Word? Jesus said, "These signs shall follow them that believe." Now we're getting down to what born again means, see.
Questions and Answers, Part 1
64-0823M §65
QUESTION: Dear Brother Branham, will all the sons and daughters of true, born again believers be saved? No, brother; no, they sure won't. See, as I copied David DuPlessis on this remark, "God don't have grandchildren (see?), just sons and daughters." See, they'll have to be born just exactly like their father and mother was born of the Spirit. See? That's what makes a man a new person, is because he's born again, reborn. His first birth brings him a natural man on earth; his second birth brings him a spiritual man...
You must be born again
61-1231M §81
But if you're born again, you're alive with Christ, and your affections is on things above and not on things of the world. But if you are born again of the Spirit of God, you become a part of God and are eternal with Him. Then death cannot touch you when you're born again. You are eternal. You have changed from a creature of time to a creature of eternity. You have changed from death unto life. I'm talking about eternal---from eternal death to eternal life. If you're of the world, you die here with it. If you love....
Why it had to be shepherds
64-1221 §28
...efused to show them any more. Up and down the streets these fine men, rich men with fine draped camels, and so forth ... up and down the streets saying, "Where is He that's born King of the Jews. We saw His star in the east." And that great religious capitol, after two years of the shepherd's message, still didn't have the answer or knowed nothing about it. The head of all the denominations didn't have the answer. So it disturbed the Sanhedrin, and they called for the scribes to come read. And they read Micah's sto...