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.
Ye must be born again
58-0619B §47
...ot a beginning, has an end. Did you ever think of that? God the great master rainbow in the skies, (we will say like that) with the seven Spirits of God. Red, perfect love. After that comes phileo love, from agapao to phileo love. That's the love that you have for your wife. If some man would insult her, you'd shoot his brains out, see. Because it creates a jealousy. But that's phileo love, secondary love. Then comes lust, for another man's wife. Then comes filth, see. It just becomes perverted. But all of this kin...
You must be born again
61-1231M §122
...here at twelve-thirty, or twenty minutes till one, but my advice is to you, Christian, you who love God. When you come to God's brass altar of judgment, and you want to be born again, just lay yourself upon there. Don't expect to pick up again---you're going to die. That's the end of you, that's all. If you don't do it, if you don't feel like you can do that, don't try it, it won't work---deeply, sincerely. (With about ten pages more of this lesson here, or more, scriptures, I quit.) But lay yourself upon God's br...
You must be born again
61-1231M §30
So this great doctrine of Jesus that's wrote here before us in the Bible, "You must be born again." There is so many different versions of it, as I have said before, till I thought this morning, for the sake of many who's been asking me what it meant and how could they become a real Christian, that I thought maybe that we would just approach the subject and take it just as clearly as I know how to give it to you. And it's not in the way of a sermon; it's in the way of teaching Sunday school, that the people might g...
Why little Bethlehem?
63-1214 §55
Then all true believing sons of God are born in Bethlehem with Him. If Christ had to become the Bread of Life, to be born in Bethlehem, which is Life's Bread House, then every one of true believers in Christ is born in Christ, they are born in God's Bethlehem. Amen. Then not only Jesus was born in Bethlehem, I was born in Bethlehem, you were born in Bethlehem. How did you do it? Right here in Phoenix, Arizona, this morning in the Ramada, you can be born again in God's Bethlehem, house of Eternal Bread Life. Eat it...
You must be born again
61-1231M §121
When you're born again, God vindicates you. That's how God vindicates all of His nature. What? By the fruits. That's the way He vindicates His ministry. That's right. All of His servants are vindicated the same way He vindicates nature. How do you know it's a peach tree? Because it brings peaches. How do you know it's an apple tree? It's bearing apples. How do you know it's a Christian? Christian signs bear from it, Christian life comes out of it. How do you know he's a teacher? The Word comes from him. How do you...