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.
You must be born again
61-1231M §31
...eceive this tape. I suppose maybe just a little different from what the regular church teaches it, I teach, and believe can sufficiently prove by the Scripture, that you're born of the Spirit and then baptized into the body by the Holy Spirit. Now, many of them teach that just to come up and be recognized before the congregation, and so forth, as a sinner, that you want to accept Christ as personal Saviour, that that is the new birth. Many believe that water baptism is the new birth. And some of them believe that y...
You must be born again
61-1231M §27
So, now remember, it didn't say, "You ought to be born again"; but "you must." Now, we, as English speaking people, understand what the word "must" means; that is, "It's absolutely you've got to do it." See, it's a must! Not, "You ought to, you'd be better off if you did"; but "you must be born again." Oh, if we could just take that word this morning and break it down, what it means, how that it's totally impossible... And then, if it's that essential and that great that it's totally impossible to enter the kingdom...
You must be born again
61-1231M §75
Now listen. I'm going to have to cut just a little bit here, you know, get the briars out of the way. Women and men that won't follow God's Word and His teaching after they claim to be born again, there's something wrong. I'm going to speak with the women just a minute. If a woman that knows that God's Word condemns bobbed hair, and wearing shorts, wearing slacks, dressing immorally, and haven't got the decency enough to let your hair grow out and put on clothes that look like a Christian, you're deceived. I don't...
Why I'm against organized religion
62-1111E §50
Yeah, He rebuked him for not knowing. "Thou art a master in Israel and know not these things? You must be born again!" Now, the natural man, I want you to notice something here, "You must be born again." Now, natural life, if we have natural life in order to be active in this natural life, in natural things, we have to have a natural birth. They don't just jerk you off of a tree somewhere, see, stick you out some way. They've tried it, but it didn't work. It's got to be an actual birth, natural birth, to make you a...
Gifts and callings are without repentance
50-0300 §12
And I believe that we're living in the hours just before the coming of Jesus the second time. Now, upon that, in speaking that the Spirit of Christ still is in the Church and in the people... I'll explain to you how the gift came and how it works. I was born of a humble parents, borned being a Catholic. I was born in Kentucky. And I believe that gifts and callings, as I said, are without repentance, that you're born here in the world with these gifts. Just the same as you're born to be a musician. You might give yo...