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.
Why it had to be shepherds
64-1221 §115
.... And I hope that I haven't hurt you by saying what I have said. It's all right to belong to church, we should do that, but, Oh brother, just don't accept that, you must be born again. That's what the great prophet-shepherd said, "You must be born again." He said that to a theologian, "You've got to be born again." And when you're born again, it just isn't because you believe. They say, "You're born when you believe." But the Bible said, "The Devil believes, also." Now, notice, it's not that, it's an experience. Yo...
Ye must be born again
58-0619B §50
...what is eternity? A perfect circle that has no end. Just revolves it... He started it ring around this way, go through the table, through the floor, through the earth, it's still a perfect circle. And God had no beginning or had no end. And when he puts that Spirit in us, in this flesh that He is brood from the earth. And our phileo love has become to a place that it's overrode by agapao love, then we got eternal life in this calcium and potash that's been fed and brood from the earth. And how much more can the God...
You must be born again
61-1231M §25
Now, God bless His Word. I want to take the subject this morning of Jesus' first doctrine. The first doctrine of Jesus was, "You must be born again." That was His first doctrine. Now, in a way of Sunday school, so that I won't preach and hoarse myself up for tonight, I have thought in my heart that this is something that it seems puzzling to the people. We hear so much about it all the time, and I thought it would be good this morning if we just search this subject through, clear it out. And that's the first beginn...
Hear ye Him
56-0611 §16
There's nothing like those beautiful hours, how I love to go out of a morning after the night has passed, and the earth has become still. Go out in the flower garden. All the fragrance of the flowers is hanging low and the perfume of the... Here in Indiana we have the honeysuckle. How I love to take a ride just at the break of day. But when the fluster, bluster of the day comes, the fragrance seems to be brushed away. That's the way the church is today; it doesn't know what it believes; it just jumps from pillar to...
Ye must be born again
58-0619B §11
I'm wondering this morning, as we are gathered here together, brothers and sisters, you ministers and Sunday school teachers, and whatever you are. What does this all mean? Why are we here, and what's the great struggle? And each night I've been trying to say this, look like, many times trying to condemn organizations and trying to condemn this, and condemn that. I am an extremist, that's true, and sometimes I go so far on one side I overbalance the other. But I don't mean to do that. I'm trying to say this: that a...