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.
Sirs, we would see Jesus
61-1224 §86
Oh, one of them say, "He was born right here. We got a church built over it." Other one said, "He was born over here." Like... You know how many nails they got, can prove it, original nails that was in the cross? Nineteen---each fellow holding a nail. "This, we got it. Hallelujah, we got it." They just got some dead bones of some... "We got it, we got it. This is the place He was born." Others say, "This is the place He was born." They say, "This is the place He was born." What difference does it make? Here's where...
Why I'm against organized religion
62-1111E §52
...over it, see. All right. All this wisdom and things that they can accumulate, yet, but it is from ... that birth is from beneath, this earth. It's from the earth, and it is against the Spirit of God. The first birth, to make us active here, makes us mortal men, because of the sin act at the garden, made man come into the world by a woman. And a man that is born of a woman is of a few days, but a man that is born of Christ is eternal. Job said, "A man that's born of woman is few days and full of trouble." Notice, bu...
You must be born again
61-1231M §69
A new nature, a new being, a new creation, nature of your Father. And you believe and love every word that He said. Every man's word's a lie, contrary to this Word. This is God's Word, see. The Bible's right. I don't care what the church says, the Bible's still right to you, because your nature's been changed. Now, if you've got a church father, you'll believe in that church father. But if you got Father God, you'll believe in God's Word. If you got a father in the church, you'll believe him because you're of his n...
You must be born again
61-1231M §15
Now, if your little boy or little girl was playing on the street where cars are running, and you knew sooner or later they're going to get hurt... Now, if he'd say, "Why, Papa, I want to be out here," would you say, "Bless your little heart, Junior, you just go right ahead and play in the street"? That's not a real daddy. If you have to jerk that little fellow up and give him a spanking, scold him, tie him up, anything else, keep him off that street---he'll get killed. Is that right? Well, that's the way you have t...
You must be born again
61-1231M §106
Listen over here, just let me just quote back just a minute and read something to you in Ephesians, the eleventh verse, twelfth ... about the fifteenth, I believe it is, somewhere along in here. Let's start at the twelfth verse. For the perfection of the saints, for the working of the ministry, ... the edifying of the body of Christ: Till we all come into the unity of the faith, and ... the knowledge of the Son of God, into perfected man, and the measure of his stature and the fulness of Christ: That we from hencef...