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.
I will restore
54-0620A §20
Now, when Cain was born and Abel was born, there were two sons, two boys, and both of them had a spirit. And one was contrary to another. Now, I'm sitting here, perhaps, before a dozen or more churches. And I wouldn't teach a doctrine that was contrary to anything you'd heard. I have my opinion of whose son Cain was and where that evil streak come from. It could not have come from God nor from Adam. So he was evil to begin with. He was born evil. And being a little Calvinistic myself, I believe in foreordination, a...
An Exposition Of The Seven Church Ages
CAB 4:E-114
...hey said, Unto John's baptism. Then said Paul, John verily baptized with the baptism of repentance saying unto the people, that they should believe on Him Which should come after him, that is, on Christ Jesus. When they heard this, they were baptized in the Name of the Lord Jesus. And when Paul had laid his hands upon them, the Holy Ghost came upon them: and they spake with tongues, and prophesied." There it is. Paul asked, "Have you received SINCE, NOT WHEN you believed." And there is a great difference there, for...
Ye must be born again
58-0619B §46
Now the Holy Spirit has never left the earth; it's still on the earth, and it's brooding over the earth. "Come unto Me all ye that labor and are heavy laden." All you materials that's been built in the image of God, cooing, calling, wooing. And if the Holy Spirit woos, and we come back and say, "Yes, great God, You made me and I love You. And You are my Creator, and I'm sinful, and I'm ashamed of it." Then He places in me eternal life. Then if He give me eternal life by answering back to His call, and made me what...
An Exposition Of The Seven Church Ages
CAB 4:E-113
...Holy Spirit. My Pentecostal friends, upon hearing me say this believe that I am inviting people to come forward to be baptized with the Holy Ghost because they are already born again. So when I invite those who are Spirit-filled to come and deal with those who have answered the invitation to receive the Spirit, these dear ones surge forward and deal with the people in such manner as to encourage them to yield to God and believe to speak in tongues. This has caused a great deal of confusion and I want to tell you e...
Earnestly contending for the faith once delivered
53-0614A §23
And someone asked me (It was the same man), why did I associate myself with pentecostal people? Now, here's the reason. Now, I know there's many things that I think they ought to be straightened out on, in some doctrine. That's my own opinion, they might think I ought to be too, see. Now, but here's one thing: that I have found the people with a living faith, where they have absolutely caught a hold of something: God out there that gives them a new birth, that puts God into the person, that makes him believe in the...