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 §102
...ay, "Glory to God, I have to get black in the face, I have to do this, and I have to have sensation, I have to dance in the Spirit, and I got it." No, no, hunh-uh. Just get born again and it actually takes place itself. You don't have to say, "Shall I study all night, shall I do this, shall I do that, shall I join this, and shall I make this creed, shall I do these penance?" No, no. Just die, that's all, see. Be born again, and it comes from the inside, takes care of the out, see. Sprinkle a little water, and wash...
Questions and Answers on Hebrews, part 2
57-1002 §38
He has a spirit in him, a man does when he's born, because it's a spirit of nature. It's a spirit of the world; it's a spirit of the god of this world. He is merely an offspring of Adam. A tree reproduces itself. Vegetation reproduces itself. Animals reproduce themselves. Humans reproduce themselves. They are the by-product of original creation. Get it? Now, when a man is born, he's born with a spirit in him of this world. That's the reason he has to be born again. For this spirit come from the conception by father...
Why I'm against organized religion
62-1111E §64
Well, you say, "I'm born again." And deny the Word? How can you be? Your own life gives you vindication of it, your own group that you're joined with, birds of a feather, see. Wait till we get down to those things in a few minutes, see. Comes by the Spirit. How can you tell people things of the Spirit that's not born of the Spirit? You have to be born of the Spirit to understand the things of the Spirit. Jesus said, "The wind bloweth where it listeth, and I cannot tell which way it comes or where it goes?" See? So...
Ye must be born again
58-0619B §45
Then, if sin has marred it and God cannot be defeated, then people are coming on the earth by a perverted way, but still, God's lumber is being used up. The potash, calcium and stuff He lets us eat it from ... and by your ... till the soil, and by the sweat of your brow you'll make your living. But man come just exactly the same, just exactly. God still has His purpose in His mind. Now what happens? If the Holy Spirit brought me and you on this earth this morning ... or, you and I, rather, on this earth and made us...
God's provided way of healing
54-0719A §48
...enough to understand this, and I got a mixed congregation. This would be a doctor's talk, and I'm your brother, so listen. In the life, the first thing in a baby, when it's born a natural birth, the first thing is water (Is that right?), blood, then spirit. It's got twitching of muscles, but not till it's born has it life. Now notice, but... I mean breathing life, you know what I mean. Now look, so is it in the spiritual birth. The first thing, the things that come out of Jesus' body, the elements that came from Hi...