Few weeks ago, I accepted Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior. Ever since, I try to be prayerful though I don’t really know how to pray but I just say few words believing God has heard me. I regularly play Christian songs and listen to some Christian preachers on YouTube.
It has been a wonderful experience and I thought I was born again.

Three days ago, I was quietly minding my business in my room when I got a message on my phone. I checked; it was this olosho babe I met sometime ago. We started chatting and next thing she asked if I was around, I said yes because I didn’t want to lie. Few minutes later, she came and we had sex. Immediately I was done, I felt disconnected from God. That night, I couldn’t pray. I felt ashamed of myself. I was thinking if I could hide from God. Next day, I started meditating while playing Old Christian Hymns on YouTube. I sincerely cried and begged God for forgiveness. I promised myself never to allow any girl into my room.

This morning I heard a knock on my door, when I opened, I saw this white girl and she was telling me please. I asked her what the problem was and she showed me a piece of paper. I read through and immediately discovered she was begging for money to support her mother’s hospital bills. I was confused because I thought white people don’t beg. I took my wallet and gave her $20. She asked for my phone so she can use the language translation app because her English was not clear for me to understand. As I was about to get my phone, she entered my room and asked if she could sit and I said yes. She opened my phone and we started using the translator to communicate. She thanked me very well and said I am a good man. I said no problem. She then told me her mum has cancer and if I can add more money, she would be very happy and do anything I want to make me happy. Immediate I said to myself this is another temptation. Before I knew it, she started touching my lap, my kini woke up and she started touching it. She brought out her breast and placed my hand on it. At this point I was zombified and 1000% confused as I saw myself consenting. I slowly pushed her away and told her I don’t have a condom, so I can’t do anything with her. She told me she was safe, I said within me God forbid, do I know if you are a bag of sickness. I stood up and told her to leave. She knelt and started pleading for me to give her more money. I had to change my countenance and talk to her in a little bit harsh manner. She finally left me alone.

This is just few weeks into my new life.

My question now is: Is this how difficult it is to be a born-again Christian? Will God still forgive me for doing what I already know is a sin?

Please disregard my grammatical errors.

It is not difficult...you only need determination...listen to joshua selman messages

Congratulations on being born again. The fact that you are still being convicted of your sin means the Holy Spirit is at work. Proverbs 24:16 says "For a righteous man may fall seven times, but he will rise again". So, don't fall into condemnation if you by any chance slip, but you SHOULD be convicted of your sin. Romans 6:1-2 says "What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? God forbid! How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it?".

The thing is this brother, your spirit was what was saved at the point of salvation, your soul (or mind) is still being saved and should be continually renewed with the Word of God by the help of the Holy Spirit (Romans 12:2). You need to maintain a consistent walk with God and genuinely ask for the Holy Spirit to help you overcome the flesh.

Galatians 5:19 calls fornication a work of the flesh, not of the devil. The devil will just exploit the flesh to ensure you fall back to your old ways. But the will of God is not for anyone to perish, but for all to come to repentance. EAT the Word of God like crazy. John 8:31-36 makes us realize the first thing the truth wants to set you from is SIN. Read Romans chapter 6 for a start and 1 Corinthians 6. Holy Spirit can now bring these to your remembrance in times of temptation in forms like: "Fornication is a sin. Your body is now God's temple. You are a new man in Christ and dead to sin. While grace gives the opening for forgiveness from God if we sin, there is also the grace to overcome sin."

In summary, study more of God's Word, get closer to the Holy Spirit (Galatians 5:16 says we need to walk in the Spirit as to not fulfil the lusts of the flesh), get close to truly born again Christians (are you very active in church?), listen to messages of men like Bro. Gbile Akanni, Reverend Olusola Areogun, PK Olawale, Apostle Selman, and flee from youthful lusts and other appearances of evil (not walk away...flee! flee!). I once struggled with things too but by persistence and continuous spiritual growth, I started dropping them. Always be sincere to God in the place of prayer about your weakness and your desire for His help (you can only be delivered from what you see as an enemy, not a friend), and He will make His strength perfect in your weaknesses.

God bless you.

hsapien:
Few weeks ago, I accepted Jesus Christ as my Lord a

Was it easy for you to walk?

So it is also not easy to change the things you formerly did to do that which you are not accustomed to doing, so it would not be easy.

But like learning a new skill, Practice Makes Expert!

Nicoswit:
It is not difficult...you only need determination...listen to joshua selman messages

If it is easy, then you have not changed! In fact, you have done nothing to change.

Lol Op read this:

Then the Lord said to Noah, “Come into the ark, you and all your household, because I have seen that you are righteous before Me in this generation.”
Genesis 7:1


Remember how Noah was safe in the ark when the floodwaters came? While Noah was not perfect, God saw him as righteous because of his faith in God (see Heb. 11:7). When the flood came, everyone outside the ark died, but Noah and his family were protected and saved. Why? Because they were in the ark, which is a type of Christ, who is our salvation (see Acts 4:12).

The ark didn’t have windows along its sides, only near the roof. The truth here is that God does not want you to focus on all the darkness, terror, and evil that are around you and in the world. He wants you to look up and know that His Son is coming back for you. I want you to see something else: I believe there were times when Noah might have lost his balance and fallen as the storm waters crashed against the ark. But Noah fell in the ark; he never fell out of the ark.

Similarly, for the believer today, when the devil tempts you and you fall, you don’t fall out of your position in Christ; you are still in Christ. In the book of Proverbs, it says, “For a righteous man may fall seven times and rise again” (Prov. 24:16). You see, a believer doesn’t fall in and out of righteousness. Our righteousness today is a gift from our Lord Jesus Christ (see Rom. 5:17). This means that even though we may fail from time to time because we are imperfect human beings, we are still in Christ our ark and do not forfeit His blessings of protection.

Now, in case you are wondering, does this make someone want to live recklessly? Certainly not! I believe that knowing you are righteous in Christ makes you live responsibly and in honor to the Lord (see Rom. 6:10–14). The revelation of our righteousness in Christ produces righteous living (see Titus 2:11–12).

PS: I didn't write the above.

Well, it depends.

First, you need a big vagina given the size of a grown adult’s head.

Second, you need to be flexible so you can squeeze your shoulders past the birth canal.

Third, make sure she has wide birthing hips along with the big vagina.

Fourth, you are born again.

hsapien:
Few weeks ago, I accepted Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior. Ever since, I try to be prayerful though I don’t really know how to pray but I just say few words believing God has heard me. I regularly play Christian songs and listen to some Christian preachers on YouTube.
It has been a wonderful experience and I thought I was born again.

Three days ago, I was quietly minding my business in my room when I got a message on my phone. I checked; it was this olosho babe I met sometime ago. We started chatting and next thing she asked if I was around, I said yes because I didn’t want to lie. Few minutes later, she came and we had sex. Immediately I was done, I felt disconnected from God. That night, I couldn’t pray. I felt ashamed of myself. I was thinking if I could hide from God. Next day, I started meditating while playing Old Christian Hymns on YouTube. I sincerely cried and begged God for forgiveness. I promised myself never to allow any girl into my room.

This morning I heard a knock on my door, when I opened, I saw this white girl and she was telling me please. I asked her what the problem was and she showed me a piece of paper. I read through and immediately discovered she was begging for money to support her mother’s hospital bills. I was confused because I thought white people don’t beg. I took my wallet and gave her $20. She asked for my phone so she can use the language translation app because her English was not clear for me to understand. As I was about to get my phone, she entered my room and asked if she could sit and I said yes. She opened my phone and we started using the translator to communicate. She thanked me very well and said I am a good man. I said no problem. She then told me her mum has cancer and if I can add more money, she would be very happy and do anything I want to make me happy. Immediate I said to myself this is another temptation. Before I knew it, she started touching my lap, my kini woke up and she started touching it. She brought out her breast and placed my hand on it. At this point I was zombified and 1000% confused as I saw myself consenting. I slowly pushed her away and told her I don’t have a condom, so I can’t do anything with her. She told me she was safe, I said within me God forbid, do I know if you are a bag of sickness. I stood up and told her to leave. She knelt and started pleading for me to give her more money. I had to change my countenance and talk to her in a little bit harsh manner. She finally left me alone.

This is just few weeks into my new life.

My question now is: Is this how difficult it is to be a born-again Christian? Will God still forgive me for doing what I already know is a sin?

Please disregard my grammatical errors.

Hi there.

I'm very sorry to hear how tough you are having it. Unfortunately, that is a common story with Christians today and, judging by Paul's two letters to the Corinthians, even historically.

To be clear, when we choose to have faith in Jesus Christ and thus become children of God (John 1:12), we don't magically change. We do change spiritually (and that is the most important change. We are no longer God's enemies. We become His Children, His Beloved. But we are still in sinful flesh (Romans 7:18; Galatians 5:16-17) and we are still in the world where Satan rules, so we have to deal with those two things.

When we sin, God does not reject us as His Children, but our fellowship with Him is momentarily broken (1 John 1:6-7). This break in fellowship means that we lose access to some of the spiritual blessings that come with being believers. For example, there is a spiritual comfort that we have as children of God that helps us to endure the hardships of this life: we can lose it when we sin against God. But we do not cease being children of God. The only way to lose our Salvation is by deliberately choosing to stop believing in Jesus Christ (John 3:18).

Something else to keep in mind is that sin is rebellion against God. Every time that we sin, we are rejecting God's Authority. God always answers that rebellion with punishment, something that we call divine discipline in theology (Hebrews 12:5-11). Sin is a bad representation of God when it is committed by Christians. That too adds to the degree of discipline that we receive from the Lord. If we act like unbelievers when we are believers, the Lord does something to show the world that He does not endorse our behavior. If we persist in sinning like that, He will actually eventually kill us so that we won't continue to sin until our hearts are so hardened that we choose to stop believing in Jesus Christ and then go to the Lake of Fire with other unbelievers, if in fact we don't want to do this.

As for forgiveness, immediately you confess your sin, God forgives you completely. It is great foolishness to continue to wallow in guilt after you confess your sin. There is nothing that anyone can do to make God happy or to satisfy Him after we sin. He forgives us because of the Sacrifice of Jesus Christ. That is the only thing that "makes Him happy." So you have a spiritual right to rejoice and be free of your guilt as soon as you have confessed your sin. But remember that God's forgiveness does not mean that you will no longer be disciplined. Discipline is a critical part of restoration to fellowship with God. It helps us to stay away from sin in the future and to have our Christian witness cleaned up for the world that observes us. Don't fear the discipline: Although it will be unpleasant, if you have confessed your sin and you are willing to turn away from it, you will have God's comfort through it.

Now to the important part: dealing with sin. Sin is a big deal in the Christian walk. It is because of sin that Jesus Christ Who is God forevermore became a Man and died a terrible spiritual death on the Cross for us. If we didn't sin, He wouldn't have had to go to all that trouble for us. So, no one ought to take sin lightly, and you are doing very well not to. But can we really be free of sin in this life? The short answer is NO (James 3:2). But should we be free of sin in this life? The short answer is YES (Matthew 5:48)! How do we reconcile these two things?

The Bible teaches us that we are called to grow spiritually (1 Peter 2:2). As we grow spiritually, we become more and more like Jesus Christ and less and less sinful (2 Corinthians 3:18; Romans 12:2). Even if we cannot be perfect, we can grow in sanctification, and thus we would please God.

In other words, the answer to your pain is spiritual growth. When you commit to growing spiritually, you grow to become less and less sinful and more and more pleasing to God.

What does spiritual growth mean? It is a development in our knowledge and understanding of the Scriptures. To be clear, this is not an intellectual development - although it certainly affects our intellect - it is a spiritual one. The knowledge we speak of is the kind that comes from believing what you learn from the Bible. Without faith in the teachings of the Bible, the things you learn will never become the kind of knowledge that results in spiritual growth. As you adopt the Bible's position on things, you will find yourself changing from the inside out. It will affect your very desires, sometimes changing them completely, sometimes giving you strength that you didn't expect to help you rise above them. It is a beautiful experience. You will find yourself understanding Who God is and What He has planned for creation. But it does not come easy at all.

As I said before, becoming a believer does not remove our sinful bodies or the world around us. We continue to live our lives in sinful bodies in a sinful world. What this means is that we will continue to struggle with the sinful desires of our body and with the seductions and threats of the world around us. When we decide to embark on spiritual growth, both our very bodies and the world around us gang up to try to stop us from doing so. Satan certainly does not ignore that choice. He does everything that he can to stop it. If he succeeds at frustrating it, then we remain believers who can easily fall away from the faith. So, yes, it is pretty difficult to walk with the Lord Jesus. That is why He told us to count the cost if we want to follow Him (Luke 14:25-33). Do we think that Jesus Christ is worth the trouble? That is up to each of us to decide. Personally, I think that I would much rather He were happy with me than that the whole world love me. The world is fickle and my body can be pretty cruel, but Jesus Christ left His ineffable Glory as God to become a lowly Man just to die to save me from my sins. For me, that proves that I could never do too much for Him. Still, even though it is hard to follow the Lord, He does provide comfort and help to make it bearable for us (1 Corinthians 10:13; Matthew 11:28-30).

How do we grow spiritually? By finding a gifted and prepared pastor-teacher and submitting to his ministry (Ephesians 4:11-14; Hebrews 13:7,17). Pastor-teachers are gifted and prepared by the Lord specifically to feed His children with the Word of Truth so that they can grow spiritually and become able to handle this life with great spiritual dexterity. Of course, there are many false teachers and it is not often easy to find truly gifted and prepared pastor-teachers. This is deliberate on the Lord's part. It is how He separates between those who really care for His Truth and those who don't. So don't let it deter you or offend you. Pastor-teachers make the Bible easy to understand for those who listen to them. If anyone insists on not submitting to a pastor-teacher, well, they will be making things up to believe. And only the actual truth that the Bible teaches that we believe will make us grow spiritually, will set us free from the sin and corruption in the world.

How can we tell who is a false teacher and who is a true one? By comparing what they say to what the Bible says (Matthew 7:15-20; 12:33-37). It is true that it is hard to understand the Bible, but we can actually see the words on the page. If someone is saying that the Bible says things that it does not say, we can see it right on the page. If they say that it does not say what it actually says, we can see it right on the page.

I will suggest two ministries to you. Feel free to check them out and decide whether you want to submit to any of them. I grew up under one of them and I am still attached to it as I train and prepare for my own pastor-teaching ministry. Ichthys (at https://ichthys.com) is a highly text-based ministry. There are volumes on there. There are a full systematic theology (that is, a systematic and comprehensive treatment of the major doctrines of the Bible), a comprehensive treatment of Eschatology (that is, the doctrine of the last days), a discussion of the letters of Peter that are concerned with the experience of life in this world for Christians, and a vast number of email conversations with different people - believers and unbelievers - about all sorts of questions pertaining to life and the Bible. You will find more than enough there to satisfy any questions that you have about life or about our faith. It is well worth the time.

Bible Academy (at www.bibleacademyonline.com) is another very well-developed ministry. It is run by a former colleague of the pastor-teacher who runs Ichthys. It is a video-based ministry. You will find it very comprehensive too. I have only visited it a few times, and I have found it exceptionally useful too, but it was Ichthys under which I grew up. If you prefer video lectures to large textual volumes, it may suit you better. You will find pretty much the same material there as you would on Ichthys. The main difference is the exegesis of specific books of the Bible.

You don't need to submit to any of these two. If you find any ministry at all where teaching the Bible comprehensively and courageously is front and center, then you should settle down and learn everything that you can from it. Feel free to test any ministry you are considering as vigorously as you like, but you must eventually make a decision whether to trust the teacher or not. If you don't do that, you simply cannot grow spiritually.

One final word: It is critical that when you choose a pastor-teaching ministry, you restrict yourself to it until you have "come of age." Multiple teachers will result in significant confusion for you. When we get confused, we make ourselves the authority and then we are no longer submitting to any teacher. That means that we stop growing spiritually. Heed Paul's warning to the Corinthians here (1 Corinthians 4:14-16).

Here's hoping for the best for you and praying that the Lord will help you along this path that you have chosen.

Cheers.