Seven signs you're not truly born again. Did you know that it's possible to be baptized, attend church, carry a Bible, and still not be genuinely saved? In this video, we'll uncover seven shocking signs that reveal the difference between being dipped in water and being filled with the spirit.
Don't assume you're safe. Examine your soul. Eternity is too long to be wrong.
Listen to me. Salvation is not a behavior modification. It's a spiritual resurrection.
It's not adding Jesus to your lifestyle. It's surrendering your lifestyle to Jesus. The Apostle Paul said in 2 Corinthians 13:5, "Examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith.
Test yourselves. Do you not realize that Christ Jesus is in you? Unless of course you fail the test.
My God, the Bible is not calling us to emotional reaction, but to holy reflection. And today we're going to take the test that no one talks about in church. Not the test of church attendance, not the test of giving, not the test of memorizing scripture, but the test of true transformation.
And so let's begin. Sign number one, you have religion but no relationship. Oh beloved, let us not mistake the rituals of religion for the reality of redemption.
Just because you know the songs sit in the pews or speak in spiritual phrases does not mean you are saved. God is not impressed by lip service. He searches for heart surrender.
Jesus said in Matthew 7:22-23, "Many will say to me on that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in your name and in your name performed many miracles? " Then I will declare to them, "I never knew you. Depart from me, you workers of iniquity.
" Child of God, this is not a warning to the world. It's a warning to the church. This is not about pagans in the streets.
This is about people in the pews who look clean on the outside but are empty on the inside. It's not about how much scripture you can recite, but how much of your soul you've yielded. You can attend every service, wear a cross around your neck, and still miss the cross that saves.
Imagine a husband who wears a wedding ring but never speaks to his wife. He may look married but he lives like a bachelor. The ring without the relationship is just decoration.
And in the same way religious appearance without relationship is deception. The question is not do you know about God? The question is does God know you?
A relationship with Christ is not an occasional weekend affair. It's a daily walk. It's a surrender of the heart, a transformation of the life, and a submission of the will.
Some of us have been around church our whole lives, but never let Christ into our hearts. And I came to shake you today, not to shame you, because eternity is too long to be wrong. You don't need another Sunday to pass you by without repenting.
It's not enough to wave your hands in worship. If you're unwilling to raise your life in surrender, you must lay down your religion and pick up your relationship. God doesn't want your church attendance.
He wants your allegiance. He doesn't want a visit. He wants a vessel.
Sign number two, you were baptized but never born again. There is a deception spreading like wildfire across pulpits and pews. The assumption that baptism equals salvation.
But hear me with holy clarity. Baptism is a sign, not a substitute. In John 3:3, Jesus says plainly, "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.
" That's not a pastor talking. That's not a denomination arguing. That's the Messiah speaking.
And when Jesus says, "You must be born again," he's not talking about getting wet in church. He's talking about being reborn in the spirit. Some of us were baptized, but nothing changed.
The water touched our bodies, but the spirit never touched our hearts. That baptism was a bath, not a burial. It was a performance, not a resurrection.
You went down a dry sinner and came up a wet sinner. Baptism without faith is like wearing a military uniform without enlisting in the army. You look the part, but you're not in the fight.
My friend, water alone has never saved anyone. The thief on the cross never got baptized, but he got born again in his dying breath. Because salvation is not about ceremony.
It's about faith in Jesus Christ. Have you truly died to your old self? Have you truly been raised in newness of life?
Romans 6:4 says, "We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that just as Christ was raised from the dead, we too may live a new life. " But if there's no new life, maybe there was no real death. We have too many people who've gone through the motions but never met the master.
You can't be reborn if you've never first repented. You can't be transformed if you've only been confirmed. I'm not against baptism.
I believe in it. But baptism must be the outward expression of an inward transformation. It's not the act that saves.
It's the savior. And until you place your faith in him alone, not in your history, not in your tradition, not in your denomination, you are still dead in your sin. Examine your soul.
Did you get baptized to please your parents or to follow your savior? Was it a cultural moment or a covenant with God? Because if all you had was a ceremony without conversion, you were never truly born again.
Sign number three, you have no hunger for God's word. A living soul is a hungry soul. And if you claim to be saved but have no appetite for the word of God, I challenge you to examine your salvation.
First, Peter 2:2 says, "Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk so that by it you may grow up in your salvation. " You don't have to teach a baby to cry for milk. It's natural.
Hunger is a sign of life. Likewise, when you're truly born again, something in you starts craving the scriptures. You begin to thirst for truth, long for righteousness, and ache for understanding.
But if days, weeks, even months go by, and you never open your Bible, never pray, never listen to God, how can you say you're alive in him? Some people treat the Bible like a fire extinguisher, only to be used in emergencies. Others treat it like a museum artifact, nice to look at, but irrelevant to daily life.
But the word of God is not optional for the believer. It is your bread, your water, your oxygen. Jesus said in Matthew 4:4, "Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.
" So, how are you breathing if you've cut off the very oxygen of the spirit? How are you walking in power if you're not rooted in the truth? I'm not asking if you own a Bible.
I'm asking if the Bible owns you. Does it shape your decisions, convict your heart, guide your steps, or is it collecting dust while your soul starves? We feed our bodies three times a day and our spirits once a week, and we wonder why we're spiritually anemic.
The devil isn't afraid of a Bible that stays closed. He trembles when believers open it, read it, believe it, and live it. If you're not feeding on the word, you're feeding on the world, and what you feed will grow.
A starving Christian is a contradiction. If you're truly alive in Christ, your appetite should match your identity. Don't just nibble on Sunday sermons.
Devour the daily bread. Stop depending on preachers to spoon feed your spirituality. Grow up in your faith.
Open the word. Chew on it. Meditate on it.
Memorize it. Let it confront you. Let it comfort you.
Let it correct you. Because when the spirit of God dwells in you, the word of God will draw you. Sign number four, you're unchanged and unbothered by sin.
Oh, beloved, if there's one lie that hell has cleverly dressed in religious robes, it is the lie that you can come to Christ and stay the same. That you can walk an aisle, say a prayer, dip in water, and live however you want, and still call it salvation. But hear the thunder of 1 John 3:6 ringing like a divine alarm.
No one who lives in him keeps on sinning. Now don't get it twisted. John is not saying the saved never sin.
But he is saying that they never settle in it. There is a war inside the believer, a tension, a holy frustration, a yearning to be like Jesus. So if you can lie and feel nothing, if you can gossip, sleep around, live double, cuss somebody out on Monday and lift your hands on Sunday and feel no grief, no conviction, no shame, then you are not saved.
You are sedated. You have religion but not regeneration. Because true salvation doesn't just make you feel better.
It makes you be better. It doesn't just comfort your conscience, it awakens it. It doesn't just patch up your pain.
It reconstructs your nature. You see, the Holy Spirit doesn't move into your life just to decorate. It comes to dominate.
It turns tables. It flips idols. It confronts lust, pride, lying, cheating, envy, unforgiveness, all of it.
When you are born again, you don't make peace with sin. You declare war on it. Not perfection, but progression.
Not flawless, but faithful to the process of transformation. Romans 12:2 says, "Be transformed by the renewing of your mind. " That means every real believer is in rehab.
We're not what we used to be. We may not be where we want to be, but we are on a path that reflects a changed heart. A man or woman who is genuinely saved cannot stay in sin comfortably.
It will itch your spirit. It will disturb your peace. It will haunt your joy.
You'll find yourself in a war between what your flesh wants and what your soul desires. Paul said it in Romans 7. What I hate, I do.
That's the war of the redeemed. So I must ask you, do you mourn your sin or do you manage it? Do you hide it or do you hate it?
Have you built a lifestyle around your sin or a life of surrender from it? Some of us don't need deliverance from the devil. We need deliverance from our excuses.
The Holy Spirit is not mute. He speaks. The problem is not that God isn't speaking.
It's that you've gotten good at ignoring him. Your conscience didn't die overnight. It was seared little by little, decision by decision, compromise by compromise.
But today, God is calling you out. He is saying, "You cannot claim to be my child and sleep in the enemy's bed. Either he owns you or he doesn't.
Either you've been changed or you've been deceived. Real salvation interrupts your sin. It wrecks your patterns.
It demands a response. " Sign number five, you bear no spiritual fruit. Now hear me clearly, child of God.
If salvation is a seed planted in your soul, then fruit is the evidence that seed is alive. Jesus said in Matthew 7:16, "By their fruit, you will recognize them. " That's not suggestion.
That's not opinion. That's Jesus laying down a divine diagnostic test because trees don't lie. You don't need to cut a tree open to know if it's alive.
Just look at the branches. And if the branches are bare, something is wrong at the root. Galatians 5:22-23 tells us what fruit looks like.
Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. These are not decorations. They are demonstrations of a saved soul.
So I ask you, what has grown in your life since you claimed salvation? Is there more peace in your home? More kindness in your speech?
More patience in your parenting? More purity in your relationships? Some of us are like apple trees that haven't birthed apples in 10 years.
You keep claiming it's a dry season, but how long will you use that excuse? Seasons may change, yes, but even in winter, roots deepen. Something should be growing.
If there's no fruit, there's a deeper issue. Your church attendance doesn't count as fruit. Your tithes don't count as fruit.
Your title doesn't count as fruit. Fruit is what spills out of your life in the unseen moments. How you treat your enemies, how you handle pressure, how you respond to correction, how you love the unlovable.
If no one sees Jesus in your character, it's time to question if he's truly reigning in your heart. Fruit takes time, yes, but it also takes proof. If your friends, your spouse, your co-workers, your children can't name a single way you've changed since you got saved.
Maybe you just got dipped and decorated but never delivered. Real salvation doesn't just change your Sunday schedule. It changes your soul.
It makes you fruitful even in the dry places, even when life is hard, even when no one is watching. The spirit of God is a gardener. And if he's in you, he's growing something through you.
Don't settle for plastic fruit, surface level kindness, fake smiles, and empty gestures. Ask God to cut away dead branches. Invite him to fertilize your faith with truth because a saved life is a fruitful life.
Sign number six, you're spiritually indifferent. The word of God declares in Revelation 3:16, "So because you are lukewarm, neither hot nor cold, I am about to spit you out of my mouth. " Oh beloved, these are not the soft whispers of suggestion.
These are the thunderous warnings of a savior who desires our whole heart, not half. You see, genuine salvation is not a casual accessory you wear like a religious bracelet. It's a consuming fire that ignites the core of your being.
It moves you. It wakes you up. It makes you restless for righteousness and uneasy in complacency.
Real salvation doesn't make you silent. It makes you stir. It doesn't just save your soul.
It awakens your priorities. Imagine this with me. If your house caught fire, you wouldn't sit on the couch sipping coffee.
You'd jump up. You'd move. You'd respond.
That's what the Holy Spirit does in a genuinely saved life. He sets you a flame and you respond. But spiritual indifference is like sitting in a house that's burning while pretending it's not.
You smell the smoke, but you stay seated. You sense the conviction, but you suppress it. You hear the spirit calling, but you silence the voice.
Hear me clearly. You cannot be filled with the fire of the Holy Spirit and remain cold toward the things of God. And here's the hard truth.
Lukewarmness is not a minor issue. It's a fatal one. Revelation 3:16 doesn't say God tolerates lukewarm.
It says he rejects it. He spits it out. That's a terrifying image.
So if your passion has faded, your hunger for God's presence has diminished, and your excitement for his word has cooled, don't just assume it's a phase. It may be a warning sign that you were never truly ignited. It's not too late to rekindle the flame.
Come out of spiritual slumber. Wake up, O sleeper, and Christ will shine on you. Sign number seven, you trust in everything but Jesus.
The foundation of our faith is found in the piercing words of John 14:6. I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the father except through me.
And yet, how many of us walk through life trusting in every other way but him? Oh, we trust in our baptism certificate like it's a passport to heaven. We trust in our church attendance like its spiritual currency.
We trust in the family name, the ministry position, the bishop's blessing, the tradition, the altar call we cried at 10 years ago. But none of that can save your soul if Jesus is not your savior today. Let me break this down for you with a metaphor you won't forget.
You can wear a life jacket, but if you're not in the boat, you're still in the water. And the water is rising. The storm is raging.
And only one boat is built to withstand the waves of eternity. That boat is Jesus. Not Jesus plus tradition.
Not Jesus plus religion. Not Jesus plus good works. But Jesus alone.
Solar Chris. Faith in him alone is the foundation of real salvation. Ephesians 2 says it with power.
For it is by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not from yourselves. It is the gift of God.
Child of God, I ask you, what are you trusting in? A moment at the altar or a life under the altar? A memory of commitment or a movement of the spirit in your daily walk?
Are you following the shepherd or are you just hanging around the sheepfold? You see, there is a difference between being in the vicinity of God and being in relationship with God. Judas walked with Jesus, talked with Jesus, and even performed miracles in his name.
But he was never truly with Jesus. Don't confuse proximity with possession. Don't assume that standing next to the light means you're filled with it.
Some of you are clinging to false assurance. You've been dipped in water but never filled with the spirit. Baptism without rebirth is like putting a crown on a corpse.
It may look holy on the outside, but if the heart hasn't been made new, you're just a dressed up dead man. I speak not condemnation, but compassion. This is not to scare you, but to save you.
Because the shepherd is still calling. The invitation is still open. The arms of the father are still wide.
Return to the shepherd of your soul. 1 Peter 2:25 declares, "For you were like sheep going astray, but now you have returned. " Let me paint a picture from the word.
The prodigal son didn't just come home to visit. He came home to stay. He didn't come back out of convenience.
He came back out of conviction. He didn't just apologize. He repented.
And the father didn't scold him. He ran to him. That's the same father waiting for you.
But you've got to leave the pig pen of self asssurance. You've got to rise from the slumber of spiritual deception. You've got to let go of the crutches you've been trusting in and fall at the feet of Jesus.
Don't gamble with your eternity. Don't stake your soul on assumptions. Don't walk around the church for years but never enter the kingdom.
Don't say, "I think I'm saved. " No, you are. Jesus said in Matthew 7:23, "Then I will tell them plainly, I never knew you.
Away from me, you evildoers. " That verse doesn't address atheists. It addresses churchgoers.
People who said, "Lord, Lord," but were never lorded over. Don't let that be your story. Are you known in heaven?
Let me close this soul stirring message with one haunting holy question. Are you known in heaven? Not do you know about Jesus, but does Jesus know you?
Does heaven recognize your voice in prayer? Does the shepherd hear you following? Or have you just been blending in with the sheep without ever being born of the spirit?
If tonight the sky were to split and you stood before the throne of God, would he recognize you as his own? Or would he say, "Depart from me. " That question is not meant to frighten you.
It's meant to free you because today is still the day of salvation. The door is still open. The blood still speaks.
The cross still calls. Don't delay. Don't put it off.
Don't let pride rob you of paradise. Hear me, family. It's not too late to be genuinely saved.
You're not too far. You haven't done too much. The shepherd still leaves the 99 to chase the one.
And if you're watching this, it's because he's chasing you. You may have wandered, but he's still watching. You may have sinned, but he still seeks.
You may have fallen, but he still calls. So come, come not to a building, but to a savior. Come not to a denomination, but to a deliverer.
Amen. If this message spoke to your spirit, I want you to write this in the comments as a declaration of your surrender. Thank you, Lord, for saving my soul.
Let that be your confession today and your covenant forever. And before you go, remember to like, subscribe, and share to help spread the word of God. God bless you all.
