You are 100% correct...
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Jesus said, "My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me." How does one explain how we recognize the voice of the Master when He speaks to us? When I was at the lowest point of my life, broken beyond repair and feeling like an irredeemable failure, He filled me with the Light of His unconditional Love and forgiveness. The experience was unmistakably from God, filling my whole being, and imparted to me knowledge I had not had before. If I were to be left with just one experience in life, I would choose that one, and it is something I would want everyone to experience. I fear my words do not do it justice... The Bible certainly helps me to understand that this is what God would have for everyone, would all accept His offer.
I agree 1 million % with this. I know at the time of my regeneration I already thought of myself as Christian, I wasn't seeking and was actually at a point where I didn't even know if I wanted to believe there was a God anymore. What really happen with me was I KNEW I couldn't do it anymore, I new the world couldn't help me, and knew even my loved ones couldn't fix me at this point. It took me almost half a day before I realized I wasn't thinking about killing myself, something I had done every 5 minutes at least for 2 strait years, and that I felt NEW. At first I didn't know exactly why, but I KNEW it was from God and I KNEW is was through Jesus. So even before I had even realized I had been reborn I KNEW it was the God of the bible that was behind it. Trust me the Creator of everything will grab your attention.
100 million percent, haha that is very sweet and so like you 
I was not a believer at the time either. I had rejected religion many years earlier, and I was in rebellion and defiance toward God, but I was seeking, as I knew there was something, some meaning behind it all, I just did not know what it is was. I had a soft spot for Jesus, though I really did not know Him or understand His ministry at the time, which is why I went to see a movie about Him based on the gospel of Luke, at a neighborhood church, coming up to Easter. What was all the fuss about? I wondered if there was any truth to it. I was curious, I was seeking answers, I was broken, I was wretched beyond belief, and it was in that church, in that condition before God, after seeing the movie about the life of Jesus and what He did for us, that God filled me with His Light. Every fiber of my being experienced His presence, which lent to me the surety of knowledge of Him, His unconditional love, and His forgiveness of all I had done that had brought me to that point of wretchedness in my life. I wept and wept. I felt so unworthy, and then I went away, wishing it had happened somewhere else, and not in a church, because I wanted to believe, but not in that God, the one connected to church. I was thirty three years old at the time, and did not come to full belief until I was forty nine.
I was not a believer at the time either. I had rejected religion many years earlier, and I was in rebellion and defiance toward God, but I was seeking, as I knew there was something, some meaning behind it all, I just did not know what it is was. I had a soft spot for Jesus, though I really did not know Him or understand His ministry at the time, which is why I went to see a movie about Him based on the gospel of Luke, at a neighborhood church, coming up to Easter. What was all the fuss about? I wondered if there was any truth to it. I was curious, I was seeking answers, I was broken, I was wretched beyond belief, and it was in that church, in that condition before God, after seeing the movie about the life of Jesus and what He did for us, that God filled me with His Light. Every fiber of my being experienced His presence, which lent to me the surety of knowledge of Him, His unconditional love, and His forgiveness of all I had done that had brought me to that point of wretchedness in my life. I wept and wept. I felt so unworthy, and then I went away, wishing it had happened somewhere else, and not in a church, because I wanted to believe, but not in that God, the one connected to church. I was thirty three years old at the time, and did not come to full belief until I was forty nine. 
100 million percent, haha that is very sweet and so like you I was not a believer at the time either. I had rejected religion many years earlier, and I was in rebellion and defiance toward God, but I was seeking, as I knew there was something, some meaning behind it all, I just did not know what it is was. I had a soft spot for Jesus, though I really did not know Him or understand His ministry at the time, which is why I went to see a movie about Him based on the gospel of Luke, at a neighborhood church, coming up to Easter. What was all the fuss about? I wondered if there was any truth to it. I was curious, I was seeking answers, I was broken, I was wretched beyond belief, and it was in that church, in that condition before God, after seeing the movie about the life of Jesus and what He did for us, that God filled me with His Light. Every fiber of my being experienced His presence, which lent to me the surety of knowledge of Him, His unconditional love, and His forgiveness of all I had done that had brought me to that point of wretchedness in my life. I wept and wept. I felt so unworthy, and then I went away, wishing it had happened somewhere else, and not in a church, because I wanted to believe, but not in that God, the one connected to church. I was thirty three years old at the time, and did not come to full belief until I was forty nine.
I was not a believer at the time either. I had rejected religion many years earlier, and I was in rebellion and defiance toward God, but I was seeking, as I knew there was something, some meaning behind it all, I just did not know what it is was. I had a soft spot for Jesus, though I really did not know Him or understand His ministry at the time, which is why I went to see a movie about Him based on the gospel of Luke, at a neighborhood church, coming up to Easter. What was all the fuss about? I wondered if there was any truth to it. I was curious, I was seeking answers, I was broken, I was wretched beyond belief, and it was in that church, in that condition before God, after seeing the movie about the life of Jesus and what He did for us, that God filled me with His Light. Every fiber of my being experienced His presence, which lent to me the surety of knowledge of Him, His unconditional love, and His forgiveness of all I had done that had brought me to that point of wretchedness in my life. I wept and wept. I felt so unworthy, and then I went away, wishing it had happened somewhere else, and not in a church, because I wanted to believe, but not in that God, the one connected to church. I was thirty three years old at the time, and did not come to full belief until I was forty nine.
On top of that my body felt totally weightless, like I was floating on thin air, and my sight literally became crystal clear like I was looking through a dirty window all my life. And also God's Living Word came pouring into me like a rushing of a clear mountain stream. And then He began to cleanse me and teach me, and I understood scripture in way I never thought possible, as I had read the scriptures for years as a youth but never truly understood.
When a person is truly born again of the Holy Spirit, they will know it, how could they not?
Yes, that is how I feel, certain encounters with God have a power and authenticity there is no mistaking. But I wonder, is that when I was born again? I cannot say for sure when that happened, for even after that encounter at the age of thirty three, I ran from God. I was seeking, and explored many things, wanting something not so connected to Christian tradition, religion, the church, and especially not the Bible. I was pretty deep into the occult when God called me out of it, audibly speaking to me, telling me to put down what I was doing, and Jesus appeared to me. It was shocking to my sensibilities, and extremely difficult to accept that the God I had been running from was in fact the One I had been seeking all along. A little more than a year after that encounter I was baptized
I agree with you fully, and the experience I was talking about personally led me strait to the scripture. I don't think anyone so far has been trying to say it's ONLY experiential, I think we were just sharing are conversions. I like to refer to mine as my "road to Damascus experience", I do agree with you 100% thought.
Yes, that is how I feel, certain encounters with God have a power and authenticity there is no mistaking. But I wonder, is that when I was born again? I cannot say for sure when that happened, for even after that encounter at the age of thirty three, I ran from God. I was seeking, and explored many things, wanting something not so connected to Christian tradition, religion, the church, and especially not the Bible. I was pretty deep into the occult when God called me out of it, audibly speaking to me, telling me to put down what I was doing, and Jesus appeared to me. It was shocking to my sensibilities, and extremely difficult to accept that the God I had been running from was in fact the One I had been seeking all along. A little more than a year after that encounter I was baptized
I started drinking a lot and doing drugs and was without God in my life, until about 17 years later the Lord came to me in a big way as I described earlier. After that day I was a changed man and never looked back. The drinking and drugs stopped that day, and many of my old drinking buddies were in shock as to what could have happened to me. LOL When one is born again there will be a complete turn around in the heart, from darkness to Light. After that time the Lord revealed to me how He tried to bring me back to Him by chastisement, but I ignored all the corrections He sent along the way in those 17 years.
But what turned me, and humbled me in the end was not the rod, but God sending His overwhelming Love into my heart, which melted this tough guy like butter, a day I will never soon forget.
That's how I describe it, like waking up from a deep sleep. That is also how the words of the Lord describe it, Awake to righteousness and sin not! Paul said those who sleep, sleep in the night (darkness) as the Lord showed in the beginning He separated darkness from the Light, and He made a lessor light to rule the darkness, and the greater Light to rule the day. In this we can see who rules the children of darkness, and who rules the children of the day, and of the Light.
Now when we once were asleep we might have dreamt we were awake, but when the Lord came and awakened us from our sleep, we knew for sure then we were truly AWAKE, and were no longer just dreaming in the night.
1 Thessalonians 5:4-8 "But ye, brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief.[SUP]5 [/SUP]Ye are all the children of light, and the children of the day: we are not of the night, nor of darkness.
[SUP]6 [/SUP]Therefore let us not sleep, as do others; but let us watch and be sober.
[SUP]7 [/SUP]For they that sleep sleep in the night; and they that be drunken are drunken in the night.
[SUP]8 [/SUP]But let us, who are of the day, be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love; and for an helmet, the hope of salvation.
Now when we once were asleep we might have dreamt we were awake, but when the Lord came and awakened us from our sleep, we knew for sure then we were truly AWAKE, and were no longer just dreaming in the night.
1 Thessalonians 5:4-8 "But ye, brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief.[SUP]5 [/SUP]Ye are all the children of light, and the children of the day: we are not of the night, nor of darkness.
[SUP]6 [/SUP]Therefore let us not sleep, as do others; but let us watch and be sober.
[SUP]7 [/SUP]For they that sleep sleep in the night; and they that be drunken are drunken in the night.
[SUP]8 [/SUP]But let us, who are of the day, be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love; and for an helmet, the hope of salvation.