All Edda-Earth material belongs to Deborah L. Davitt, copyright 2012-2014. All rights are reserved. All information in block quotes taken from Wikipedia or relevant and cited websites.
God-born and god-touched, like spirit-born and spirit-touched, are individuals who are bound to a spirit or god.
An individual who is willingly soul-bound later in life to a god or spirit, as either a reward for a great service, or as part of a bargain, partakes of some of the power of that god or spirit. Their flesh is imbued with that power; their spirits are connected. The god or spirit must pay more attention to them, because of that connection. Some fraction of their total power is inside that mortal vessel.
God-born and spirit-born are those individuals who are born with this connection already in place, as a result of heredity. Some ancestor or another was previously god- or spirit-touched. The line of descent is not always a direct one; the powers can skip several generations before being seen again.
Relatively speaking, even a weak god-born is usually more powerful than an average sorcerer or ley-mage. However, what their specific abilities consist of, is often the direct result of their god's particular portfolio of powers. Thus, god-born and spirit-born are often far more limited than a truly flexible and intelligent sorcerer.