Spiritual Amnesia

You can find this sermon at ChurchAges.net

1 Let's remain standing just a moment now for the Word of the Lord. Let's turn to Amos, the prophet Amos, the 3rd chapter beginning with the 1st verse.
I want to thank Sister Juanita, and Anna Jean, and Sister Moore for that lovely chorus of songs that brought me back, as I sat over there and listened to it. I was thinking of when they were with us, singing in the campaign. Brother Jack and I were talking ---them girls were little bitty girls, just little (sixteen, something like that), girls. Now I think Sister Anna Jean has five children, Sister Juanita has ... the mother of two children. And we are really closer to that sunset, women, than we was then---about sixteen years' difference. Won't be long, we'll be crossing over---that glorious time.

2 Now in Amos the 3rd chapter let's read.
Hear this word that the LORD hath spoken against you, O children of Israel, against the whole family which I brought up out of Egypt, saying,
You only have I known of all the families of the earth: therefore I will punish you for ... your iniquity.
Can two walk together, except they be agreed?
Will a lion roar in the forest, when he has taken no prey? will a young lion cry out of his den, if he has taken nothing?
Can a bird fall in a snare upon the earth, where no gin is for him? shall one take up a snare from the earth, and having taken nothing from it?
Shall the trumpet be blown in the city, and the people not be afraid? shall there be evil in a city, and the LORD hath not done it?
Surely the Lord ... will do nothing, but he reveals his secrets to his servants the prophets.
The lion has roared, who shall not fear? the Lord ... has spoken, who can but prophesy?
Let us bow our heads.

3 Lord Jesus, may this, thy Word, Lord, may we have fellowship tonight around this portion. We pray, Lord, that You will give us a context for the text that we shall take from here, and may it bring honor to Thee. Bless us as we're waiting, Lord, tonight upon thy Word. Heal the sick and the afflicted. Save the lost. Give strength to the feeble, Lord, that's getting weak both physically and spiritually. And give us a great outpouring of Thy presence, for we ask it in Jesus' name. Amen.
I wish to take for a text from this tonight, "Spiritual Amnesia."

4 Don't forget tomorrow. It's the prayer for the sick tomorrow. We expect the Lord to do exceeding great things tomorrow afternoon at two o'clock where ... when we begin our services. The boy will be here to give out prayer cards, and everyone will be prayed for that wants to be prayed for. And we're expecting a great time tomorrow in the Lord.
Now, you people who are here visiting from out of town, remember there's fine full gospel churches all through the city. You're welcome to all of them.
I was just talking to one of my associate pastors outside, just come in, Brother Jackson---formerly a Methodist church down a city or two below us---and... How many is here that is associated with the Tabernacle? Let's see your hands. Everywhere, my! I'm sure, we're sure glad to have you down. This is the closest meeting I've been to Indiana for quite a while. Thinking about coming back pretty soon, and putting up a tent, and having those seven last trumpets, the Lord willing.
So now... But remember tomorrow. Don't forget it, tomorrow at two o'clock. And now, our next service will begin next week in Tampa, Florida.

5 Now I want to speak on "Spiritual Amnesia."
Now this little fellow that we're talking about, Amos... Just for a moment to get our background before we get to the text, this is during the time of the great prosperity in Samaria. Israel had prospered. They had really went after the world and had prospered. Not always prosperity is a sign of spiritual blessings, but sometimes on the contrary. People think maybe you have to own a lot of worldly goods and ... shows that God's a-blessing you. That's not true. Sometimes it's the other way.

6 But we find him... We don't know much about this little fellow. He, we have no history of where he come from. We know he, according to the scripture here, he's a herdsman. But God had raised him up.
Now, I can imagine seeing on one hot day in Samaria there that---one of the great tourist cities of the world of that day: something on the order of, we'd say Miami, or Hollywood, Los Angeles, some of them places like that, some great place for tourists. And we can just imagine seeing... He had never been in such a city. But he had the Word of the Lord. He was coming to this great city where sin was heaped on every side. The ministers had all got away from the Word of God, and they hadn't had a prophet in long years.

7 And so, this little fellow, as he topped the hill just kind of north of Samaria, I can imagine seeing the hot sun shining down, and his gray whiskers over his face, his little eyes narrowed, and his little bald head shined... As he looked down upon that city, his eyes narrowed. He wasn't looking at what tourists usually see. They go to a city to see all of its enchantments of beauty. He looked and seen what a sight that that city had become, a city that once was a city of God, and it had got in such a morally decay as that. No wonder...

8 This little unknown fellow was Amos, the prophet.
And now, we don't know very much about him. We don't know where he come from. Prophets usually come on the scene unknown, leave the same way. We don't know where they come from, where they go, don't know about their backgrounds. God just raises them up.
He wasn't much to look at, but he had "thus saith the Lord." That's the main thing, I think. Of course, he come to Samaria to begin his campaign. I'm sure he had no cooperation from nobody. He had no fellowship card from any denomination. He had no credentials to show what group he come from. And, but he had one thing: he had the Word of the Lord for that city.
And I wonder, if we could transport Amos today down to our time, I wonder if he'd be welcome in our city today? I wonder if we would receive him; or would we do just like they did? We find our cities in the same decay. And we find that sin is just great among the people as it was then. And I wonder if this little unknown man... How is he going to start this campaign? How, where's he going to begin at? What church is he going to, or who's going to cooperate with him? He had nothing to show where he come from. He had nothing at all but "thus saith the Lord" for the city.

9 He found them so decayed and so morally corrupted... It was a great time. The women in that city had become almost like they are in the United States---they had become corrupt. Everything that God had expected out of them, they'd went right the other way. And we find that it was a great place, where they had dancings on the street---the women immorally stripping their clothes and so forth, like strip tease. Of course that was a public amusement in them days. Now it's every day. Just let the weather get hot, and you don't have to go to any show. They're all on the street anywhere, anyhow. Shame on you women that do a thing like that! Aren't you ashamed of yourself?

10 And then, I said that to a woman here not long ago and she said, "Why," she said, "Brother Branham, said, "that's just like the rest of the women."
I said, "But we are not supposed to act like the rest of the people. We're different. We are a different character."
Reminds me of a woman, said, "Well, Brother Branham," another one, said, "I don't wear those shorts." Said, "I wear slacks."
I said, "That's worse. God said it's an abomination in His sight for a woman to put on a garment pertains to a man." That's exactly right!
One said, "Well, they don't make any other clothes." They still make sewing machines and have goods. There's no excuse. It's just what's in the heart. That's what shows out. It identifies itself.

11 And now we find, in this city it become morally decayed. The preachers was afraid to say anything about it. And, but they had a little... This little old fellow coming up over the hill was coming to tell them, "Thus saith the Lord: clean this thing up, or you're going to go into captivity."
And he lived to see the days of his prophesy fulfilled. He prophesied in the days of Jeroboam II, which was just a outcast, anyhow. He favored the other nations. And this little Amos prophesied and told them he said, "The very God that you claim to serve, He'll destroy you." And He did.
And if his voice would be here, tonight, in Birmingham, it would claim the same thing to the churches. "The very God that you claim to serve will destroy you some day." I'm not speaking to this audience here. These tapes go around the world. Now remember, that is true.

12 Then he found out when he come into the city, that he ... all this stuff... I wonder how he must have felt to look and see that decay of the people of God, to whom he was sent. I wonder if we would receive him now, if he'd come in? Would we cooperate with him? Would we give him our best? Would we give him our attention? Would we repent if he told us that we should go back to the Word of the Lord, and do the way the Lord said it?
I wonder what our sisters would do about their bobbed hair? Would they let their hair grow out again? If Amos come he'd preach it now, I'm telling you that, because that's the Word of the Lord.

13 I wonder if our boards would put out deacons that's married three or four times, and so forth like that, and trying to be deacons. I wonder if all these things...
I wonder what he would do to a man that would let his wife wear shorts, and get out in the street out there, and mow the yard out in the yard, when men is passing by? I wonder what he'd say to men like that? He would certainly blast it with all that was in him, for he had "thus saith the Lord," and he couldn't do nothing else but that.
He found them in that day with a bad case of a disease---spiritual amnesia. And that's just exactly what we got today.

14 Now, how did he know what was going to happen? How would Amos know? First, he was a prophet; and the next thing, he knowed by the disease what the diagnosis was; and he knowed what the results was. If a doctor looks up on a malignancy and sees that that malignant's done took a hold, he knows there's nothing but death left. That's all, unless God does something about it.
Well, when you look at a city, and you look at a people, you look at a church and look at a people that's so far away from God, there isn't nothing but to diagnose but sin. The wages of sin is death. It's dying. The diagnosis proves what it is. You see, when people get away from God, and won't listen to the Word, have no more desire for the Word, then there's one diagnosis to it: the soul that sinneth, that soul shall die. Unbelief shall separate you from God. That's exactly right. But he knew what the disease, what the results was, when he seen the disease of sin in the city.

15 Now. This amnesia we're told it is a ... cause you to be to a place where you cannot identify yourself. Now, it's an unusual thing, it don't happen too often. But the causes is from shock. It's somebody that don't even know who they are.
They find it from war sometime---the soldiers get it. Sometimes people get it. Another thing that causes it is worry. Worry will cause it. Worry has no virtue to it at all. No. Let's skip worry, and accept faith.
Someone said, "Well, now, what if you're going to be shot in the morning. Wouldn't you worry?"
I said, "No, I don't think so."
"Why?"
I said, "Worry couldn't do nothing but make me worse."
"Well, what good's it going to do to have faith?"
I said, "It might deliver me." That's right, see.

16 So, worry has no virtue to it at all; but faith has all virtue. Believe!
Now, worry sometimes causes it. And another thing that causes it among the people is getting between two opinions. That'll cause amnesia. And it gets you to a place where you... Actually, what you've done, you've lost your reasons, you've lost your mind. You can't ... maybe you don't know who you are. You can't identify yourself. You can walk around, eat and everything; but you, still you can't identify yourself. You've got your scholarly education, you can ... same education you had, but you don't know where it come from. You don't know who you are, where you belong---that's amnesia, so we're told.

17 We are identified with our families in this human life by marriage, and with our wives. We marry and our family's identified by the union of our marriage. And then, what (to think), what if this horrible thing would happen to you; and you wouldn't be able to remember who you married, who's your wife, which is your children, who is your father and mother, who's your neighbor? That would be a horrible thing.
Then, we're identified again, can identify ourselves in the human race, by having intelligence, and being different from the animal life. The animal cannot think. He just goes by sound. He has no soul. And, but we're animal life. What makes us different? We're a mammal. But what... A mammal is a warm-blooded animal, and we are in the feature of animal. But what makes us different, we are identified by having a soul, a conscience that tells us what's right and wrong.

18 Now, there is a place when you get this amnesia, you might get like Nebuchadnezzar, it was, who exalted himself one time, and God let him think he was an animal. And he lived out in the wilderness, and eat grass like an ox, and his hairs growed down his body like eagle feathers. And he become ... the heart of a beast in him.
See, that was amnesia because he had forgotten that he was a king. He had forgotten that he was a human being, and he thought he was an animal. So he acted like an animal, because he forgot he was a human being.
That's so easy today. And we forget, sometimes, what the Christian church is. We act like the world. That shows that we got spiritual amnesia, because you don't act like the Christian; you act like the world. You receive the heart of the world, and it causes this.

19 Here we find that Israel had exposed, got exposed to the world, and it fell into this rut. And this prophet was sent to dig them out of it, if he could, and to tell them.
God by His grace chose Israel from all the rest of the families on the earth. Grace had did that. He had given them the choice land. He gave them houses that they never had to build. God did that---chose them. He gave them farms that they never bought. He gave them food that they never planted. He gave them wells that they never dug. He gave them victories that they never won. He gave them grace that they never merited. God did that by His grace for this people---Israel, His chosen, His beloved.
And He said in the Bible He found her in the field as a little girl sitting in her own blood, and He washed her and cleaned her up, and what He done. But after God showed all these mercies to her, and she got rich, she got amnesia, and she forgot all about where these things come from.

20 I think that's a picture of USA, 1964! It's suffering with the same disease. We're great powerful churches. We're a great powerful people. We're millions in number, and we've forget where these things come from. They had a bad case of it. After God had been good to them, and brought them up from all the heathen lands and made them a separated people, separated them to Himself... He said He took a vine out of another country and planted it over in another country, and how He fixed it around to make it grow fruit and be fruitful; but the vine forgot where its blessings come from.
So has God's people in these last days---has forgotten what the testimony of being a Christian means. It's again, this amnesia has become upon the people. They can't identify themselves. They forgot all about it. They'd forgot His holiness, they had forgot His law. The women were living like the rest of the women.

21 God's church and His people has always been a separated people, a called-out people, a peculiar people, a holy nation, a royal priesthood offering spiritual sacrifices to God---the fruits of their lips giving praise to His name.
God called His church and separated it from the world for that very purpose. And He give it a law, and it must be holy. He said, "I am holy, and you must be holy," and without holiness no man shall see the Lord. God said that Himself. And He called this people to be this type of people. But they had forgotten about it. They had forgotten His laws, and they had forgotten their morals. The women out in the street, Israelite women, out there each one expecting to be conceived by the Holy Spirit to bring forth the Messiah---and then acting like that. Their character was terrible.
I want to stop here a minute to say, it's the same thing among our people today that call themselves Christians. Their character, if you would only realize...

22 One time in the south, I read a story from down here where ... when they used to have slaves. They'd take those people and sell them on the market, just like you would a used car. And then, there was a buyer (broker) who would come by and pick up these slaves, and trade them just like you would a car, or something. And those slaves was away from their home country. They were from Africa. The Boers kidnapped them, brought them over here to the islands, and then smuggled them into the United States and sold them for slaves---from out in Jamaica, and around.
Now, we find that those people were sad. They'd been kidnapped from their own home. They'd been taken out by an enemy, and they were sad. They'd never see their husband no more, their wife no more, their father or mother, their children. They were absolutely... They had to whip them with whips to make them work, for they was sad people.

23 And one day a broker came by a certain plantation, and he saw a bunch of slaves out there working. And he went in and asked the owner, he said, "How many slaves you got?"
He said, "About a hundred."
Said, "You got any you'd swap or sell?"
He said, "Yep."
Said, "Let me look them over." And he went out in the field and watched them. And he seen them have to whip them around. And after while he saw one young man they didn't have to whip. He had his chest out, and his chin up---didn't have to whip him. So the broker said, "I'd like to buy that slave."
And he said, "But he's not for sale."
He said, "Well, what's the difference to that slave?" Said, "Is that slave the boss over the rest of them?"
He said, "No, he's just a slave."
He said, "Well, maybe you feed him different?"
He said, "No, he eats in the galley with the rest of the slaves."
He said, "Well, what makes him so different from the rest of the slaves?"
He said, "Well, this I wondered, too, for a long time. But one day I learned that over in the homeland where he come from, his father is the king of the whole tribe. And though he be an alien, and away from home, yet he knows he's the son of a king, and he conducts himself like the son of a king!"

24 I thought, "But that... If a Negro coming from Africa and knowed that his father was a tribesman, and a king over a tribe, what ought it to do to a Christian that's borned again, a man or woman that our Father is the King of heaven in glory?" We should conduct ourselves as Christian men and women. We should act like it, dress like it, talk like it, live like it. Though we be an alien, yet we are children of the King! Our character, our demoralization in the days that we're living in now...
Israel had dropped into that same rut and was all so immoral. They had forgot the laws of God: "Thou shalt not commit adultery," and "Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's wife," and so forth. They'd forgotten those laws. They didn't want it anymore, and they wanted to be like the rest of the world, just like the church has got today.

25 One time Israel, when it started, wanted to have a king over it. Samuel told them---the prophet which was sent to them---he said, "Now, have I ever told you anything in the name of the Lord but what came to pass?"
They said, "No, you haven't."
"Did I ever beg you for my food and money, of your money for me to live on?"
"No, you haven't done that. You never told us nothing, Samuel, but what came to pass, and you've never asked us for money for your living. But yet, we want the king anyhow."
God said to Samuel, "Let them have him. They didn't turn you down; they turned me down."

26 Israel had got in that same shape now. They didn't want God's prophets no more. They didn't need them. And if one would come and bring them the Word, and try to bring them back to the Word, they would reject it. They always do it in that manner of corruption, when the world and the church joins itself together. Then they don't want nothing spiritual. They don't want "thus saith the Lord"; they want what they want. They want the world. And they say they're a Christian, and live in the world, live with the world, live like the world, and still maintain their confession of being a Christian.
You know, the thing of it is, it's spiritual amnesia. That's exactly what it is. They don't know who they are. They've forgotten that what they're supposed to do.

27 If one would come today like that, it would be rejected just the same. They had a bad case of it, and so have they today. They cannot identify themselves with the supernatural things anymore, because they didn't want it---the Word, the gospel. They didn't want it. Sin disease had afflicted them, and they loved that.
Sin is pleasant to the unconverted heart. It looks good to the unconverted mind; but it's a way of death. There's nothing left but death. The wages of sin is death, and you must reap them wages. You've sowed to the winds, and now reaping the whirlwinds.
The spiritual signs and the preaching of an ordained messenger from God never stirred them anymore. The women could laugh right in their face, and say, "I don't have to go hear such a stuff as that." If that hasn't repeated again! What is it? Spiritual amnesia, exactly what it is. They have forgotten that God and His Word is the same, and He cannot change it.

28 The prophet rose on the scene in them days and give a spiritual sign, a spiritual voice, and give the voice of God behind it. They'd only laugh at it and make fun of it. You know the old saying, "Fools will walk with hobnailed shoes where angels fear to trod." That's what this spiritual amnesia does---makes people get to a spot to where they have no feeling on the inside of them. They don't want nothing that's spiritual.
Take a real spiritual meeting where the Holy Spirit's healing the sick and discerning the thoughts that's in the heart, and put it in among all the churches that's a great rally out here in this stadium, and look what would happen. In a few minutes everybody'd be getting up and walking out. They'd have nothing to do with it. They don't want nothing to do with it.
They'll listen to some intellectual talk.

29 But when it comes to the power of Jesus Christ in His resurrection, and the Holy Ghost, they want nothing to do with it because it condemns them. It sets them afire, with the thing that they ought to know. No chastisement, of course, is pleasant for the season, but it (if you yield to it), it brings the fruits of repentance.
So, we find out when this spiritual amnesia get ahold of the people, then they are in a bad condition. Now we find the same now.
Now I want to... You must be identified. Somewhere you must show, your life shows, tonight, where you are identified. You are identified either in Christ, or out of Christ; you are not halfway. There's no such a thing as a drunk sober man. There's no black white bird. You're either saved, or you're not saved. You're a saint, or a sinner---one or the other. And your spiritual attitude towards God's Word identifies you, exactly where you're standing.
God's Word vindicated, proved, that the baptism of the Holy Ghost is just the same as it ever was on the day of Pentecost, or any other time. And Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever. And your attitude towards that identifies whether you have spiritual amnesia, or not. That's right. No matter whether you're a deacon, or even if you're a preacher, it doesn't make ... they get it, too. So we find out it's contagious, and hits the whole thing.
Now we notice,

30 now, to be an American ... to be an American I must be identified with my nation. Now listen close. To be an American ... when I am born here in this country I become a citizen, and I'm identified with this nation. All it is, I am. All that it has been, I am, for I am identified as an American. Then I have to take all of its shame, all of its glory. Whatever it is, I am---because I'm identified with it. Amen.
I want you to get it. I'm identified as an American citizen. Then all it was, I am. All it is, I am. I must be part of it. I've got ... as I'm an American citizen, I'm part of America. And all that it is, I am.

31 I must never forget this. If I want to remain a true American citizen, I must remember that I am what my nation is, for I'm identified with my nation. To (forget) her or, to fight for her, to die for her, or to stand for all she stands for, I must stand for it. What my nation is, I am. What it stands for, I stand for it. To be a loyal American I'll be ready to die for it, fight for it, stand for it ---do anything there is. I'm part of it.
You can't pick on it without picking on me. When you say something against it, you say it against me, for I am an American. To say it against you as an American, what they say against this nation they say against you, for you are a part of it. Don't you never forget it. When you do, then you've got amnesia, sure enough. And remember, you're no more an American citizen when you can't become a part of it. You must be ... what America is, you must be also.
I must be partakers of her. This is my nation. I must be partakers of her. What she is, I am. See, what she was, I am. No matter what she was, I'm still what she was. To be an American I landed on Plymouth Rock with her, with the forefathers. I had to. I am part of her. I rode with Paul Revere to warn her of her dangers. If I'm a real American citizen, I landed on Plymouth Rock, I rode with Paul Revere to warn her of her danger. You know what I'm meaning now? I crossed the icy Delaware with George Washington, with his barefooted soldiers. I was there, for I'm identified with this nation! What he did there was part of me. What I do now is part of him. I was identified with Washington at the Delaware. I stood with Stonewall Jackson when the odds were so great against him that they asked, "How can you stand like a stone wall when the odds is against you?"
The little bashful, blue-eyed fellow kicked the dust with his boots. He said, "I never take a drink of water until I thank almighty God for it." I have to stand like a stone wall with him. I stood there with Stonewall Jackson. To be an American I'm identified with him and his stand.
Crossing Delawares, fighting battles---

32 I hoisted the flag. I was with them when they hoisted the flag on Guam. After thousands of American soldiers give their life, and when that little group run up there and throwed the flag up, I was identified in that raising of that flag. Every one of us was! All American citizens was identified with that flag hanging over Guam. When I heard that they'd put that flag up there, tears run down my cheeks. That was me; that was you. That meant us all, when we was identified there with that.
All she is, I am. All her glory is my glory; all her shame is my shame. If she's done shameful things, then I have to stand her reproach. If she receives glory, I receive glory with her, because I'm identified with her. Now, to be identified American has to stand for all America's shame, all America's glory. All she ever was, all she is, or what she will be, you are identified with it.

33 Now, to be a true Christian, you have to be the same. We don't want to forget that. All that He was, I'm identified with Him. I'm identified with Him. Notice. And He is in me, and I in Him. Notice. Then every Christian that's a real genuine Christian was with Him, "when the morning stars sang together and the sons of God shouted for joy," before there was a foundation of the world. We were identified in the immortal realms with God ten million years before the world was ever formed. I was back there with Him. If we've got eternal life, I was there with Him. I was identified with Him "when the morning stars sang together, and the sons of God shouted for joy."
I was with Him when He called Abraham at the age of seventy-five years old, and his wife being sixty-five, and told him they were going to have a baby. I was with him when he took his stand upon "thus saith the Lord: I'm going to have the baby." I stood with him. Every other Christian stood with him. I was with him when his temptations come. I was with him when he went up on top of the mountain to offer up Isaac. I was with him when the ram appeared.

34 I was with Joseph when he was rejected of his brothers, because he was spiritual and the rest of them was carnal. I was with him, when in all the reproach he had to stand by his own brothers. What he was, I am. What I am, He was; for we are all one in Christ Jesus. I was with Joseph in his cave, grave. I was with him when he went to the right hand of Pharaoh. You had to be identified with him.
I was with Jacob that night, when he wrestled all night with the angel. I've wrestled myself. I know what he went through with. So I wrestled with Jacob the same time he did, for I am his brother.
I was with Moses when he went down into Egypt. I was with Moses at the burning bush. If you're a Christian, you are identified with them Bible characters. Don't forget it. I was with Moses when all the people turned against him. I was with Moses when he crossed the Red Sea, when he raised his hand and walked forward and the Red Sea opened. I was identified in Christ right then, and I was with Moses at that hour.

35 Whatever Christians has been, whatever believers has been, every believer now is identified with that same person. Whatever it is, you must be identified. Don't forget that. When you do, you've got spiritual amnesia. You've forgotten who you are. Now. Identified with him, with Moses when he crossed the sea...
I was with Elijah in the days of Ahab, when they had to make a choice who they would serve: God or Balaam. We was with him on Mount Carmel when he had to make this choice, for we are identified in the body of the same God that he was identified in. So, if we are identified in that body, then we must remember we were there with him. Right.

36 Now. I was with David when he was rejected by his own brethren. I was with David. You were, too, if you're a Christian. You have to be identified in his rejection.
I was with the Hebrew children in the fiery furnace, when the fire couldn't burn them because of the presence of the fourth man. I was with Daniel in the lions' den. I was identified in there, when the angel of the Lord identified him in there.
I most surely was with Him at Calvary. I must be identified with Him at Calvary. I must be there to a place---that where not also was I identified with Him in Calvary, I died with Him at Calvary. Every Christian must die with Him at Calvary. If you don't die with Him at Calvary, you can't be none of His. I was there when He died. I died with Him.
And then I was with Him when He raised up from the dead. I come up on Easter morning with Him in the resurrection. Whatever He did, I was right there with Him. Every believer was the same.

37 And now I am seated with Him in heavenly places in Christ Jesus, with all the powers of hell conquered through Him. Every Christian believer was seated the same way, 'cause you have to be identified.
Now I find myself in this last days with many of the believing Christians identified in His ministry. He is the same yesterday, today, and forever. I find myself in this day identified in His ministry. Do you find yourself that way---believing it, walking with it? Notice. The works that He did, He said the believer would do the same thing. "The works that I do shall you also." Then can you be identified with Him? Then, when the reproach comes on the Word, can you stand the reproach like He did, see, identified with Him? I was identified with Him.

38 I was with Him at the day of Pentecost. I was with the disciples up there, identified with them in the baptism of the Holy Ghost. I wonder if the church hasn't got amnesia so much now that they don't... Some of them don't even believe there is such a thing as the Holy Ghost. See where the church has got? A very bad case of amnesia, see.
They have forgotten that that was Jesus Christ back there. They have forgotten what Jesus Christ was. They have forgotten. They thought He was just a law maker, or a prophet, or a good man. They forgot that He was God. They forgot that He's the same yesterday, today, and forever. And the church has got a bad case of spiritual amnesia. They have forgotten all these things. They don't understand it no more.

39 We must be with the disciples at Pentecost---identified with them. I was identified with Peter's sermon on the day of Pentecost, in Acts the 2nd chapter. I heard what he said, I believed what he said, I obeyed what he said---now I'm identified in the same thing.
Don't get spiritual amnesia, 'cause you will ... you'll identify yourself with something else. Stay right with that Word.
We was with the church when it was commissioned by Jesus Christ in Acts [Mark] the 16th chapter, "Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature." I want to be identified there: "...all the world ... to every creature ... these signs shall follow them that believe"---can be identified in that.
Well, now, are you identified with that? Or have you got some spiritual amnesia, that you find out you don't believe those signs follow the believers? See, if you don't believe it, then you have spiritual amnesia. See, you've forgotten that God promised that. He said, "These signs shall follow them that believe." Don't forget it. You can't forget it, and be a Christian. You must be identified with it.

40 You must be identified with St. John, the 14th chapter, the 12th verse: "He that believeth with me, the works that I do shall he do also." Don't forget it. If you do, then you've got spiritual amnesia. You've forgotten who you are. You've forgotten what your testimony means. How about ... He said, "If you abide in me, and my word in you, you can ask what you will and it will be done for you." Are you identified there, to believe that that is the truth? Mark 11, when He said, "If you say to this mountain be moved; and don't doubt in your heart, but believe that what you have said will come to pass; you can have what you said." Can you be identified there to believe that is the truth? If it hasn't, then you're getting spiritual amnesia. And it ... you forget. You lose your Christian balance. You can't tell where you belong.
You say: "I'm Methodist."
"I'm Baptist---that's what I know about it."
"I'm Pentecostal."
"I'm this, that, or the other." Watch out! That may mean the disease sign is showing on you, that you've got some spiritual amnesia.

41 You say, "Well, Brother Branham, I believe this. I don't hardly..." Now, wait just a minute. If God promised to do these things, and said they would be in the last days, and your creed will keep you from it---that's a good sign. I can see the disease sign on you. It's spiritual amnesia. You have forgotten to identify yourself with the Word.
You say, "I don't believe that the sick are healed." You got spiritual amnesia. You say, "I don't believe in the baptism of the Holy Ghost." Spiritual amnesia.

42 You say, "I don't believe God promised to do these things in the last days." Then you've listened to a creed, or some doctrine, instead of the Bible. You have spiritual amnesia. You don't know where you do belong then.
You're confessing a Christian, and denying the Word. Brings you right back to spiritual amnesia again, see. Don't know where you stand. You've got spiritual amnesia. You can't identify yourself with the Scriptures. You had to be with the disciples, you had to be with all the Scripture, with the church when it was commissioned. But now when the church was commissioned: "Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel, these signs shall follow them that believe...," that was her commission. Now. They have ... that was the commission, but they have gotten a bad case of this spiritual amnesia---just like Eve got on her round through the garden one day.
Now, she's like Israel: suffering from this same disease, an allergy from a seminary diet. That'll give you spiritual amnesia. Get some seminary diet, and you'll get an allergy. And then the first thing you know you'll get amnesia real bad. You won't believe anything the Bible says.

43 That's what's the matter with the church today. That's what's the matter we can't have revival today. That's what's the matter with the people today. They've been so drug over coals of everything, and every ism---and get it patched up until they don't know what is right and wrong. Exactly. She can't remember her Lord. She can't remember His Word. She can't remember the promise.
That was what was the matter with Israel when Jesus come on the scene. They could not remember that "a virgin shall conceive." They could not remember that Moses said, "The Lord your God shall raise up a prophet like unto me." They had spiritual amnesia.

44 That's exactly what the church has got today. He said "It shall come to pass in the last days" that these things would take place that we see taking place, and the church sits just as dead... What is it? Spiritual amnesia.
We call ourselves Pentecost, and (can) identify, and can't identify ourselves when the Word is preached in the power of the resurrection of Christ, and in here among us performing it, and doing exactly what He said He would do? Then watch out. Our denominational system has got us into spiritual amnesia. We're suffering. We don't know where we belong. One takes his papers from this church to the other church, and this church, and this ism and that ism.
See, what we need again is another Amos to come on the scene with "thus saith the Lord." Would we receive him? About like they did. They never received him; they wouldn't receive him today. He couldn't get his head in a place hardly to preach (that's exactly right), because the church is suffering with this spiritual amnesia.

45 Now, why? God promised in this last days, when the Son of man would be revealed according to Luke, 17th chapter, that the sign that was taking place to Sodom would take place again. And the people see it done, and some of them don't even believe it. They think it's telepathy. They think it's a devil spirit. What is it? They're suffering with spiritual amnesia.
That's exactly. They can't understand the Lord. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever. What He was then, He is now. But what's happened? Just can't identify ourselves no more with the Word.
Why, she don't know whether she's a lodge, or whether she's a church. She don't want to be called a lodge and she can't be called a church, 'cause to be called a church would identify herself with Christ---that gives her spiritual amnesia. And she don't want to be called a lodge. So it ain't the Pentecostal church, the Methodist church, the Baptist church; it's the Pentecostal lodge, Methodist lodge, and Baptist lodge---'cause she can't be identified with the Word. And when the Word's made manifest they still don't believe it---disease, spiritual amnesia. Can't identify themselves. They don't know where they belong. That's right.

46 It's just exactly like hybreeding something. As I've often said, I always thought one of the most dumbest things I ever seen was a mule. See, he's a hybrid. See, his mother was a mare, his daddy was a donkey; and he don't even know where he belongs. And the first thing you know, you can breed him and get a (donkey), and then, or get the mule; but the mule can't breed itself back again.
See, he don't... You can't teach him nothing. He's hardheaded. You'll never tell anything. He'll set them big long ears and he'll wait the longest day of his life, just before he dies to kick you. That's all. He's always waiting for something to bust it on you if he can.

47 That puts me in mind of a lot of so-called hybrid Christians. They've hybrid them churches until they got the disease of spiritual amnesia. They can't reproduce nothing again. You talk about hybrid corn. Hybrid corn's nothing. It's the worst thing you ever put in your mouth---anything hybrid. That's the reason you have to take these little hotbed plants and hybrid stuff and spray it, and doctor it, and baby it. Why? Because you can't keep the bugs off of it. But a genuine thoroughbred, you don't have to put no disinfect on him; he's got power within himself [unclear words] to keep the bugs of unbelief off. But a real, genuine, Spirited man...

48 Take an old mule, he won't talk to you. You say, "Say, boy, I want you to do this, that, or..." He'll just sit there [Brother Branham makes a sound like a mule], " Haw! Haw! Haw!", them big ears working them down.
I've seen a lot of Christians about like that---so-called. You say, "Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, and forever... These signs shall follow them that believe."
"Haw! I believe the days of miracles is past. Haw! Haw! Haw!"
See, he don't know what he does believe. He don't know nothing. He don't know where he come from; he don't know where he's going. He's got horse amnesia. He don't know where he come from, he can't go no farther.

49 But I like a genuine thoroughbred. Oh, he's gentle, you can talk to him. He knows who his papa was, who his mama was, who his grandpa and grandma was. He's got pedigreed papers to show where he come from.
Now, I like a pedigreed Christian, that can go all the way back to the Word of God, to the day of Pentecost, and identify themselves there with the place where the power of the Holy Ghost came upon them! That's a pedigreed Christian. He knows where he come from. He's not identified with Methodist, Baptist, or nothing else.
He's identified in God's Word. He knows exactly where he's standing with. The royal blood of his Father flows through him---the blood of Jesus Christ. He knows what it does. He believes every Word. God works through him and confirms it with the signs that He promised to follow. He hasn't got no spiritual amnesia. He's a genuine thoroughbred. I like that.

50 But the church today has got a bad case of spiritual amnesia. It doesn't know where it belongs. It's forgot all about it, forgot all these things that makes it a church, what made us so rich as we are.
It's got into the place of Laodicea again, back into that rich place like Israel was. When it was poor and had to trust God for everything, it could do everything that God... It trusted God. Then God was with it, and it was spiritually moved on. But when it got rich, here's what happened: their cities built up, and their women got immoral, their men permitted it, their preachers let down the bar, and they denounced the prophets. And that's the kind of a condition they got into. What caused that was forgetting where them blessings come from.
See, you Methodists, and you Baptists, and you Presbyterians... You Methodists can't even remember John Wesley. You Baptists of the... John Smith wept over the affairs of people till his wife would have to lead him to the table, his eyes was swelled shut from crying and praying all night long. What's the matter? John Wesley said one of the great things (I believe it was one of the early Methodist fathers), said the disgrace of the daughters of the Methodist church was being ... began to get so worldly they were wearing rings upon their finger. What would he say now with shorts on? What happened? Spiritual amnesia, that's exactly what it is. Forgot where you come from. You got all these things because God's (giveness) goodness give it to you.

51 You think this is a strange thing? It's exactly what the Spirit of Jesus Christ, the prophecy... In Revelation the 3rd chapter, it said, "Because thou sayest, I am rich ... I have need of nothing; and know not that thou art poor, blind, wretched, miserable, naked, and don't know it." See, don't know it! What is it? Spiritual amnesia. They don't know it.
The churches has got the money now. There's not a church hardly in the country, a denomination, but what's worth millions times millions of dollars, building millions and millions of dollars in buildings and things; and preaching the coming of the Lord is at hand. Rich and said, "I have need for nothing."
The best educated preachers they ever had, know more theology than they ever knowed, and they got the biggest buildings, the best selected places in the city. They got the right of way to anything they want to do. And then what did they do? Got spiritual amnesia, and forgot that it was God that done that for them, just like Israel.

52 And the Bible prophesied... Jesus Christ sent His angel to John, and said this last church age would have its spiritual amnesia. They were wretched, remember. They think they're big, they think they got something; but He said they were miserable, wretched, poor, blind, naked, and didn't know it. There's no way of telling them.
Now, if a man was out here on the street, disgraced, or a woman naked on the street, blind---that would be a pitiful shape, to be in that shape. But then, if they had their right mind, knowed who they was, that they was a human being and they're supposed to wear clothes, why, you'd go out there... They're human beings, supposed to be identified with the human race---and out there wretched, miserable, blind, and naked---and you'd go to them and say, "Brother, you're naked."
"Now here, I'm doctor so-and-so, you just meddle your own business. I tell you I belong to so-and-so. You ain't got no business, you holy roller, to tell me nothing." [Tape interrupted] is at the cause for men to do, for people to do the things that they're doing.

53 They'll let you know that their preacher is broad-minded, see. What is it? It's they've forgotten the Lord Jesus' commandment.
Then let Him come down, and do His signs and wonders that He said He would do. They don't want to believe it. It's spiritual amnesia. See, they have forgotten---and they're naked, and don't know it! Don't realize it.
They think that just because "I belong to church," that's all that's necessary. Oh, brother! That means no more to God than to be a Mason or anything else, or any other lodge. To belong to church, that don't mean nothing to God.
You've got to be sons and daughters of God. You've got to be borned of God. And God is the Word. When I became part of my father I became all my father. When you become part of God, you become God in full, His whole Word. You believe all of it. Spiritual amnesia!

54 What if you didn't know your name was what it was. And if you are ... you come from a fine family, which I hope you did... If you come from a fine family of people, and what if you forget that family name. And you, by your living disgraceful... They say, "Aren't ... your name Jones (or whatever)?"
"Well, I don't know who I...", see. All right. See, that's a horrible thing to be, a horrible condition to get into.
Well, that's just where the church has got. It's supposed to be the representation of Jesus Christ. But it's forgot that because it's got injected into it creeds and denominations, that they've accepted that instead of the Word. And they're naked, blind, miserable, and don't know it; and no way to tell them.
I may never be in Birmingham again. But this is one time they're going to hear it. Right. I'm just, I'm not responsible for nothing but sowing seed. God directs it to the ground where it's supposed to go.

55 Forgot---yes, they forgot the Word of the promise, they forgot. Israel was in that kind of a fix when Jesus come. It had forgot. They looked... Oh, they said they believed there was coming a Messiah. But then when the Messiah come and identified Himself by the Word, they had so many traditions till they made the Word of God of no effect.
And Jesus promised, just before the end-time, as it was in Sodom, so would it be. It would be identified. And the people so traditional till it makes the promise of God of no effect by their tradition. Spiritual amnesia. Spiritual amnesia is exactly what it is. See, they have forgotten these things. "Oh, I belong to this. I've done this. I've danced in the spirit. I did this..." Well, my, my! That has nothing to do with it, not at all.

56 How can you be a Christian and deny the Word? You can't do it. God is the Word. The Word's in you; you and the Word are the same. All the Word is, you are. Amen! If I'm living in this generation, what this spoken word promised to this generation I've got to be that. If I'm going to be a Christian I've got to be identified with all that the Bible preaches and stands for. Hallelujah! They're going to call me a holy roller anyhow, and I feel pretty religious right now.
Yes, sir! I've got to be identified with everything that that Bible claims, and give it claims. And if I haven't been stricken with this modern day spiritual amnesia, I will be, and can be, identified with it. If I deny it, then I've got spiritual amnesia. Something has happened. I've accepted a creed or a doctrine, or some church or group of men. Now I can't do it. When ... yet the Word comes and identifies itself. That's why Jesus wasn't recognized.
Oh, they say, "Well, this man's holy, this our holy priest, our holy this..."
And Jesus said, "You are of your father the devil, and his works you'll do."

57 Did you know Cain offered a good sacrifice, too? He was sincere, built an altar, knelt down and worshipped, and offered a sacrifice and prayed to God. And if God, that's all God requires, for you to belong to church, and have an altar, and pay your tithe, and go to church and live a good life---if that's all He requires, He was unjust to condemn Cain, 'cause he did the same thing. Yes, sir, that's exactly.
But religion means a covering, and you can't be covered by your own good works. There's only one thing that God will accept, and that's the blood of Jesus Christ. That's the only covering. Outside of that, if you, say, keep the creed---spiritual amnesia. That's what happens.
Now notice. They have forgot their word, they have forgot the Bible, they have forgot the promise. They're trying to live in the glare of what Methodists was, what Baptists was, what somebody else was. Here's the promise of the day, and God speaking it through His Word and confirming it again, and proving that it is so. And they still don't believe it---spiritual amnesia. That's exactly right. Total, total amnesia, absolutely don't believe it at all.

58 A French soldier---I was told a little story, before we close. (I didn't know it was even that late, and I've got about ten pages of notes here left---get it some other time.)
Notice. A French soldier ... they got a bunch of soldiers in from the army, and they had this amnesia, some shock from the battle. And they had a program. And they called up, and let people who had missing loved ones to call, and see if they could identify these boys. No hope for them, maybe one or two out of it caught it. Then they took the rest of them, they was going to put them in a sanitarium, where they'd have to stay the rest of their life. They was going up the hillside, train pulling, and they stopped at a station---let the boys get out and stretch their legs. And the guards got out on the hill to watch them, because with amnesia, why, they had to watch them.

59 So, they watched one young fellow there. He got out and begin to look around at that water tank, looked all around over the hill. He rubbed his face, and he studied, and he looked again, and he seen that water tank. He looked all around at the station, and he started walking.
Instead of the guard stopping him, he followed him. He went up over the hill, down a little path, turned to the right, went up over another little hill and come to a little log cabin. He looked. Coming out on the porch, an old man with a cane in his hand come out, throwed his arms around him. Said, "My son, I knowed you would return. They told me you were dead, but I knowed you would return." And the boy come to himself. His amnesia left him. He could identify who he was. He knowed that was his father.

60 Oh, soldier of the cross that's been shocked with so much training, so many shocks of denomination and creed and things of the world, why don't you just step off for a few minutes, and go looking around at the Bible. Might wander around, and you might find yourself identified here in the Word as a believer. One of these days, you might not know Him. You may come to yourself, like the prodigal son did, and find yourself. You might find your identification in the words of God.
Someone said the other ... not long ago, said, "But Brother Branham look at us Pentecostal people. What fine churches we got. Why, if we ... we got ministers that's been trained."
Listen. When a man marries a wife he doesn't trust in her beauty. No. He trusts in the loyalty of her vow, her word. He doesn't trust in her beauty; he trusts in her loyalty. And that's the way when you marry to God. You don't trust in some big, beautiful church you can build; but in the promise that Jesus Christ made, that "I'm the same yesterday, today, and forever." Do you believe that?
Let us bow our heads just a moment.

61 I wonder tonight in the building here, where the people are sitting, where there's men and women who are eternal, eternity-bound people, and you know that some day or other you've got to meet God. And I wonder, if you had a little breath of that amnesia, and you would ... you've been identified in the wrong thing, and you ... you'd like to kind of wander around through tonight, and find out if you can't be identified in Christ Jesus. Would you raise up your hand, and say, "Pray for me, Brother Branham. I want to be identified as a real Christian, a real believer."
God bless you. God bless you. Bless you. Oh, yes, way around, the Lord God bless you.
Somebody up in the balcony'd say, "Brother, I really believe that's the truth. I believe as Christians, we're not Christians like they used to be years ago."

62 What about you Pentecostal people, when your mothers and fathers used to stand on the street out here and beat an old tambourine and your mother how she'd have to worry and struggle with you little children. Sometimes you had to go without clothes and everything else. But dad and mother was faithful to the cause, to hold up Christ. Look what you Pentecostal people did fifty years ago. You came out of the organization---that's what makes you Pentecost---you separated yourself from the unbelievers.
Like a hog to its wallow, and a dog to its vomit, you went right back and done the same, made the same kind of a mess you come out of. What's the matter? Spiritual amnesia broke out among the people. You got your creeds and your denominational papers now, and you're right up with the rest of them---want to be with the rest of them.
You permitted your women to cut their hair, wear jeans. You're permitting to do all these things, permitting all this stuff in the churches. What is it? Spiritual amnesia.

63 Then, the first thing you know, when God begins to visit amongst the people, then what happens? You can't receive it, You've been so sick with that amnesia, see. The only thing you've ever heard... Don't you think you ought to step off of that creed just for a few minutes and pick up the Bible, see what a Christian's supposed to be identified like? "These signs shall follow them that believe."
Acts ... Peter said, "Repent, every one of you, and be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. For the promise is unto you, and your children, and them that is far off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call."
If they tell you that isn't so, then your pastor has a bad case of spiritual amnesia. He can't find himself identified with that church ---not organization, a church, a mystical body of Christ.

64 Now the Holy Ghost is here. He's here to do just exactly what He promised to do. Now, while you're here with your heads bowed, just keep a-praying. Let the Holy Spirit speak Himself. You'll see if this... Anyone knows what the promise, what it is for this day.
Now if you're just in need tonight ... you, most of you raised up your hands. Before you do that, I wonder if while we're here and really pray for the sick, I wonder if you can get away from that unbelief, that denomination, that creed that tells you these things are not so, that one that would tell you it's of the devil. When they do that, they'll never be forgiven in this world or the world to come.
What if it is the truth? Just think, what if it is? Then where are you? See, you don't have to speak it out; just leave it in your heart. And there's people here that believe that. I've sat right here for the last two nights laboring under something that's keeping my whole ... biting my tongue to keep from calling it right out. Remember, friends, it's between you and God. What if it is wrong? Are you thinking that? You know what happens? You'll never be forgiven for it. Spiritual amnesia. You'll go right on into your eternal death---unbelief. "He that believeth not is condemned already."

65 Now pray for your sickness. Say, "Lord Jesus, you promised that I..." May be some strangers here that's never been here before. Jesus promised, "Like it was..."
I'll take one scripture. In the days of Lot, when God was manifested in a body of flesh, and the people (Abraham, the elected group, the called-out group)... And Abram's name was changed to Abraham. Then he seen the Word made flesh and it discerned the thoughts that was in Sarah's heart.
And when the royal seed of Abraham come up, that's what He did. And they called Him a devil. He said, "Now, when the Holy Ghost comes, it will do the same thing." Said, "I can forgive when they call me that. But when you speak against the Holy Ghost there's no forgiveness."

66 Now may He in this hour come through this audience of people, wherever you are, and with this spiritual discernment showing that He is the Word, so if there is any here suffering with amnesia that they will (not) will be without an excuse before this altar call is made. May the Lord God help them. Now with your heads bowed, reverently praying, see.
There's a lady sitting here before me, she's got her hands up to her face. She's suffering with a spinal condition, and she's also got nervousness. She's got stomach trouble, and she's sitting here before me now. That she might know it, she's not from this country. She's from the city called Macon. You believe God can tell me who you are? You're Miss Ayers. If that's right, raise up your hand. I'm a stranger to you. That's true, isn't it? Now your trouble's over. Jesus Christ, you touched His garment; He made you whole. Now just believe it.

67 There's a man sitting in the back of the building. He's seeking the baptism of the Holy Ghost. He wants the baptism with the Spirit. He stands here before me. He's not from here, either. He's from Carolina, Charlotte. Lepoe is his name. Believe with all your heart, and God will fill you with the Holy Ghost, my brother, if you'll believe it.

68 Here over to my right, here is a man and his wife, sitting right straight in front of me here. It's an old couple to my right. The lady's suffering with a colon condition. Her husband has heart trouble. They're not from here. They're from Tennessee. Mr. and Mrs. Thomas, if you will believe with all your heart, raise up your hands, and you can accept your healing. Jesus Christ make you well.
That's exactly what He promised to do. I never seen the people in my life. Spiritual amnesia. Jesus said, "The works that I do shall you also. A little while and the world will see me no more. Yet ye shall see me, for I [personal pronoun], will be with you, even in you till the end of the world." Jesus Christ the same yesterday, today, and forever.

69 Now. The men and women in here that's just got something wrong with you, that you just simply can't see how... You want to believe, but you just can't get into it; and you'd like to be prayed for, you want to accept Him while you're in His presence; would you come and stand right here by me, let us pray and lay hands on you, if you'd come right up here now? You that's suffering like that, with spiritual amnesia, and would want to be prayed for, that you believe in that---if you're not a believer, but you want to be prayed for, come up here.
God bless you, young man. Somebody else? Bless you, lady. God bless you, young lady. Somebody else? Come, come stand right up here just now. Spiritual amnesia. I don't want to be plagued with that, God forbid. Let me, let me die the death of anything, but never let me die that death---as an unbeliever.
Come accept Him now. Won't you do it? Come from, come down out of the balcony, friends. It's just a few steps down here, and it might mean the difference between death and life to you. Look. I can't make Christ do nothing. Christ don't have to do anything but one thing. He has to keep His Word. He must do that in order to be Christ, be God. He must keep His Word.
Now remember. If you're not sure of your experience, why not come down now? If you just belong to a denomination, if you are a Pentecostal grandchild, God don't have any grandchildren. He has sons and daughters; but no grandsons and daughters, see. God don't have that. He just has sons and daughters, and you know that you're not. Maybe you spoke with tongues, you might've danced, you might've done all this. That's all right. I have nothing against it. But yet if you still got that spiritual amnesia, come on down and come here, and stand here, and let's pray about it. What do you say?
Church member, just a nominal church member, why don't you come up here, and let's get rid of it right now?

70 I don't want to leave Birmingham here, and know that some day when the judgment comes up... And I've got to stand then before you. You remember, I'm going to meet you again. If I never meet you here on this, I'm going to meet you at the judgment. And I've got to answer for what I've said tonight.
Now listen. Repent, friends. Repent, and come out of it. Get out of there. Come on now. That ought to make every bobbed-haired woman in this country, this place, come up here now. That's exactly right. That you haven't got grace enough to really say, "I want to, I want to let my hair grow out, Brother Branham. It all ... but I haven't got the grace to do it."
"Why," you say, "has that got anything to with it?"

71 Here not long ago a real great minister come to me, said, "I want to lay hands on you, Brother Branham." Said, "Everybody regards you as a prophet."
I said, "I never said I was a prophet."
He said, "But the people regard you as that. You're always tearing into them about wearing shorts, and all them Pentecostal things," and said, "about wearing shorts and bobbing their hair and things." Said, "That's not your business."
I said, "Whose business is it, then?"
And he said, "Them people, why don't you teach them women how to be ... have great spiritual gifts and help people instead of trying to...?" Said, "They regard you. What you tell them, they'd believe you." Said, "Why don't you tell them how to get great gifts and to help people, instead of always condemning them?"
I said, "How can I teach them algebra when they won't even learn their ABC's?

72 You've got to start from the bottom." Repent or perish! Now, you can suit yourself---repent or perish!
Jesus Christ has thoroughly identified Himself here, night after night. This is the night we're turning over to this salvation. It's just a few steps up here, and I've got plenty of time to wait. Remember! Birmingham, your blood's not upon me. I'm innocent. If you've really got the Holy Spirit, you've got an opportunity to come now. If you're suffering with some kind of a churchanity that's caused you to have spiritual amnesia, why don't you come? Jesus is the cure. Won't you come?
Some people left the balcony. I'm just waiting to see whether they were going out, or coming to the altar. These down here, you come on up around, that's right. You that are here, come stand around the altar. Say, "I'm finished with this." Yes, they were coming down, two ladies. That's fine. Come right on up now. Just a few steps from it, and them steps might mean the difference.

73 Now look, I want to ask you something. What if He does come tonight? What ... say He isn't coming? I don't know whether He is or not. This is the last sign. Remember, "Thus saith the Lord [did you ever hear me say that but what it was true?], you're seeing your last sign." That's Scripture.
You've seen your last sign, Pentecost. Don't get mixed up now with what He promised Israel after the rapture. That ain't you. You're done then, see. Now's your day. Now's your sign. Now's your time; don't reject it. Don't do it. You better come.
You believe me to be God's servant? Remember. Birmingham, I've never met nicer people. You're the nicest people I'd want to meet in my life. But you need a revival. You're dying. You're taking spiritual amnesia. You're dying. Don't do that; revive that what you've got. Bring it up again, quickly, before Jesus comes.

74 All right. While they're ... keep coming, just let them keep coming, till we get all that the Lord's calling up here. Come now. Get rid of that amnesia. The Great Physician is here now to heal that, take it away from you. He's proved that He's here. How many will identify that by raising up your hands, and say, "I truly believe it, that He said He'd do it?", see. Now He's here, see. You believe.
And how many knows that I'm telling you the truth, that you're dying and need a revival? See, it's true. You're fine people. You can't find no better, no better hearts beating under these old southern shirts down here. That's right. Real people. But folks, you'd better wake up right quick. The hour that you think not, it might happen. It might not happen. I don't know.

75 But remember, you're getting your last warning. So flee, while you have time to flee.
Come now. Long as they're coming, I'm going to keep waiting, because there might ... one soul's worth ten thousand worlds. And as long as people are being convinced...
I'd like to see this break into a great big revival, that'd set every church around here to break up your differences, and get all that selfishness away, and accept the Holy Ghost. You claim you believe it. You claim to believe it. And when it comes to identify itself, then you'll pull apart from one another. Why not join our hearts with God's Word, the truth? That's what... You'll just keep on dying, dying. And you're going right out into Laodicea, exactly what He promised. It'll be that way.
Won't you come now? Now is the day. Now is the accepted time. Watch what the Holy Spirit will do.

76 Now I want all the ministers here, that's interested in these people, come pray with me, too. Come up here, all ministers that's interested in these people. Come, just come right around, get in among the people---a minister or a personal worker, a good personal worker, a woman that wants to stand with these women now.
I'm going to believe with all my heart that the Holy Ghost is going to come into this place right here now, and just identify Himself all among these people.

77 Now let me instruct these people here first. Now friends, whatever you're here for, He knows. Now I could prove it to you. Take one by one, and bring you up here on this platform, and there won't be one thing that He won't make known. Now that's been since I was a little boy. That gift's not in question. But the question is, can you receive it? Do you believe it? Now He's here. Well, if He's here, then there's only one thing: He keeps His Word. Then if you believe that you receive it, and accept it, raise up and say, "Lord God, I'm here to accept it." And just stay there until it happens.
Like Buddy Robinson said one time in a corn field, he said, "Lord, if you don't give me the Holy Ghost, when You come back You'll find a pile of bones laying right here." He was dead earnest. And you're not going to get anything from God till you get desperate enough.

78 Now, have you noticed today, crowd, have you noticed today, what we do? We actually ... we got enough God about us till we come up to the platform, and we say, "Yes, maybe I'd better come up. [Now this is the experience the world wide.] Yes, I better go up and stand, and..." Say, "Well, well, I don't know---here I am," see. Hmmm. What a place to be in!
There's no fire burning. There's no enthusiasm. There's not a "go" into it. And as an evangelist, that just kills me to see God's people in that shape. We're supposed to be on fire. But you see what is it? It's exactly what I told you---Revelations 3---you are lukewarm. And He said, "Because you are lukewarm, I'm going to spew you out of my mouth." That's right. That's what He said. And if He said that, that's what He's going to do. So let's not be that crowd. You're here, needy. Let's get it, or die right here. Let's get it, or die.

79 Now. My dear brother and sister, if I could come down and help you do something, I'd sure do it. Now, by gift I can tell you what you're here for. I can tell you what ... by the Holy Ghost, by God's Spirit, tell you what you come for, what you've done, what will be the future, or something like that. But that don't take care of it. You've got to accept this yourself. It's got to be you.
Now, are you ready? Raise up your hands and say, "I'm ready. I'm ready to die right here." Now don't do it unless you mean it. "I'm ready to die right here, or get what I want from God." Amen. Are you really ready?

80 Then let the audience stand everywhere.
Now together, together let's unite ourselves together. Let's pray. And let's just ... you ministers, now, walk up to these people here, every one. And you're representing the hands of Christ now. You that wants the Holy Spirit (you that wants that experience, not an emotional excitement), you want the Holy Ghost, the life, the germ of life inside you; and you want to get rid of that amnesia that's making you---can't identify yourself, you don't know where you stand---you don't know what you are: Let's get rid of it right now. There's a new birth here for you, a real genuine new birth.
Now, let's lay our hands over on these people. Let's everyone raise up our hands, and pray with one accord.

81 Heavenly Father, in the name of the Lord Jesus, grant it, Lord, that in Jesus Christ's name that the Holy Ghost will come tonight, this Saturday night, where the Holy Ghost fell like a rushing mighty wind. May these people be baptized into the Holy Ghost. May the fiery power of God not leave them. If they're here in the morning, may they stay, stay until the Holy Ghost...
That's the idea, that's it, there it is. That's the Holy Ghost coming. (I done done it.) That's all. Believe it now. Accept it; be filled with it.