This sermon emphasizes the importance of allowing the Holy Spirit to work in individuals' lives rather than trying to take control or judge others. It warns against the dangers of praying at people instead of praying for them, highlighting the need for humility, patience, and trust in God's timing. The story of a missionary's encounter with a fellow believer serves as a cautionary tale about jumping to conclusions and interfering with the Holy Spirit's work.

And she was needed. In a mission, everyone's needed. But this dear lady, when she was a young missionary, there was someone who felt that there was something in her life, in Mrs. Spencer's life, that was very unacceptable to be in the life of a young missionary, serving God. There was something in her life that really was unacceptable to be in a missionary's life in the AAB, the mission I serve So this older Christian, this older missionary lady, who'd been a longer time, it seems she came up to Mrs. Spencer in despair in the end that this thing wasn't being dealt with in her life. And she looked at Mrs. Spencer and she said to her, you know, there's someone in the AAB who does this thing. And Mrs. Spencer, of course, looked at this lady and she thought, oh my troubles here. And the lady said, yes. So Mrs. Spencer said, oh, yes, and she's in the AAB. And she does this thing. She shouldn't do it. She's a missionary. She shouldn't do it. So Mrs. Spencer, of course, feeling very uncomfortable, said, oh. The lady looked at her in despair, you know, and she said, yes, and she's in the AAB. She shouldn't do it. Oh. In the end, the lady despaired so much she lost it, you know. She said, it's you. You're the one that does it. So Mrs. Spencer, of course, she looked at her feeling wounded and smashed and crushed and she said, no. Now, I don't know what no means. I don't think it's very victorious in the Christian vocabulary, but I think maybe it was trying to say, shame on you for not waiting and leaving the Holy Spirit to do that in His time when I'm ready. Do you know how many Christians are stumbling for the rest of their lives because we jumped the gun? Sir, do you know how long it took you to get you where you are? Have you forgotten the patience God had with you, lady? And you look at these younger Christians and in one moment they better toe the line and be everything you are, or you'll grieve and you're going to do the work for God. And all that you do is get them to stagger and stumble for years and years of the something if you just left it to God. They would have let God have His way when the Holy Spirit convicted them. Another danger, another danger is how many people try to do the work of the Holy Spirit in a prayer meeting on their knees. They don't pray, they preach. They don't speak to God ever. It's just one stance of hypocrisy. That's their opportunity to speak and so they're going to get everybody under conviction of the things they think the people need to hear so they can speak now, so they're going to pray at people. You don't pray at people, you pray for people. You don't pray to people, you pray to God for people. Otherwise your sin is more of a grief to God than their sin or their inconsistency. Don't doubt that, it's one stance of hypocrisy. It's a grief to God and man. Don't think you're spiritual, sir, if you don't pray to God in a prayer meeting, you pray to people. That proves how carnal you are and how little you trust the Holy Spirit. I was in a prayer meeting where a man who had been a missionary for many years and now he just lost control and on his knees in his prayer meeting full of evangelists and preachers and missionaries all over the building from all over southern Africa, this convention, this half night of prayer, he was praying on his knees. Suddenly he started praying in such a way that grief came upon the whole meeting. I mean such grief that it was the end of the whole convention virtually. He destroyed a convention on his knees, he decided to pray at people. So he started speaking his mind on his knees, things he should never have said. He started crying out, God, there's a slug in the cross. Now you don't know our language back home, that means there's a snake in the grass. Everybody's thinking, who's he speaking about? You get uncomfortable when a man starts praying that, you know, there's sin in the camp. That's why the things are going wrong in the missionary society. That's why the blessing of God is not what it should be. There's sin in the camp. It must be dealt with. It must get out. We must deal with the sinner. Oh my, people were getting grieved. He went on and on and on. You know, I thought it'd never end and a cloud of grief fell upon that conference and they closed the whole prayer meeting, not for the half night of prayer anymore. They just closed it when he said amen. He just destroyed that night of prayer. No one wanted to pray after that. Everybody was on their knees groaning in grief, thinking, who is he speaking about? Who's in sin of these preachers? Who's bringing the curse of God upon us? Well, I went outside and by the time I got outside, I was saying to the Lord, Lord, does he think that about me? Has the devil told him things that he's, is it me he's thinking about? Before I could think too long, another person came to me and they thought it was them. Within a few minutes, there was about 12 people who came to me, all thinking it was them. Maybe he thinks it's me. All fear. He had the whole lot of us under conviction. I think the only person that wasn't under conviction was the person it was meant for. I'd be surprised if the person who was meant for got convicted, because it wasn't God the Holy Ghost guiding that man. Sir, don't pray about people in front of them. Be careful what you do and what you say if you do. Don't pray about sin in someone's life if they're there with you. Pray to God about people before you single out someone, sir, that's hearing you on your knees, because all you're doing is sinning a greater sin than the person you think is a grief to God, who's become a grief to you. Don't doubt it. Don't doubt it. You are a grief to God. I don't know how many prayer meetings I've been in in the last 32 years, and I've been in many, many, many hundreds, and I don't know how few I ever attended where there was no one praying at people, preaching at people on their knees. Suddenly there was someone, someone there, the devil made sure, destroyed any blessing there could be in the prayer meeting by someone who wasn't praying to God, but praying to people. Don't do the work of the Holy Spirit. If this tells God straight you don't trust Him, you're going to have to do His work for Him by lying, by lying that you're speaking to Him, and you're all so unspiritual you're only speaking to people. My brother is also a preacher. My brother was the first one saved in our home, and our home was destroyed by sin. We lay in ruin, but God took hold of my dear brother and saved him in the most amazing way. He suddenly found himself sitting in a meeting under one of the greatest men of God that has ever lived in this world. I have no doubt of that. A man who influenced thousands throughout the world to walk with God, a holy walk, just by his life. People have said to me all across the world as I've gone to different countries who know as they hear me preaching of Him, you can never recover if you just stand in His presence. If you just stood in His presence, your conscience wouldn't allow you to recover till the day you die. That God could make a man so holy. You know, He was the only man that I ever met in my life that I wept by just standing looking at Him. I wept. I trembled at the consciousness of how God could make a man that holy, this side of heaven. If you let Him, He shone. He shone, not with a superficial shine like we think of Moses, you know, just some glow, no, integrity and purity and godliness, and the character and the nature of Christ was just shining through His every reaction that people would weep standing in His presence. But He was the preacher, the most holy man of God I ever knew or was privileged to know in my life, and I've met many of the godliest men in this world and prayed with them, but never did I know a man that could come near the godliness of this man. Will McFarlane was his name, and he was in our country preaching, and my brother by some amazing miracle, not seeking God, was found in that meeting dragged, not wanting God, not being there for God. And under the anointed preaching, as very few have ever been anointed through his life, my brother was so crushed by conviction, by the end of that sermon he couldn't stand. When he stood, he fell.