Watchman, What Is Left of the Night?

Praying God’s Heart in a Confusing World

By Dale Schlafer

“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.” The famous opening of Charles Dickens’s novel A Tale of Two Cities is often used to highlight a time when seemingly radical opposites coexist. Dickens continues, “It was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity.”

I thought of that line regarding my frustration with what I see in the Ecclesia (Church) in the United States today. We are living in a time of opposites or contradictions in our communication within the Ecclesia. According to what some respected prayer leaders believe, we are moving into the greatest time the American Church has ever experienced. Revival is coming. We need to repent and pray together and then seize our destiny; we are standing on the verge of the greatest harvest in the history of the Church. This is what is coming—it is what God desires, they say.

Yet emails from other highly regarded prayer leaders contain stern warnings that the United States is moving into a time of judgment, persecution, and great hardship and that “even if Moses and Samuel stood before me pleading for these people, I wouldn’t help them” (Jer. 15:1, NLT). They believe this is what is coming. Nothing is going to stop this judgment. It is going to occur—so get prepared.
These are radically opposite views from godly people of prayer who are, as the prophet Isaiah put it, “watchmen on [the] walls” (62:6). What are we to believe and how are we to pray in our current seemingly contradictory situation?

God Is the Watchman

As we look at the subject of watchmen on the walls, let’s start with the foundational biblical truth that ultimately God is the watchman (Hosea 9:8). I sense that this obvious truth is often forgotten in many prayer meetings. People tend to pray for what they desire rather than what God is showing them. But Scripture says, “Unless the Lord builds the house, the builders labor in vain. Unless the Lord watches over the city, the guards stand watch in vain” (Ps. 127:1).

We are not spinning out of control to some unknown end. God is the watchman over history, sovereignly directing the best and worst of times. The question for people of prayer is, are we listening to God or merely praying what we want?

In addition, God often invites prophets to be watchmen on the walls. The above quotation from Hosea expands this truth: “The prophet, along with my God, is the watchman” (Hosea 9:8, italics added). The five-fold ministry gifts (listed in Ephesians 4:11–12) make it clear that the gift of prophet is available to the Ecclesia today. The gifts listed there are: apostle, prophet, evangelist, pastor, and teacher. Today these gifts are not only accepted but operational across a wide swath of the Ecclesia. Prophetic individuals therefore are essential in understanding what God is showing us and how and what we are to pray.

Peter, however, gives the entire Ecclesia the responsibility of being alert watchmen: “The end of all things is near. Therefore be alert and of sober mind so that you may pray” (1 Peter 4:7).

The entire Body of Christ has the responsibility to watch, and if you will, to act as watchmen. We are to observe what is transpiring around us and go to God to learn how to pray—or take what the prophets share and pray it through.

Do the Messages Really Conflict?

This foundational material still does not answer the issue I raised in the beginning. Scripture says, “If the trumpet does not sound a clear call, who will get ready for battle?” (1 Cor. 14:8, emphasis added). But respected watchmen on the walls today appear to be giving two conflicting messages. As a result, there is great confusion in the Ecclesia.

One group of watchmen says we are moving into the greatest days in the history of the American Church. The other says we are facing God’s imminent judgment and very difficult days.

Having wrestled with this, I’m proposing something I believe the Lord has helped me grasp. In Isaiah 21:11–12 we read: “‘Watchman, what is left of the night? Watchman, what is left of the night?’ The watchman replies, ‘Morning is coming, but also the night.’” It sounds as though the watchman doesn’t understand.

But perhaps we are the ones who are confused. The morning is coming. There is going to be a great harvest of lost souls, spectacular displays of God’s glory, and great healings to observe. At the same time, the watchman says “also the night.”

I see that a time of great difficulty and hardship is also coming. The United States will go through great judgment that no amount of repentance, fasting, and prayer can restrain.

Could it be that the Lord wants us to recognize that when we see only one of the messages, we are receiving only part of what watchmen are to see? Could it be that God is saying we need both mindsets as we move closer to Christ’s return?

Most of the prayer movement sees these two mindsets as linear and distinct, one scenario occurring after the other. But what if they are simultaneous?

How Then Do We Pray?

If this is true, then it changes how we pray. What if, biblically, we are to expect a mighty move of God in the midst of great darkness and judgment? What if we are indeed moving into a time of deep darkness but in the midst of it the light of Christ will shine more brightly?

It seems to me that in places where deep darkness has fallen (China and Iraq, for example), there are also remarkable moves of salvations, healings, signs, and wonders in the midst of peril, persecution, and death.

When we, as prayer leaders, operate from just one of these mindsets, we tend to minister with the support of only those who agree with us. I confess to you that only a few months ago I hurled a magazine across the room when I read some words from a brother who holds a different mindset than I do. I said at the time, “What world is he living in? I am never reading anything he writes again!”

I have since repented of these words as the concept of simultaneous morning and night has changed my thinking. I sense linear thinking is where many in the prayer movement find themselves today. They may not hurl their magazines across the room, but they are similarly caught in the linear mindset and divided from others as I was. This causes great division in the prayer movement, which in turn causes great confusion in the Body because the watchmen appear in opposition to each other.

If it is hard to imagine the morning and night simultaneously, consider China. In 1949, at the time of the Communist takeover, the population was 546 million, of which 800,000 were Protestants and three million were Catholics. Groups that monitor growth of religions around the world project that by the year 2030 there will be approximately 247 million Catholics and Protestants in China.¹ This will make China the country with the most Christians.

Suppose the Ecclesia of China in 1949 had determined that they were in the “worst of times” with persecution, peril, and darkness. And suppose that as a result, they determined to just hunker down and ride it out until God decided to bring the “best of times”? They would have missed what is arguably the greatest harvest up to now in the history of the Ecclesia.

Instead they simultaneously understood the difficulties of persecution and the opportunities of harvest.

Prepared Both Ways

So what does that mean for us as watchmen? Jesus made clear to us in the parable of the ten virgins (Matt. 25:1–13) that we need to be prepared.

• Be prepared for the best of times. See that the Body is trained, discipled, and ready for the great Kingdom harvest.
• Simultaneously, be prepared for the worst of times. See that the Body is prepared for darkness, peril, persecution, and death.

To choose only one mindset is to leave the Ecclesia unprepared, unready, and in danger of missing her destiny.

God is the watchman over it all, so let’s keep praying according to His heart. “Watchman, what is left of the night? Watchman, what is left of the night?”

The watchman replies, “Morning is coming, but also the night.”

¹Fenggang Yang, professor of sociology at Purdue University and author of Religion in China: Survival and Revival under Communist Rule, quoted in The Telegraph, September 18, 2016.  

DALE SCHLAFER is president and co-founder of the Center for World Revival and Awakening. He and his wife Liz spend several months of the year living in Israel.