What are Smokescreens?
Smoke screens are usually used by infantry to conceal their movement in areas of enemy fire. They can also be used by armored fighting vehicles, such as tanks, to conceal a withdrawal. They have regularly been used since earliest times to disorient or drive off attackers.
Britannica defines it as something that you do or say to hide something or to take attention away from something. Cambridge Dictionary marks it as something that hides the truth about a person’s actions or intentions. Vocabulary.com says it is an action intended to conceal or confuse or obscure. Synonyms for smokescreen includes camouflage, mask, red herring, pretense, façade, cloak, cover-up, deception, diversion, obfuscation, etc.
A smoke screen is usually a cloud of smoke used to hide the location or movement of military units, such as tanks, ships, aircraft, or infantry. Smoke, created using various chemicals, has four battlefield applications that support combat operations: obscuring, screening, protecting, and marking.
Specifically smokescreens can be used to: Obscure optical targeting, confuse AI algorithms, blind radar seekers, disguise and camouflage soldiers.
What Smokescreens do?
In warfare and battles, smokescreens are used to confuse and confound the enemy, distracting them away from their main target. This causes the enemy to go off course, on a tangent, and thus dissuading them from attaining their objective.
Smokescreens van also sidetrack and lead away from destination, or even not allow to reach it. There is a famous story of the swimmer who gave up just before reaching her ddestination due to sea fog.
In 1952, Florence Chadwick decided to attempt the 26-mile swim between the California coastline and Catalina Island. Accompanied by a team who kept an eye out for sharks, prepared to assist in the event of injury, fatigue or unexpected cramps, she swam roughly 15 hours before encountering thick fog. It clouded her vision, diminished her confidence, cussed her to relay to her mother and others in the boats at the time that she didn’t think she could complete the swim. After another hour of struggle in the icy cold waters, she decided to call it quit, only to discover if she’d just continued on for another mile she would have reached her destination!
That’s what is the purpose of smokescreens, make one give up or lose way or not reach target area.
What has Smokescreens to do with Christians?
Spiritually, a smokescreen is a distraction from the real truth and from the real heart issues that they want to hide.
The pharisees used trick questions, not real ones to learn, repent, and change, but to catch Jesus make a mistake. They were using their seemingly interested enquiry into the things of God as a smokescreen to hide their real motive, trip Jesus up and arrest Him!
All Christians must know and understand that the day we signed up to follow Christ, and chose to be His disciples, we become the target of the enemy of souls, Satan and his hosts. His favorite weapons of warfare against us, and lead us astray are confusion, distraction, deviation, discouragement, and depression. He is a master of masquerade, and his aim is always to turn us away from God or even from His plan for our lives. If he can turn you aside from your focus on Him, the devil has achieved his purpose.
What happened in the case of Christ?
Two times we see in the Bible how the devil tried to distract Jesus from His main purpose and course of action. In the desert after Jesus completes His forty days fast, the devil brings on the smokescreen of using God’s power for personal purposes. Jesus correctly identifies his tactics and doesn’t give in to his suggestions, but sticks to the ways of God.
There is another telling incident in the life of Jesus, where just before He leaves to be crucified, He shares what is ahead with His disciples. Peter comes to Him, and tries to dissuade Him from following through with His plan of action. Jesus correctly discerns that the enemy is trying to distract Him from the will of His Father, and rebukes Satan. Peter unwittingly becomes the devil’s advocate., and is told by Jesus that he didn’t comprehend the ways of God.
In both these incidents, Jesus was tempted to take the easy way out, and thus not accomplish the purpose of God in His birth, the rescue of mankind through His sacrifice. The devil tried to hoodwink him, throwing a smokescreen so that He would be distracted from the destination!
What is the Countermeasure for a Smokescreen?
Have you ever noticed that when life seems to go well, with all being well in your personal life, your family is doing great, you are serving the Lord, your finances are healthy, and then suddenly you seem to be hit by a curve ball? Something goes wrong, maybe a mishap at home, a sickness, an unforeseen expense, an accusation or opposition at work or in church, etc.
You are left stunned and sometimes clueless as to what is happening, or why is it even so when you are following God fully and wholeheartedly, and seeking to serve Him! To add to the ignominy, well-meaning family, friends, both in and outside the church, seem to judge you, seek to advise you, and maybe even blame you for your own mishap!
So did Job’s friends when he sat in ashes and sackcloth, searching for God in the midst of his trials, not understanding the why of it all. He didn’t know that he was part of a cosmic struggle that specifically centered on him, and that God was literally on His side, and betting on his integrity! The Bible is clear that despite his struggles and laments, Job did not sin against God, neither did he give following Him as his wife counselled him to!
Arthur Hugh Clough’s poem Say Not The Struggle Not Availeth has always been my personal go to when I become tired and weary of struggles, especially the second and third verses (see pic above). It well illustrates how a smokescreen can make you give up right when your companions are chasing the victory, and but for your desertion would have won the fight!
How do you handle a Smokescreen?
Smokescreens do tend to confuse us, and make us stumble around in the darkness or dimness they tend to create. The way to handle a smokescreen is to
- First, identify that it is indeed a smokescreen, and not a product of your own unwise conduct or some bitterness, malice, or other works of the flesh.
- Second, if you find that your own mistakes caused it, just turn back to God, humble yourself, confess your sin, and ask His forgiveness for your goof up.
- Then, take your stand on holy ground by claiming your status as His child, and as one who has been translated from the kingdom of darkness to the Kingdom of His dear Son.
- Gather a few very trusted ones, share your predicament, and ask for prayer as well as moral support
- Hold on to the vision you already had of where you are going, what you are doing, and continue doing good as before.
- Rest secure in His love for you, and don’t run around frantically thinking He has left you, for He hasn’t and will not ever abandon you.
- Persevere and persist on, with the vision of what you have seen always before you, even when darkness seems to surround you, and you find yourself walking as though blindfolded.
- Keep climbing, keep swimming, keep battling, and keep working, for soon the fog will lighten, the mists will thin, and the smoke will clear.
- Don’t give up but patiently walk on, one step at a time, one task at a time, one hurdle at a time until the skies lighten, darkness melts away, and you’re bathed in bright light.
- Remember that He knows all, He controls all, and He work everything for your good, that you may be transformed into the image of His Son!
Sonic Boom of a Concorde | Boss Hunting
What happens when you persist?
Normal speed of sound is 330 m/s, and to travel beyond this speed, the sound barrier must be overcome or broken. The Concorde, which travels faster than the speed of sound, at more than one Mach, creates pressure waves. These build up and compress together to form a shock wave producing what is known as a sonic boom.
Zener diodes are semiconductor devices that allow current to flow in both directions but specialize in current flowing in reverse. Such reverse current are the most common electronic components used as stable voltage references for electronic circuits. Zener diodes are known as breakdown diodes, because when you apply reverse voltage (connecting positive to positive and negative to negative), there is a surge of current at a specific point. At a particular voltage called the Zener breakdown voltage, a sudden increase of current (from micro amps to milli amps) occurs even though voltage remains the same.
When an eagle faces a storm, instead of running to cower under a shelter or safe place or cover as a chicken does, it mounts up on the strong winds. It flies higher and higher until it breaks through the cloud barrier to the clear skies above.
All these macro and micro phenomena, as well as natural and technological breakthroughs, show that persistence pays off. They demonstrate that pushing on brings freedom and deliverance. So persist and continue to hold on in and to Christ. You will soon burst into the open, go past the hindrance, and breach the smokescreen.
Smokescreens are just that, a temporary veil, a short time clouding, a small darkening that will soon be past. Don’t allow the enemy to destabilize you or upset your faith, or dissuade you from reaching your goal. This holds good especially when you are going through seasons and transitions in life.
This too shall pass
Smokescreens come to test your faith, enhance your character, strengthen your commitment, and upgrade your spiritual growth. Uncertainty helps you grow in the knowledge of God, and in the exceeding greatness of His power at work for and in you.
If you hit a Smokescreen, don’t panic or be alarmed or run around searching for God. He is still the Lord and God of your life Who neither sleeps nor slumbers. The world is under His care, and the governments are on His shoulders.
Therefore, be still and don’t allow anything to confuse you, cloud your sense, or confound your judgement. Don’t get disoriented or lost, but stick it out a little more.
Keep pulling for the shore until you reach it or see it at least!
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