Can Science Bear Fruit In The Kingdom of God?
About this time last year, I was invited to contribute to some science projects at an AI company. When I first started training AI models, my work focused on scientific consulting—using sociology, psychology, and theology to understand human behaviour and solve problems through prompts. Interestingly, the project was called Genesis—the beginning of paid work that didn’t feel like a job. It came naturally to me, my true identity.
Over the years, I’ve had many job opportunities that didn’t bear fruit. They appeared in every form imaginable except the one related to my actual field of study: biochemistry.
Then last year, a biochemistry project finally came my way. But it was so difficult that I convinced myself, “This can’t be what God wants me to do.” I’ve been there and done that (no need to circle in the wilderness). I wanted to keep doing work that didn’t feel like a job or grow into something new.
Have we ever told ourselves that if something is too hard, it can’t be from God? Especially after already enduring difficult times and seasons?
Walking By The Spirit And In Obedience
This year, the biochemistry projects came full circle, and God reminded me of a truth I keep learning: what He has for us is truly for us. But we must stay in relationship with Him, walking by the Spirit and in obedience, if we want to bear fruit. This year, the project was called Phoenix—a symbol of resurrection and eternal life. Walking with God may not look like a straight path for some of us, yet no matter how many times life knocks us down, we can rise again like a Phoenix!
“For a righteous man may fall seven times And rise again, But the wicked shall fall by calamity.” (Proverbs 24:16-18 NKJV)
So, yes, my biochemistry degree did bear fruit.
But although I love biochemistry, it doesn’t love me. I fell back on my self-care routine because I was so caught up with getting the job done perfectly.
I have since graduated to a higher level of self-discovery. Yet, beyond my specific laboratory knowledge, biochemistry taught me some lessons that mirrored the lab of life that I share today.
Why Should We Share What We’ve Learned?
I often speak about my PhD, not to boast, but because of how much God taught me through it. Some of us strive for titles or achievements, but God-given dreams are rarely about status, they’re about spiritual growth.
Many of us have completed the “PhD of life” through trials, parenting, jobs, businesses, ministry, or perseverance. We may not have the certificate, but we’ve done the work. We have knowledge that the world desperately needs. My daughter likes to remind us that sharing is caring. And when we share what we’ve learned, we honor God, and we honor others.
Are we sharing what we know?
“My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge. Because you have rejected knowledge, I also will reject you from being priest for Me; Because you have forgotten the law of your God, I also will forget your children.” (Hosea 4:6 NKJV).
When we withhold our stories, our knowledge, we rob others of hope, and we rob God of the glory He deserves.
Are we robbing the Kingdom of God?
Does Testing Reveal Our True Identity?
My PhD research focused on a small enzyme found in certain bacteria. Though tiny, it played a big role in helping the bacteria resist antibiotics and survive stress.
One of our goals was to understand how its structure (how it’s built) affects its function (what it does). In the lab, we call this process, characterization.
Characterization involves several tests that validates whether or not the enzyme is what we think it is and that it can do what previous studies says. Looking back, I realize God was doing the same with me. Just as we tested that enzyme to reveal its true identity and potential, God was refining my character to reveal mine.
Biblically speaking, character, is the moral and spiritual essence of who we are. It’s who we are when no one’s watching. To do the work God calls us to, we must have character that can carry the calling.
We may know what the will of God for our lives, but can our character carry the calling?
Are Our Lives Being Disrupted To Reveal Who We Truly Are?
In the U.S., we’re facing government shutdowns, layoffs, homelessness, and food shortages. Across the world, there are wars and rumors of wars. In the Caribbean, many have been devastated by powerful hurricanes. Everywhere we turn, it feels like the world is shaking.
Could it be that these disruptions are not just random events, but a testing, a refining, of our true identity? As individuals, families, and as nations? Perhaps these trials are revealing what we truly believe, what we truly value, and where our trust ultimately lies.
In the lab, we ran countless tests to validate our findings. Similarly, God allows life’s challenges to validate who we are in Him, not to destroy us, but to shape us.
Our shape, strengths(and skills), heart (passions), natural abilities, personality, and experiences reveals how we should function in the world. It will be a natural overflow of who we are inside. When we get to this realization, God will then put us in the place to do the good works that He prepared before the foundations of the world.
“For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.” (Ephesians 2:10 NKJV)
When life feels hard, we may not feel like a masterpiece. However, we are being characterized, shaped, and refined until we reflect God’s image.
What if what we call “tests” are simply God’s way of proving our true identity?
Something New, But Are We Holding On To The Old?
When our lives are disrupted, loss often follows. Our natural response is to long for the familiar — to cling to the “good old days.” But what if the invitation is not to return, but to release? What if we need to loosen our grip on control, surrender old mindsets, and make room for the new thing God is doing?
Before we can see clearly though, we must allow ourselves to grieve. Too often, we rush past our pain, saying things like, “I’m just keeping it moving,” or “Once there’s life, there’s hope.” While those words carry truth, they can also become a mask, hiding the unacknowledged ache within us. We grieve naturally when someone we love dies, yet we often minimize or ignore our emotions when we lose a job, a home, a dream, or even the picture we once had of how life was supposed to be.
If we do not grieve, we could sabotage ourselves. Could this be one of our weaknesses as individuals, families or as nations?
Release The Control
In our research, we studied the enzyme in two conditions:
- In vitro (a controlled test-tube environment), and
- In vivo (its natural environment).
To our surprise, the enzyme performed new, unexpected functions only in its natural environment, under stress.
Isn’t that how life works sometimes?
When things are comfortable and predictable, we may not grow. But under pressure, when we surrender control and our old mindsets, we discover strengths we never knew we had.
“My grace is sufficient for you, for My power is made perfect in weakness.” (2 Corinthians 12:9 NIV).
When we have jobs and government benefits we are operating in a “controlled environment.” But when those things are taken away and we find ourselves in the “natural environment,” as responsible people, will we not find our way, discovering strengths along the way?
Do we know our strengths and weaknesses, as individuals, as a nation?
Are We Living Up to Who God Says We Are?
In 1 Peter 2:9 the Word says that we are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession. Yet, are we truly living in the fullness of those titles, the real titles we should be aiming for? Or have we allowed unexpected situations, challenges, and detours to cause us to forfeit our dreams, promises, and divine destinations?
I remember laughing when my professor kept speaking of new potential functions for that small enzyme, until the data proved him right. It reminded me of how God sees more in us than we see in ourselves.
Sometimes our bosses, parents, spouses, family see the potential in us and so they put pressure on us, using even mean words. They are there to get us to the next level. Could it be that natural disasters too are there to teach us something about ourselves on a national level?
We are multi-functional, capable of more than we imagine. However, we often underestimate ourselves because of fear, failure, or comparison. Sometimes we harbor unforgiveness, bitterness, and malice which grieves the Holy Spirit.
We don’t always need a new Word from God, sometimes, we just need to believe the Word He already spoke.
“By this all people will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.” (John 13:35 ESV)
Are we disciples of Christ? Love is the defining function of every believer. Just as an enzyme’s purpose reveals its identity, our love reveals ours.
Are we loving one another or just ourselves (even behind the goodness we show)?
Final Reflection: Tested but Trusting
During my PhD, we tested enzymes to validate that they are what the literature claims them to be. In faith, God allows testing — refining, purifying, sanctifying — to reveal our true identity, just as the Word says.
I learned that pressure doesn’t destroy identity; it reveals it. And the same is true in life, trials are not there to destroy us, they uncover who we were created to be.
“Being confident of this, that He who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 1:6 NIV)
We are all in a divine process of characterization, being refined, purified, sanctified, and made ready to reflect God’s workmanship.
So whether we’re in a season of waiting, testing, or discovery: let us try to let go of the control and old mindsets, trust God in the process, and believe that the tests are revealing who we are becoming.
He’s not just the Creator of the universe, He’s the Scientist in the lab of life, carefully shaping us into His masterpiece.
Now you
- Reflect on where God might be refining you today.
- Write down one lesson from your current “lab of life.”
- Pray for grace to surrender and trust His process.
Share your reflection with someone who needs encouragement, you never know how your story might strengthen their faith.
With grace and growth,
Sanchia and team.
If you would like to get in touch with us to learn more about your shape, or further discussion on this topic, please reach out to us at [email protected] or sign up here.
Audio Version
Listen to our podcast Be Still And Grow, Episode 4: Refined By The Process.