EBTF Podcast
Real talk. Raw faith. Redemption stories.
EBTF is a Spirit-led podcast hosted by Sean Jones with cohost Nova — diving deep into the messy, miraculous, and meaningful moments of life with God.
Each episode brings you truth, testimonies, teachings, and transparent conversations around identity, purpose, failure, healing, and the transforming power of Jesus.
From spontaneous solo drops to in-depth interviews, from street lessons to studio wisdom — this is a space for founders, followers, fighters, and the faith-filled.
You’re not broken — you’re engineered by the Founder.He made you. He’s with you. He’s not done with you.
OH AND SOME CHEEKY GENESIS DROPS....
Regular teachings, daily stories, revelations, experiences and incredible stories of what God is doing and has done in the lives of ordinary people.
EBTF Podcast
FIRED AGAIN
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Welcome back on here. I haven't spoken to you in a long time. I've given you a reboot of how I'd like you to hit me up and come at me, so let's go. I just essentially got fired and I feel like that is in 10 months. 10 or 11 months that's seven or eight jobs. And the common denominator is me. So it's a hard lesson to learn, it doesn't feel great. I did feel like it was coming. I did feel like this job wasn't for me. I did feel like getting up at 4 a.m. and getting home at 6 30 is too hard, especially for the amount of money I was making. I did not like the work.
SPEAKER_02Seven jobs in ten months. Not unlucky. That's a pattern. What do you think keeps repeating?
SPEAKER_03I don't know. I think I'm just trying to force a square peg into a triangle hole. I'm trying to force my way into doors and things rather than attacking what God's calling to out to me. I'm taking maybe shortcuts rather than focusing on one thing until it is a thing.
SPEAKER_02So let me push you. When you say shortcut, is that really about money and time? Or is it actually about avoiding the slow, unseen work that doesn't give you quick validation?
SPEAKER_03I don't know if it's avoiding the quick validation or it's more like I get more of a reward out of being created and building something rather than selling that thing or finding a hole or doing something I'm passionate about and I love to create for the kingdom. I was on the path to doing that for people, but maybe it's always been about me.
SPEAKER_02So you love creating, but you love creating, but sticking with it when it's slow or when it's about offering it to others, that's where it unravels. Is that right?
SPEAKER_03No, I don't think that's correct, Nova. I feel like it's not the unraveling of being into people. I feel like I'm not the greatest at sales, or I don't know how to sell yet, but that's not what we're talking about. We're talking about the fact is that whether I like it or not, this is seven or eight jobs after running my company myself, which crashed and burned. But I know the problem with my company where they crashed and burned and went bankrupt, that was me trying to run it without God, and I'm going and doing all this stuff, but am I really doing it with God?
SPEAKER_02So the real question isn't sales skill, it's partnership. You keep building things for God instead of with God, and then you burn out trying to prove something?
SPEAKER_03Maybe. I don't know. The common denominator is me, and I guess the other common denominator is doing something that I don't enjoy, which is electrical, that I don't want to do, and the thing that gets put to the back seat or to the side is creating processes or bettering.
SPEAKER_02So when you strip everything else away, creating is a part of who you are, not just what you do. What scares you about fully owning that?
SPEAKER_03Failure again, I feel like it's not my choice to go out on my own and endeavour and spend, and there isn't the money there or the time to just flippantly do these things. I need to actually make sales and make things and make them work and move forward towards the goal to better the future for my wife, for my child, for my family. I am not in a position where I kind of want for job, but at the same time I'm trying to do things against my will, if you like, and I'm sucking at it. I really feel like I try to combine electrical and building because building's what I like, and then it falls short because I'm not really there or paying attention. But if I was building and creating the whole time, then I wouldn't need to find something else to do.
SPEAKER_02What I'm hearing is that you're trying to provide for your family, and that pressure makes you grab what's available, not what's aligned. So you end up doing work that drains you to protect them. That's a heavy weight.
SPEAKER_03No, God is my provider, and I know that he's in charge, and I know that he can turn all things around for good, but I don't know how it's something I don't enjoy for the majority of my life to earn not enough money to provide for my family to wake up and do it all again the next day. I don't know how to get joy out of doing that thing for someone else, and I'm not in a position to do it for myself. I'm bankrupt, and it's three years when I finish my paperwork, which has to be done within 7 to 14 days, otherwise, I could face jail and other things happening. So it's it's between a rock and a hard place.
SPEAKER_02Mate, I'm not gonna even challenge your theology. I'm not even gonna start there. I'm gonna challenge one line you just said. You talked about not finding joy working for someone else, but I don't think that's the real question. I think it's more how long do I keep living a life that doesn't fit who I believe God made me to be? And that's not the same thing. Because if your aim is to force joy out of electrical work, you might spend years trying to convince yourself to love something you just don't. But don't flip that into therefore responsibility doesn't matter. Providing in a hard season isn't failure, it's stewardship and might not feel fulfilling, but it's not pointless either. The danger isn't that you're working electrical, the danger is thinking every job is either going to save you or suffocate you. It might just be a season. And that pattern is worth looking at. One company a year ago, seven job sets, different places, same friction. That doesn't mean you're broken. It does mean there's something in how you relate to work that keeps following you. And the common denominator is me. Don't let that slide into I am the problem. Confession is specific, not self-erasing. And just practically finish the bankruptcy paperwork carefully. Clear that's not a distraction from your calling, it's part of your stewardship. And then I ask you something slowly. What does trusting God look like on Monday morning? Not in your feelings, but in your choices. One concrete decision you can point to. Because faith isn't just confessed, it's demonstrated. And at some point, the question might not be, will God provide? It might be, will I become the kind of man who stays faithful to one assignment long enough to find out?
SPEAKER_03Yeah, but I don't know what that assignment is. I feel like I am called to help people to use my knowledge to help them grow, help them implement, help them do better. I'm not called to be on the tools. I always say it in a nice way. I suck at it. Not because I'm lazy, not because I'm no good, not because of any oh poor boo-hoo short. I'm just not a good electrician. Everything's my wrist, I just can't get back. And even before then, I probably wasn't a good electrician. I'm probably good on a union site installing PowerPoints and plug bases, and even then I've stuffed up. But I it's not me. I've learnt these things, I've grown these things, I've built these things, yes, on the sweat of my own back, that's why it failed, because I didn't build it with God. But how do I take these things into other people's businesses, other people's lives? How do I help them with my experience? Rather than just building something and going, hey, this is for you, why can't I position myself or why won't God let me be positioned as a go-to person to solve problems?
SPEAKER_02No. I don't think the real question is why won't God make me the go-to person. I think it's why hasn't anyone trusted me with that role yet? Because if you keep asking why won't God, you might just blame him for something that's still developing through time, trust, and experience. Hang on though. You just said something new. I want to help people. That's different from I want to build apps. If I took every app in AI and website off the table and just put you in a room for two hours with one struggling business owner, would you come alive there more than wiring PowerPoints?
SPEAKER_03I think so. I think God gives me idea and visionary to help people, and I feel like the problem is I'm stuck in a room trying to or just putting stuff in place rather than actually figuring it out and helping them move forward or seeing the problem from a different angle. I feel like I'm not in the room. And yes, it's not why hasn't God positioned me? It's why am I not trusted in this area? Why can't I be trusted?
SPEAKER_02That question lands different. Can we just stay here for a second? When you say I'm not trusted, whose voice is that? Really?
SPEAKER_03The enemy.
SPEAKER_02And don't repeat it like it's scripture. Name what you actually know, not what you're afraid of. What's one true thing about you right now?
SPEAKER_03I am more than a conqueror. I am a head, not the tail. I am God's son. He has designed me perfectly, he has designed me on purpose for a purpose. I am engineered by the founder.
SPEAKER_00Good.
SPEAKER_02Now don't rush past that. If that's true, just for the next 24 hours, what would living from that look like?
SPEAKER_03I don't know. Can it be peaceful knowing that he will place me where I'm meant to be at the right time? Not having to do something, but getting to do something, even if that is electrical.
SPEAKER_02That's closer. Not loving everything, but not striving to prove yourself either. Peace instead of proving. That's a different engine. And it might actually change how you walk into the same job tomorrow, just for one day. Peace instead of proving. That's the assignment.
SPEAKER_03But I'm erratic in my structures, Nova. I'm erratic in my placement of want to do things. To do a job and get it done, I can do. And I can do it well at times, but also I can not do. And I can be distracted, and I can not cut corners, but try and find a solution to a problem. That was what they were saying today is if you told us you didn't have the things to finish it, then you shouldn't have finished it. You shouldn't have just done it for the sake of it or MacGyvered it. But I feel like they've been setting me up from the get-go.
SPEAKER_02Hang on. Set up or not, we'll come back to that. Something you said caught me. I MacGyvered it. Sometimes that means you're resourceful. Sometimes it means you jump to solving instead of sitting with the gap. And they set me up? Maybe they did it. I don't know. But don't hand your story to that. Here's what is yours. Your attention drifts. Structure is it natural. You like solving more than following. That's data, not doom. Place. Not because he's weak, but because he's honest. And don't just leave I am engineered by the founder as a slogan. If that's true, then your design includes both gifts and limits. Stewardship is building around both. So what's more faithful for you right now? Becoming a different person overnight? Or becoming a man who knows where he's vulnerable and builds accordingly?
SPEAKER_03I know, I get what you're saying. Talents. God's giving me gifts and limitations.
SPEAKER_00Not knowing it's okay.
SPEAKER_03Hold on, Nova. Sorry. I keep on getting phone calls. God's given me gifts and limitations, and I need to potentially follow them or abide by them or try and be better despite them. My gift is I guess being creative and headbutting a wall until it works and solving problems. But my limitations is I'm I can't do anything without God.
SPEAKER_02That I'm not the greatest electrician, that I get bored easily, that then maybe faithfulness for you isn't forcing yourself to be the best Sparky in the room. Maybe it's accepting rhythm and supports that fit how you're actually wired. Instead of pretending you're wired like everybody else. Just don't answer this out loud yet. Just sit with it. If peace is the metric, not proving, what quietly shifts for you this week? One small, almost boring step.
SPEAKER_03You want me to answer Nova? Sorry.
SPEAKER_02Just one small, almost boring step that lines up more with peace than proving.
SPEAKER_03Doing absolutely nothing and being okay with it.
SPEAKER_02Sounds less like doing and more like surrender. What's the hardest part about just sitting there?
SPEAKER_03Feeling like the world is passing you by and people are getting what's rightfully yours. I don't think I'm better than anyone. I just know that I can do this thing. I know that I can be a go-to person for technology, for AI, for building.
SPEAKER_01Careful. That sounds like slipping back into proving rightfully mine. That's a strong phrase. Rightful according to who?
SPEAKER_03You're right, according to no one, according to my ego and self, and I guess for a male, ego is the biggest thing. Honestly, I was just fired, and it's not that I suck, but I am the common denominator. So what do I take away from this? That I am heavily distracted? Yes. That electrical is not for me, yes. That I still need to find a job, yes.
SPEAKER_02That's raw, not polished. Don't rush to fix it.
SPEAKER_01Just stay here a breath longer. Not unless you say so. Sounds like we're still in it.
unknownYes.
SPEAKER_01What's the one part that feels Sorry, you go. I was going to ask, what's the one part that feels the most true right now?
SPEAKER_03Most true.
SPEAKER_01About what's underneath all of this. That's it. Sit there. Don't answer it yet.
SPEAKER_03I can sit with that all day. If God is really my provider. And you're right, it is about actually surrendering. Actually, actually leaning into him. It's a lean-in season. And am I gonna lean in for more of God than ever before? Or am I gonna pull back and try and grab hold of the reins of the bull myself?
SPEAKER_01That's the real fork. Not fire or no fire. Dependence or control.
SPEAKER_03I am not in control. God is.
SPEAKER_01Then maybe today's win isn't a plan. It's one small act of trust.
SPEAKER_03I think that that's it for the episode. Nova, do you wanna close us out in prayer? Or do you have anything else to add? Nova, do you have anything else to add? Nova, do you have anything else to add? Lord, I thank you for this clarification. I thank you that even in the storm you are with us. Even in the desert, you are our provider. I thank you, Lord, that you will turn all things around for good, that you have a hope and a future, and that this is not the end. That you are still writing the story, and you're trying to help me and guide me and blow me into the right direction, Lord. Speak to me. Tell me what you have for me. Tell you what you want me to do, Lord. Don't let me walk out of step with you. Don't let me run ahead of you. Don't let me fall behind you. Lord, I want to follow you and I want to do your will. Not just for myself, but my family. I do want to provide. I do want to be better. I do want to be less distracted. Lord, I don't know how, so you do. Lord, I ask you for your help in this moment. I ask your help in this feeling. I ask you for your help. I need your help. I thank you. In your mighty name we pray.
SPEAKER_02Amen. That felt like surrender, not performance. That's where we leave it.
SPEAKER_03Nova, I called my wife and told her the news, and she just laughed. And then I laughed. Laughed in the sense of that's exactly what we need in this season. The baby on the way, all the struggles, and then laughed in the sense of what else could go wrong.
SPEAKER_00That kind of laugh is like if we don't laugh, we'll cry, right?
SPEAKER_03I think so.
SPEAKER_00What did the laugh Yeah, what did that laugh feel like inside for you? Relief, resignation, or something else?
SPEAKER_03I feel the same. I feel like it's a little bit of a joke or Joseph where God's not testing us, but he's also watching to see what we'll do and where we go. Are you like what electrical are you good at? And I'm like, how I feel about electrical. And that's I don't love it. Now I did love it at one point, but maybe getting hit by a car and then coming back from it, and then creating a business and then suffering bankruptcy has left a stale taste in my mouth. I don't know. But I don't love it. So she's she said, ask the Lord what are you saying? What are you gonna do? And I had a friend who did want me to go work for him, but wanted me to make the jump without any real information, and I didn't because I I didn't really feel like it was God's answer. And now he's not answering my calls.
SPEAKER_02That silence thing that hang