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By Gavin Boyle
Nick Shakoour, who plays Zebedee on THE CHOSEN, shared the radical encounter he had with the Lord that transformed his life and revived his stagnant faith.
“I’ve always said THE CHOSEN was a conduit that God used to get me over to Texas,” Shakoour said. “I started running in all these, I’d say, believer circles. So, it amalgamated to the Holy Spirit encounter. But so much had to happen.”
The believers that Shakoour fell into friendships with invited him to a Christian conference. It was there that he met with the Lord and had his faith supercharged.
Related: Brandon Potter Grateful for THE CHOSEN Set Experience
“On the way to the conference, I actually had a physically tangible, I guess you could call it low energy demonic attack…where I felt like I was being swallowed alive and my body froze,” he recalled, explaining that after the conference his friends asked if they could pray for him.
“The next thing I know, when they placed their hands over me and they were praying in what they called speaking in tongues, all I know is what happened was on a cellular level, my cells started to vibrate, and it was like I was in a massage chair, man. Like, it was insane,” Shakoour recalled. “A force outside of me was growing larger, and larger, and larger as my body was just almost shivering…quivering in fear…as that was happening.”
His life completely transformed after that moment, and Shakoour now uses his platform to share how God changed his life and encourages others to not allow themselves to fall into the spiritual complacency that had defined his life.
Shakoour is one of numerous actors whose faith has been radically transformed because of their involvement with THE CHOSEN. Giovanni Cairo, for example, previously shared how working on the show made his faith real and caused him to take his relationship with the Lord much more seriously.
“Growing up, the faith just seemed like it was something you just did,” Cairo said last November when explaining how THE CHOSEN has made his faith real. “You go through first Communion and confirmation, and then you go to church on the weekends. But I never felt like I had a relationship with Christ.”
The show “has made me want to be a better person,” he continued. “My character that I portray, Thaddeus, is a peacemaker, and he really tries to see people for who they are and really wants people to feel seen. That is the kind of friend I always wanted and always wanted to be growing up. So, what I’ve really learned is to really love people for who they are.”
Praise the Lord for the way He has used THE CHOSEN to impact so many lives — not only those who watch the show, but also those who are involved in bringing it to life.
Read Next: Dallas Jenkins Explains How God Used His Past to Prepare Him for THE CHOSEN
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