Actor Nick Shakoour credited the hit faith-based series “The Chosen” for his conversion to Christianity.
In an interview with Christian Headlines, Shakoour, who portrays Zebedee, the father of James and John, in “The Chosen”, spoke about the “major change” the show has had on his life.
Although he grew up in a Christian home, he wasn’t a Christian himself. However, Shakoour said that changed after meeting “behind-the-scenes people who are Believers” and “their friends and in running in their circles and starting to seek out God through them.”
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“And it all accumulated to last September, where I was invited to a church conference where the next thing I knew a bunch of people surrounded me … and laid their hands over me and started praying,” Shakoour explained. “And I was able to experience what it was like to experience the Holy Spirit going from outside to in and it set my body into flames.”
He added, “It felt like my organs were all being burned away and I was being vibrated and microwaved at the same time. That’s the best way I can describe it.”
2 Corinthians 5:17 says, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.”
Shakoour proceeded to get emotional as he recalled the life-changing experience, per Christian Headlines.
“I literally felt like I was given a brand new body – brand new everything,” he said.
He continued:
“But since that’s happened, I don’t have the sensation of hunger, and I don’t get thirsty. So now I’ve got to go out of my way to remind myself to drink water and eat – and I [formerly] was someone that would [eat] six meals a day … for the workouts. And it’s like God came and went, ‘No, you don’t need all those six meals.”
“My mind is blown by what’s happened. So the show’s been a blessing and I’ve loved acting in it. But it’s definitely been the conduit that I can’t help but talk about,” he expressed.
Miraculously, Shakoour revealed that the lead construction worker on the set prayed for one of the actor’s salvation. He also discovered that the construction team wrote Bible verses on the wall of the sets before they were painted over — and the first Bible verse was painted in the set of Zebedee’s home.
“He said, ‘We got together as a construction crew, and we prayed for one of the actors to receive the Holy Spirit, and [that the actor] would become the seed that would spread the gospel,'” he reminisced. “It’s been one mind-blowing thing after the next with what’s been happening in and outside of the show.”
In an interview with The Christian Post in June 2023, Dallas Jenkins, the show’s creator, revealed why he hires unbelievers.
“We are not a church in which all of our employees are going to fit under one particular mission statement, one particular belief system,” he explained. “We are a for-profit company; we’re a media company; we’re a public company. We have investors and all of that.”
Jenkins later added, “When we hire someone to work for us, our No. 1 objective is who is the best person for this job? We made a decision from the beginning that our standards is going to be ‘will you work hard?'”
