<\/p>\n
Nick Shakoour, who has inspired millions through his portrayal of Zebedee in \u201cThe Chosen,\u201d is openly sharing his incredible faith journey.<\/p>\n
Shakoour told CBN News his new book, Transformer: Awakening From A Spiritual Coma \u2013 A Nick Shakoour Autobiography<\/em>\u00a0\u2014 which details his path “out of darkness and into Christianity\u201d \u2014 is a \u201ctribute to God.\u201d<\/p>\n The text recaps his personal story, tackling everything from Shakoour immigrating to America from Lebanon to his radical encounter with Jesus \u2014 a stunning, spiritual moment that led him to faith.<\/p>\n Shakoour, whose encounter with Christ came after he started working on \u201cThe Chosen,\u201d shared the details behind what unfolded, explaining how new Christian friends made during filming helped lead him into a true walk with the Lord.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve always said \u2018The Chosen\u2019 was a conduit that God used to get me over to Texas,\u201d he said. \u201cLo and behold, I didn\u2019t think it would lead to a church conference invite with friends that I started to make with the construction crew, and then there are friends outside of the production.\u201d<\/p>\n Shakoour continued, \u201cI started running in all these, I\u2019d say, believer circles. So, it amalgamated to the Holy Spirit encounter. But so much had to happen, as I talk about in the book, starting with my grandfather, Nicholas, who was a Greek Orthodox \u2026 spirit-filled priest.\u201d<\/p>\n The actor explains all of this in Transformer: Awakening From A Spiritual Coma \u2013 A Nick Shakoour Autobiography<\/em>,\u00a0but it\u2019s his radical encounter with the Lord that is perhaps most eye-catching.<\/p>\n \u201cIt happened after the church conference was over,\u201d Shakoour said. \u201cWe were in an empty arena. It was just me and pretty much nine people praying over me.\u201d<\/p>\n The moment came at a key time in Shakoour\u2019s life, as the actor admitted he had reached a \u201cclimax of not understanding the point to life.\u201d Though he wasn\u2019t suicidal, he was deeply struggling and knew he needed something more.<\/p>\n \u201cFor some reason, I was thirsty to know who God really was,\u201d he said. \u201cI was growing tired of people telling me to refer to Scripture.\u201d<\/p>\n The Bible had started speaking to him at the time, but Shakoour still had questions.<\/p>\n Listen to the latest\u00a0episode\u00a0of \u201cQuick Start\u201d\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n \u201c[I was like], if this is real, like, where is God? Where is God?’\u201d he recalled. \u201cOn the way to the conference, I actually had a physically tangible, I guess you could call it low energy demonic attack \u2026 where I felt like I was being swallowed alive and my body froze.\u201d<\/p>\n Shakoour said he ended up terrified by the time he reached the conference, finding himself \u201ccompletely broken, and disarmed, and desperate.\u201d He said he had no idea where life would be heading after the conference, but ended up leaving totally transformed.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was unbelievable because I just thought, \u2018OK, they\u2019re they\u2019re coming in. They\u2019re going to pray over me. Great. Good luck with that,’\u201d he said. \u201cAnd the next thing I knew, 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.\u201d<\/p>\n Shakoour continued, \u201cA force outside of me was growing larger, and larger, and larger as my body was just almost shivering \u2026 quivering in fear. \u2026 And, as that was happening.\u201d<\/p>\n He believes he was experiencing the presence of God in those moments, describing the profound impact it had on his body as the group continued laying hands on him and praying. Shakoour believes it was the moment he received the Holy Spirit.<\/p>\n Initially, he was confused.<\/p>\n \u201cI said, \u2018Yeah, but I thought that happened when my grandfather baptized me,’\u201d he said. \u201cAnd the intercessor there said, \u2018Well, that may have been resting on you when your grandfather baptized you, but He\u2019s resting in you.’\u201d<\/p>\n Shakoour then asked if the experience he had was the reason so many of those who prayed over him were \u201cso crazy about Jesus.\u201d He now understood the power in Christ\u2019s presence.<\/p>\n \u201cIt really changed everything,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n He\u2019s hoping Transformer: Awakening From A Spiritual Coma \u2013 A Nick Shakoour Autobiography<\/em>\u00a0\u2014 a book written in the spirit and excitement of a comic book \u2014 will inspire people to look deeper at his journey and to discover the power they, too, can find in the Lord.<\/p>\n Learn more about his story above.<\/p>\n ***Please sign up for\u00a0<\/strong><\/em>CBN\u00a0<\/em><\/strong>newsletters<\/strong><\/em>\u00a0to ensure you receive<\/strong><\/em>\u00a0the latest news.***<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Nick Shakoour, who has inspired millions through his portrayal of Zebedee in \u201cThe Chosen,\u201d is openly sharing his incredible faith journey. Shakoour told CBN News his new book, Transformer: Awakening From A Spiritual Coma \u2013 A Nick Shakoour Autobiography\u00a0\u2014 which details his path “out of darkness and into Christianity\u201d \u2014 is a \u201ctribute to God.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":28483,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[851,817,2917,1701,3701,182,1221,3495,3777],"class_list":{"0":"post-28482","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-jesus","8":"tag-actors","9":"tag-attack","10":"tag-belief","11":"tag-demonic","12":"tag-encounter","13":"tag-god","14":"tag-hollywood","15":"tag-insane","16":"tag-shock"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28482","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=28482"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28482\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/28483"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=28482"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=28482"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=28482"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}