TURN and LIVE

To turn is to go round, to cause to move in a circle around a fixed point or line. To change the direction in which you are facing or moving. To cause to become, change into, or come to be something.

It's the word used by the LORD in Ezekiel in Chapter 18:30-32.  

Ezekiel 18:31,32 (NKJV)

 ³¹ Cast away from you all the transgressions which you have committed, and get yourselves a new heart and a new spirit. For why should you die, O house of Israel?  

 ³² For I have no pleasure in the death of one who dies,” says the Lord God. “Therefore turn and live!”

To Turn results in Living. The Lord uses this analogy to say to His people that his desire is that none die. Therefore turn to Him and you will Live.  Turning requires a decision, action, energy and commitment. A change and a choice. Sin causes a controversy between God and man. It separates us, defiles us and results in death. It is our choice to live or die. The decision is ours and one the Father cannot make for us. He is constantly at work to encourage us to choose Him and influence our decision to choose life. It takes a choice, then an action to walk out the choice we make. 

Deuteronomy 30:19 (NKJV)

¹⁹ I call heaven and earth as witnesses today against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing; therefore choose life, that both you and your descendants may live."

The heart of God expressed through Ezekiel 18 is that none would die. He has no pleasure in death. Wherever and whatever in our lives is leading to death, this is not his hand or outworking. He is a God of LIFE! For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal Life. To choose LIFE is to choose HIM. To Choose LIFE is to choose JESUS. If we turn to HIM and make HIM the fixed point on which we move; if we allow Him to change us to be more like Jesus then this reflection will bring life. This choice will bring hope to live life as He intends.  

Deuteronomy 30:6 (NKJV) ⁶ And the Lord your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your descendants, to love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, that you may live.

Turning requires a circumcision, a cutting off of what is not necessary for us to live in the fullness of His purposes and plans. "For I have no pleasure in the death of one who dies", says the Lord. He has no pleasure in the death of desires, plans, hopes and dreams. His nature is life giving and His desire is to breathe life to everything in us; that we should live and not die.

To  LIVE we must TURN. However....

To TURN we must die to something.

This is a death that brings us life. It's a death that leads us to life because in it we let go of what is stopping His life flowing in us and through us. He has no pleasure in the one who dies. He does however, have  great pleasure in the one who turns from the things that bring death; that so easily entangle us, hinder us and prevent us from living in the fullness of all He has for us.

To TURN and LIVE will bring death to something. This death will brings life just as the Heavenly Father called His son to die so that we might live, To Turn requires putting things to death, so that we can live and not die.

He has no pleasure in the death of one who dies, therefore TURN and LIVE.