In this message I would like to give an additional word on 2 Samuel 7:12-14a. Many readers of the Bible do not understand the significance of these verses. As we will see, these verses refer to the very thing that God intends to build up in His elect. Thus, my burden in this message is to point out that, as a prophecy given in the way of typology, these verses speak of God's building Himself in Christ into our being through the metabolic process of transformation.
The New Testament clearly reveals that there are two periods in the ministry of the Lord Jesus. First, He ministered on the earth until He died on the cross for our sins to terminate the old creation. Then He rose in resurrection and ascended to the heavens. There He became and still is the Minister of all the heavenly things to us. As such a Minister, He is not in the flesh, for in resurrection He as the last Adam became a life-giving Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45b). Now He is not only our Redeemer and Savior; He is also the all-inclusive, life-giving Spirit. For this reason, 2 Corinthians 3:17 declares, "The Lord is the Spirit."
Because Christ is the Spirit, He can dwell in us, and we can fellowship with Him in our spirit. We should look to Him, behold Him, and reflect Him, opening to Him the three layers of our being—our spirit, our heart, and our mouth. Then we will spontaneously reflect Him as a mirror and gradually be transformed into His glorious image from glory to glory. As a result, we will have the same image that He has. This is altogether from the Lord, the Spirit (2 Cor. 3:18).
In this way the Lord Jesus makes us like Him and even makes us Him. When we look unto Him, He impresses Himself into our being. Then we become His reflection. What we reflect is nothing less than the Lord Himself. This is what the New Testament calls transformation.