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There's an old saying that says, "When the student is ready the master will appear." The idea is that the student must incorporate everything they've already been taught into their life before the next master will come to teach them the next steps. We see something similar in the Word, where Jesus opens the eyes of Peter, James and John to a new spiritual reality, but now they have a difficult time trying to synthesize what they've just been taught with everything they've always believed. (note - Todd offers his apologies for an error; where he mistakenly says in this audio that the "spiritual serves the natural"... he meant to say, "natural serves the spiritual.")

(References: Apocalypse Explained 64, 405; Arcana Coelestia 6394; Matthew 17:14-20, 17:24-27)

2898. The fact that the people of that Church possessed prophetical sayings which in the internal sense had reference to the Lord and His kingdom becomes clear not only from the places quoted above but also from the prophetical words spoken by Balaam, who came from Syria. His words that are recorded in Moses, in Numbers 23:7-10, 18-25; 24:3-10, 15-25, were dictated in a style similar to all the other prophetical sayings in the Word, and plainly foretell the Coming of the Lord in the following words,

I see Him, but not now; I behold Him but not near. A star will come out of Jacob, and a sceptre will rise up out of Israel, and crush the corners of Moab, and destroy all the sons of Sheth. Numbers 24:17.

These prophetical words are likewise called Utterances, for the same term is used to describe those prophetical words in Numbers 23:7, 18; 24:3, 15, 20.