Incorporating the New
By Todd Beiswenger
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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)
Arcana Coelestia #9546
9546. 'Towards My faces unceasingly' means the Lord's presence thereby with peace and heavenly joy flowing from His mercy. This is clear from the meaning of Jehovah's or the Lord's 'faces' as all the blessings attributable to Divine Love or to mercy, such as innocence, peace, or joy, thus heaven itself with those who receive them. For when the word 'faces' refers to people on earth and angels in heaven it means interior things, which are attributes of the will and consequently of the understanding, and so which are attributes of love and consequently of faith, see 1999, 2434, 3527, 3573, 4066, 4796, 4798, 5102, 5165, 5168, 5585, 5592, 6604, 6848, 6849, 9306; and from this it may be recognized that when the word 'faces' refers to Jehovah or the Lord it means those things which are the attributes of Divine Love or of mercy, thus all celestial good, 222, 223, 5585, 9306.