Rest, Capacity, and the Realm Within

By Stephanie Stanfill

 _ . _

Tonight I want to share something deeply personal, but also something I believe is not just for me — it is for the Body.

This is about rest, intimacy, certainty in God, and the capacity of Christ within us.

First, I will share an engagement Dr. Ron and I had today that was built for the rest of this engagement which had been a private one.

I began describing what I was seeing, “When I stepped up to the Help Desk, behind it is like an ocean scene on a canvas, but it reminds me of a giant portrait, like what Wendy saw, but it's an ocean scene without a boat or anything, but the waves are painted very close to the edges of the painting, but it looks dark. I'm going to ring the bell on the desk. What am I supposed to do? So, I'm going to go up to the painting and I'm going to observe it. I heard someone say, ‘Observe.’ Now the scene has come alive.

“I can't tell if this is Jonah when they were going to throw him overboard because of the storm or if this was John. I'm watching an interactive scene of this storm and I do now see a boat. I didn't see it at first because the wave was so high, hiding it. Now that the movie in this portrait has started, what's hilarious is every now and then I get splashed with a little bit of water, even though I'm watching it standing outside of the painting. Someone has come up to my right. Hello, what am I watching? What am I supposed to understand? And who are you? You feel new.”

This person said, “I am new.” (wink, wink)

“Okay. It's nice to meet you. May I have your name? Or who are you to this engagement?”

The person responded, “Can you imagine being on a boat in a violent storm knowing you have to go overboard?”

“So, is this is about Jonah?” I asked.

Silence.

I went on, “What question am I to ask you? I'm looking at my feet and I can see drops of water at my feet and I'm looking back up at this scene and there's a boat and there’s a violent storm and I am seeing it like a movie. It seems very, very frightening and this person beside me, I am trying to discern you. Oh, you are a young version of John the Revelator! I realize now that you look very young.”

Young John answered, “There's a reason for that.”

“Okay.”

He continued, “When I was a young man, I read the story of Jonah.”

“Was Jonah before John? He read the story.” I asked.

Ron interjected, “Jonah's definitely older than John.”

I responded, “This is young John talking to me about reading the story of Jonah.”

“I had to give your soul a minute,” Young John explained.

“Thank you. I thought I was okay.”

“You are,” he answered.

“I just had to adjust to the story in my soul from Jonah to John. Okay. So, you read about this story because the original question is: ‘Can you imagine knowing you have to be thrown overboard in a storm like this?’ I can't. I would be terrified.”

He replied, “What do you think my thoughts were, originally, in the storm that I was in?”

“Have you thought about this story?” I asked.

“I did.”

“Yes, but John, in your story, you knew everyone would be saved.”

“How did you think I came to that conclusion?”

“You tell me, John.”

“Because I asked. Intimacy truly is about asking while in the storm. There is clarity there in the storm,” he explained.

“John, it's been my experience, up until now, that in the storms of life, whatever it is you're going through, it's hard to be intimate or hear because of fear.”

“What have you just learned about fear? He knows our future so why would we be afraid when He's already in our future? How do you think I knew we would all be saved?”

“Did he tell you or show you the future?” I asked.

“He did. He showed me, ME, on the island. So, the conclusion I came to is we would all be saved. He is in the future, your future.”

“Yes, John. And he's eating an apple. We're starting the eating thing again. That's hysterical. And we're walking away from the painting and he's still young. He has dark hair.” I described.

Young John spoke again, “But my first thought was the story of Jonah while I myself was on that boat, in that storm.”

“I guess we forget that you had everyday lives and thoughts too. We forget. I see that we're sitting down at a table and he has a cup of coffee or tea and he put the apple down in front of me.”

He inquired, “Have you not conquered fear?”

I countered, “I know this is a trick question because, I can tell, John. He wants me to go back and read this one part, which I'll have to find because it's such a layered piece. Well, I guess I know what else we're talking about tonight.

“Okay. Here it is. ‘Since I AM the way, and I AM, the truth, then any rejection, lies or common matters would come into me since I already destroyed that at the cross. Your realms don't have the capacity to carry those, but I do. If I AM the way, and I AM, the truth and the life, then what do you have to fear?’ So John, I know He conquered it and we're trying to.”

Young John responded, “Why was your first inclination in seeing the storm, fear?”

“I didn’t realize I looked at it as fear, John. Although I see now that it was because trepidation was the first thing I felt. I thought, why am I seeing a storm? Because I've associated seeing storms as evil or bad or that something that will hurt.”

“If Jonah can be thrown overboard in a massive storm like this and survive, what of you? If God is for you, then who can be against you? So, what do you have to fear again?”

“Nothing,” I replied.

He clarified, “If I was in a storm like the one you just saw and I survived, then what do you have to fear again?”

“Nothing.” He picked up the apple and he bit it again, and he put it in front of me again.

Young John explained, “Fear came in the garden. Fear left at the cross.”

“I recognize it was conquered at the cross. It's what The Father said in my encounter.”

The next day I had an encounter where I was seated inside of some kind of room that looked like a dirt floor with big large stones and there was a window with bars, so I knew it was some kind of captivity. I couldn't figure out how to get out. And then I realized that it was just me viewing that for a moment and then I was on the other side of that, looking back at the structure. It was a cylindrical looking cell, and I began to see a man inside of there and he had a hold of the bars with his hands, and he was looking out the window where he could hear and see the ocean. And I began to realize he was longing for freedom.

The Lord uttered, “Look at the anguish of this man seeking something he can't touch. He can see, smell, and hear, but no longer touch. He can sit, be present in the atmosphere that he is in, but can only look beyond his captivity. Many are like this man. Many are in a place of their own captivity, wishing and longing to be free. What of you, Stephanie? What do you long for?”

“I long to be in your freedom, in your capacity, and in your will, and in your arms,” I expressed.

The Father answered, “Seek me. See yourself standing on the other side of the place of captivity. Look ahead. Do you feel the wind and hear the waves? Are your feet touching the ground? Capacity is what I AM. You have the capacity to come out of darkness and into the way.”

“So what you're saying, John, is that fear is a place of captivity,” I stated. “We're held captive by it and we're longing to be free of it. I'm beginning to feel water around my feet while we're sitting at this table, and the room is beginning to fill up with water really fast. And he's sitting there very calmly.”

Young John asked, “Are you afraid?”

“No, because I'm here with you. Wait, the water stopped rising.”

He explained, “I mean, Jesus is with you all the time. Why would you be afraid?”

“WHOA. That makes so much sense. The water is filling up really fast, like up to my waist while I'm seated. He’s so calm while it’s happening,” I described.

“Why do we make it so hard, John?” I asked. “Wow. Wow! I feel silly now, John, but what a great way to explain that. He just took a bite of the apple again, and he's smiling really big.”

He spoke, “Think upon these things. As a matter of fact, the next time you feel afraid, come sit back at this table and remember this moment.”

“Wow. You're right. That is the most simple thing I've ever seen in my entire life.

Ron added, “They don't make it as hard as we do.”

“That's the truth. Okay, John, I've really enjoyed you. I know that the whole apple thing is a thing and it has some significant meaning here. He took another bite and he's smiling really big.”

Young John quipped, “Ya think? There isn't anything we can't have.”

“Wow. I feel that was in reference to the apples in the garden,” I answered.

Ron pointed out, “You realize that there was another message in that?”

“What is it?”

“They always say, ‘Eve and Adam ate the apple.’ Well, he was devouring the fear. He was devouring whatever that apple represented.” Ron responded.

I exclaimed, “I love Heaven! Wow! And he just offered me the apple that's already half eaten. Thanks for leaving me a bite.”

“Well, Devour some of it. Devour the fear.” Ron directed.

“John, thank you. I like you at this age, by the way.”

Young John smiled, “I'm ancient.”

“And he just stepped through a portal and he's gone,” I described.

Now, what I am about to share came through conversation with the Father, and I want to present it as a teaching because I believe what He said is instruction for all of us.

There are seasons where we think what we need most is sharper discernment, more answers, more strategy, more clarity, more breakthrough. But the Father began with something very different.

He said, “Discernment doesn’t matter in the big scheme of things if you are unwilling to rest. Rest is key. The Key factor in all of this is belief that I AM the one true God, that you are mine, I AM yours and you are comfortable in that knowledge. If I factor away discernment in the everyday, ordinary, what do you have left? Intimacy. Root yourself in that. Everything else will follow. Beloved, I AM with you. You have it all in you. Explore that with me and I can take you everywhere. Follow your heart (in me). Precious are the days ahead of you. There is not anything you can’t do. Raise the dead, sure but what of that if there is no intimacy? Wreckage, carnality, un-supervision…all death. In light of the world, where are you in all of this? Being drawn into areas not of me—support nothing. Stay within me. Look inside. I AM there. You are the keeper of the flame.”

That is where this begins.

Not with performance.
Not with striving.
Not with trying to become more spiritual.
But with rest.

And my response was honest:

“Okay, Lord. I rest. You created me so you must show me what that looks like. I know I don’t have any idea. Show me how to look inward. I don’t fully comprehend that.”

I think that is where many of us are. We say, “Yes, Lord, I want rest,” but if we are honest, we do not always know how to enter it. We know how to work. We know how to worry. We know how to anticipate. We know how to stay vigilant. But rest in Him? That has to be taught by the Father Himself.

He answered, “Draw unto me like you are now. Focus on my intent, not that of your own. If I AM love, which I AM, where does that abide?”

I asked, “Will you tell me, Lord?”

“Substance is the things hoped for. Can you hope?” He responded.

That question hit me.
Can you hope?

Because hope requires surrender. Hope requires trust. Hope requires a relinquishing of self-protection. So, I answered:

“I take my free will and give it freely to you. You are my only hope.”

Then the Father exposed something deeper: “Uncertainty is the image that holds you back.”

That is a word right there.
Not just fear.
Not just confusion.
But uncertainty is the image that holds you back.

I asked Him, “What do I need to do/be to untangle myself from that?”

He answered with a question, “Can you be uncertain and abide in Me?”

“I want to say yes to that, but I am uncertain.”

Then He said something so profound, “If I was to take all of your uncertainty, bottle it up, where should I send it?”

“You tell me, Lord.”

The Father replied, “Would the abyss be appropriate? That is the camp with which it comes. Uncertainty is oblivious to certainty. Are you uncertain of your future?”

“Yes, Lord.”

Then He asked the question that undid the whole lie: “Why, if I AM already there?”

That is the question for all of us tonight.
Why are we uncertain of a future He is already in?
Why do we fear what He has already entered?
Why do we tremble at days that are already known by the One who calls Himself Alpha and Omega?

I answered, “Fear. I realize its fear of the future. Not knowing what to expect.”

“If your expectations lie in Me, why would there be a need of uncertainty?”

“Wrong teachings, Lord.”

And then the Father brought truth like a plumb line: “I AM the way; you can be certain of that. The way is already there and has already happened. The way of your steps. The way of your finances. The way of your children. The way of your future. I AM THE way. So, what is truth? If I AM the way, and I AM, what about me being the truth? Am I the truth?”

“You are, Lord.”

“Then why would the truth not be in you if I AM in you?”

“It is then, Lord.”

“You are right. The truth is already in you because I AM the truth. If the truth is ‘I AM the way,’ and I AM, then what do you have to fear again?”

My answer was simple: “Nothing, Lord. I don’t have to fear anything.”

That is the turning point.
If He is the way, and He is in you, then the truth is already present.
If the truth is already present, then fear is exposed as illegitimate authority.

Then the Father made it intensely practical: “Exactly, Stephanie. You carry the truth. Don’t run away from it. The truth is in you so let it change those around you. I can bear all things including rejection. You don’t have to. Since I AM the way, and I AM, the truth, then, any rejection would come into me since I already destroyed that at the cross. Your realms don’t have the capacity to carry rejection, or lies, or common matters, but I do. If I AM the way, and I AM, the truth and the life, then what do you have to fear?”

Again, I said, “Nothing, Lord.”

“That’s right. I will bear you up so that you will not even dash your foot against a stone. But you have to want to be borne up. You have to desire the way, which I AM, the truth, which is in you, and the life. All capacity is stored there. My realm, in you. The substance of all things hoped for is Me in you. My capacity—that is larger; My love—that is greater; and My heart—which has swallowed you up. Think upon these things.”

This is where the teaching began to deepen for me:
All capacity is stored there. My realm, in you.

So often we are asking God for something external when He is trying to awaken us to a realm internal.
His realm.
In us.

I asked Him something very practical, something many people wrestle with: “Father, I want this more than anything. I want to understand this. Will you open the realm of my understanding up? Let me walk this out. Let me grasp your realm inside of me. Lord, what do you want me to do or how do you want me to view money right now? It seems off. Since you are capacity in me, how does this supernaturally transfer to a question I have of wealth here and now in this plain?”

“Wealth is a misnomer. (a wrong or inappropriate designation or name. Ex: Greenland. It’s mostly ice) Capacity is what is at stake here. Do you have the capacity to wealth?” The Father asked.

“I must not in my own strength, Lord. But I want to. Will you show me how?”

“I AM the capacity. Tap into that. Do you want a hundred thousand or eight hundred thousand? Your capacity will determine that. But what if your capacity is in My capacity? Would you take one hundred million? A trillion? What capacity would you store that in? what realm of affliction would or could come with that?”

“You tell me Lord, but my first thought would be no realm of affliction if you are the capacity It comes from you and I put it in you.”

Then He showed me where my understanding still broke down. “You see, ‘realm of affliction’ stumped you. Should it? Could it? Remember, capacity is the way, and I AM the way, and I AM the truth which is in you, and the life.”

“I want to operate in this, Lord.”

“Great are your afflictions. But why?”

“I have not understood my capacity, Lord.”

“I AM greater.”

That is it.
That is the answer.
He is greater.

Then I cried out, “You are, Lord. Take me into yourself. I want to be overcome, overwhelmed by you, in you and of you, Lord.”

“Thought provoking as it may be, just step into Me. I AM your capacity. I hold everything, including your stars, your children, your hope, your life, your way, in My very hands. Because, I AM.” The Father responded.

That line—Because I AM—settled something in me.

I directed my spirit, “Spirit, step into His capacity. Soul, you too. Body, be well.”

This was about the expansion of capacity in God.
What can He entrust to a person who is resting in Him, rooted in Him, emptied of self-effort, and fully surrendered to His realm within?

Then on March 13th, 2026, the Father taught me again through a picture.

I said, “I want you, Lord. Your realm in me, I “tap” into that. Your capacity. I see that I am seated. I hear water crashing. Where am I? I feel like I’m inside of some kind of room and don’t know the way out?”

Then I described what I was seeing: “Oh, I am seeing myself inside of a cylinder looking cell. I don’t know how to get out. I can hear the ocean outside. Then I am outside of it, looking back and I see a man is in there. He is looking out the window and there are bars on the one window and he can hear and see the ocean. He longs for that.”

And I asked, “What do you want to teach me or say to me today, El Elyon? My Father. My dad.”

The Father answered, “Look at the anguish of this man. Seeking something he can’t touch. He can see, smell and hear but can no longer touch. He can sit; be present in the atmosphere he is in but can only look beyond his captivity. Many are like this man. Many are in a place of their own captivity, wishing, longing to be free. What of you, Stephanie? What do you long for?”

“I long to be in your freedom. In your capacity. In your will and in your arms.”

“Seek Me. See yourself standing on the other side of the place of captivity. Look ahead. Do you feel the wind, hear the waves? Are your feet touching the ground? Capacity is what I AM. You have the capacity to come out of darkness and into the way.”

I responded, “I see myself looking back at the cell with the bars on the window. I see my hair blowing in the wind. I feel my feet on the sand. Lord, take me. I don’t want to miss this.”

Then came a breakthrough sentence:

“I realize I was trying and always am trying to DO something. When I finally sat down in the sand, the ocean came into me!”

That is the teaching.
When I stopped trying to do, and sat down in surrender, the ocean came into me.

The Father said, “Hear it within you. Hear the crashing of the waves. Feel the expansion.”

“You overtake me, Lord. I want this. Overtake me. I sit here, still.”

“Peace, let it be your portion,” He responded.

That is not small.
That is not poetic language only.
That is instruction.

Sit.
Be still.
Let peace be your portion.
Let Him overtake you.

Then on March 15, 2026, I came again wanting to hear Him the same way.

I began, “Today is a day of wanting to hear you like the other day.”

“I am here.”

“Really????”

“Why is it so hard to fathom?”

“Because sometimes it is hard to hear you. To experience you.”

He laughed and said, “It’s all in your head.”

“That’s funny, Lord. But really. When I am needing an answer right then for myself or for others, sometimes, it seems hard.”

“Does it? Why do you think or believe that?”

“Because it does.”

“Okay, but why?”

“I don’t know. I can’t get ‘settled’ in that moment to hear. I can’t quiet myself. Is that it?”

“It sure seems like it. What should you do in those moments?”

“You tell me, Lord. I know you know all things.”

“I do, but what of capacity?”

That is where He brought me back again.
Back to capacity.
Back to the realm within.
Back to His indwelling sufficiency.

“It’s deep, Lord. What you said. I am trying to wrap my head around it all and not forget what you said.”

“Hmm. What of a solution?” He asked.

“Lord, you are my solution.”

“I AM. And I AM.”

“You are, Lord. What would you have me be or do?”

“Let’s go back to being unsettled.”

“Ok, Lord. Now things got quiet.”

“Is that what you feel in the moment? Quiet?”

“I feel I don’t hear you. Or know what to do or say.”

Then He said something piercing, “You sure act like you do [know what to say].”

I said, “I am sorry for that. Will you please forgive me?”

He replied, “Be sure in the steady. What about your afflictions?”

“What about them, Lord?” I answered.

He inquired, “Where are you with them?”

“Am I the same, Lord?”

Then He took me back to what He had already said, because sometimes the answer is not new revelation—it is returning to the revelation already given.

After revisiting it all, I said, “I don’t feel any different and I want to, Lord. I know in your word, and you say we can ask you and you are NOT the Father who gives a snake or a stone. I am asking. Will you, in your capacity which is everything, overtake/overshadow/consume me and take my afflictions from me?”

And the Father answered, “Stephanie, I will.”

That is where I want to land this tonight.

Not on striving.
Not on trying harder.
Not on leaving with another list.

But on this:

He says rest is key.
He says intimacy is what remains.
He says look inside, I am there.
He says you are the keeper of the flame.
He says uncertainty is the image that holds you back.
He says why fear the future if I am already there?
He says I am the way.
He says the truth is already in you because I am in you.
He says your realms do not have the capacity, but I do.
He says all capacity is stored there — My realm, in you.
He says just step into me.
He says peace, let it be your portion.
And finally, when asked to overtake, overshadow, consume, and remove affliction, He reiterated, “Stephanie, I will.”

So the invitation tonight is this:

Stop trying to live outside of what He already placed within.
Stop treating His presence like something distant when He says, “I am here.”
Stop exalting uncertainty over the God who is already in your tomorrow.
Stop trying to perform your way into peace.

Instead:
Rest.
Draw near.
Be sure in the steady.
Sit in the sand until the ocean comes into you.
Let His capacity become your understanding of life, provision, future, and freedom.

Because He is the way.
He is the truth.
He is the life.
And His realm is in you.