Perry Stone - The Mystery of Infants In Paradise
Now listen to this odd verse: First Kings 14:12–13: I found this thought; I’ve never read it like that in my life. «Arise therefore, and go to Jeroboam’s wife. Get to your house; when your feet enter the city, the child shall die. And all of Israel shall mourn for him and bury him, for he is of Jeroboam’s family. Jeroboam’s family shall come to the grave, because in him there is found something good and pleasing to the Lord, the God of Israel, in the house of Jeroboam.»
So here’s what God is saying: Jeroboam’s house is so wicked that I found one good thing there, and that’s that baby that was born. But I am not going to have this baby born in this house and be raised to be a wicked king, so you just tell him I will take that child away from them. Now this is a hard story to tell; I’m just reminded of this. This happened to my dad. My dad—actually, it was his mom and dad—and I believe this would have been in the 1950s. They had a child born named Kenny Eder; some of you have heard me tell this story.
When Kenny Eder was born, he had a physical sickness that was so bad that he would grab his belly and scream. They had all kinds of medicines; nothing was helping, and he was several months old. But when my dad would hold him, when my dad picked him up, he would quit crying. My dad’s mama said, «Fred, how can you pick that baby up? It always quits crying! What do you have in you?» He said, «Mom, it must be the Lord.»
Now I’m going to tell you the most bizarre story my daddy ever told me. How many of you knew my dad, Red Fred Stone? You know he was a man of God, right? You know you can trust what Dad said. All right, Brother W., here’s what happened: My dad was home from a revival, and he had little Kenny on his chest—this is a baby now—and he’s at peace; he’s sleeping. All of a sudden, Dad sees at the foot of the bed. He said, «Perry, it was either a vision or God opened my eyes; it was one of the two.»
There was a demonic spirit at the foot of the bed, and when that demonic spirit reached out toward Kenny, it went into his body with its spirit hands and grabbed his little belly and squeezed its hand. He saw the hand of that spirit go into the baby and squeeze, and Kenny went and just yelled. Dad said, «Dear Lord, there’s a spirit tormenting this baby physically—it’s a spirit of sickness!» And Dad said, «My spirit rose up within me,» and he pointed with his left hand to rebuke that spirit.
Dad heard that demon say this: «We’re limited to what we can do because you’re a man of God and you’re in this house, but you’re not always here. In three days, you’re going to a revival.» The demon knew Dad was going to revival and said, «So we’ll be back to torment this baby.» Now watch this. My dad went into prayer, and that night he had a dream. In the dream, he dreamed that his mother and dad were swine from the waist down and human from the waist up because they hadn’t followed the Lord yet—they would later get saved, but not at this time.
When Dad told his dad the dream, he said, «Now Dad, God told me last night in a dream: This child I’ve given to your mother and dad to take care of in their old age, but if they don’t serve me,» this is what God said, «there’s nothing restraining this demon from attacking this baby in this house, because there are no believers here. You’re not here, and I am not going to allow a spirit to attack this baby. I will take this baby in 30 days, and it will come to heaven to be with me before I’ll let this spirit attack it.» That’s God talking.
And my granddad cussed and hit the table and said, «Fred Stone, what do you think? What kind of God is that, that would put a baby’s sickness on a family because of my sin?» Well, I don’t know, but the Bible says the sins of the fathers are visited upon the third and fourth generation. Okay, can I tell you, in 30 days, they got a call that Kenny had died. Now, why am I saying that? Because it goes along with what I was saying here: Could God at times take a child so that it will never be raised in a wicked home and die lost? Not die lost young, but grow up into adulthood, is what I’m saying.
Here’s number three, all right, ready? There are just some things that have no explanation. When Oral Roberts’s daughter was in a plane with the husband, and they had several children, the plane crashed. I believe, if I’m not mistaken, they were going to a ski resort. Brother Roberts, how can you imagine your daughter and son-in-law have died in a plane crash? Here you are, the man of God, and Brother Roberts at that time was preaching about how to hedge your family in with a protective hedge. The enemy whispered to Roberts and said, «You made a fool out of yourself to the world! You’re telling people how there’s a protective hedge they can build; what happened to your kids?» The enemy was there, but Roberts was a great man of faith. He got on television and said, «Evelyn, this is the hardest thing we’ll do in our lives, but we’re going to get on TV and encourage people. We’re going to open up our hearts to the entire world.»
Now, Brother Roberts, the Lord came to him. I don’t want to tell the whole story; I’d rather the Roberts family tell it. But Oral Roberts said that the Lord came to him and said, «Oral, don’t question why; if you question why, you’re going to ask why for the rest of your life.» And here’s what he told him: «I will tell you, and you will know when you get to heaven, but I’m in control,» and that word comforted him. Can I just simply say something to you? There are times—my friend Walter has written a great book on why—he talks about why bad things happen to good people. He goes to Luke 13: they built a tower, and the tower collapsed on 18 people. He said, «Sometimes people don’t do their job right, and people’s lives are taken.»
He said, «Number two, read the Bible; Pilate slew the blood of these Galileans during a feast.» He said, «Sometimes wicked men—Isis is an example—wicked men come to power and slay and kill people because they’re wicked. There are wicked people on the earth.» He said, «Number three, there’s a woman that had a spirit of infirmity in the Bible. Sometimes it’s a spirit that comes against people.» I cannot tell you why sometimes a beautiful baby goes to be with the Lord. I wish I had the answer, but I do know this: I do know that when they leave this world, they go to be with the Lord.
Listen to Job 3:11: «Why did I not die from the womb? Why did I not give up the ghost when I came out of my mother’s belly?» There’s that spirit again in that baby before it comes out. I’m trying to tell you it’s an eternal being, an eternal spirit that’s in that baby when it’s still in the belly. Job 10:18: «Wherefore then hast Thou brought me forth out of the womb? Or why have I not given up the ghost?»
In the late 1980s, I had a marvelous dream; it was very clear. I saw two beautiful little girls, and I knew they were mine and my wife’s. I asked the name of one, and one was speaking for the other. One said, «My name is Amanda.» Now, partners, you remember me telling you this dream before? My little girl was ever born; what’s my little girl’s name? Amanda! Amanda pointed and said, «This is Rochelle.» I said, «Well, who is Rochelle?» She said, «Silly, that’s my sister; that’s your little girl too!» That was Amanda talking.
So I told my wife, «I just had this marvelous dream of two little girls!» Now remember, my wife wasn’t pregnant. We looked up the name Rochelle, and it meant «from a little stone.» Here’s what happened: My wife became pregnant, and we felt it was twins. When she went to get the checkup, we thought for sure it was a girl; we did everything in pink. Remember this, Linda? Everybody was giving us dresses. You all heard me say I’m going to have a girl. Pam did this test at the hospital and came back; she said—I’m not going to be crude here but, let’s be family—she said, «This is the MRI of the baby; you see that thing down there?» She said, «It’s a boy.» I said, «You’ve got to be kidding me—really? I knew we were going to have a girl!» She said, «Nope, it’s a boy.»
We were blessed to have Jonathan Gabriel Stone. I wish I could tell the story about Jonathan, but years went by. I traveled; Pam traveled with me. Eleven years went by, and one day I was laying in bed. I’d come home from a trip, and I was laying in bed in our bedroom in the old house. I felt a hand; I cannot explain this—a hand of an infant—on my left ankle, like it’s balancing itself, like it’s a baby trying to stand up. The hand was so warm; I felt it on my skin. Pam was doing the laundry; she walked by, and I had my eyes open. I was looking up, and she asked, «Are you okay?» I said, «You won’t believe what just happened: I felt a baby’s hand on my left ankle! I can still feel it there!» And I just began to weep. I said, «Baby, I think we’re supposed to have another baby; I think we’re supposed to have another child.»
You remember Pam, about this time? I think she was around 38 years of age. She said, «Well, you know I’m up there in years.» I said, «I saw that girl; we’ve got to have that girl. We’re going to have a girl; I know we’re going to have a girl!» And lo and behold, she didn’t get pregnant. Some of you will remember this: seven weeks into the pregnancy, we were in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee, at the camp. Me, Linda—were you all eating with us? L—a group of ladies was there when it happened at the Mexican restaurant right across from the Grand Hotel. My wife went, «Oh!» I said, «Baby, what’s wrong?» She said, «Oh, I’ve got this terrible pain. I’ve been having funny pains all day!» Immediately, she began to bleed. She got up from the chair and started having a miscarriage and ran to the… you remember the camping? She didn’t even get to come to half the services; she miscarried the baby.
I’m telling you, for women who have had it happen that way—it’s difficult—so I questioned God. I said, «God, what was that about? You know my wife’s getting older, and you showed me a girl, and I don’t understand that.» When Pam asked God, Pam was not angry—just wondering. God spoke to my wife and you know when my wife tells you God speaks, you better listen. Pam Stone hears; she doesn’t say that three times in a year. God spoke to her and said, «Pam, would you want that baby to live, no matter what condition it was in?» And the Lord told her that the infant was going to have a serious physical condition.
Now here’s what’s odd: When I saw Amanda, she was healthy in the vision. When I saw Rochelle, the second baby, there was something wrong. I could tell just by her eyes and her face. My feeling was that Amanda was talking for her, and my feeling was that Rochelle was deaf and could not speak. I felt that the whole time I saw this dream, and I actually saw these two girls twice before Amanda was ever born. I said, «Baby, we’ve got to get you pregnant again.» She said, «I can’t do it!» She got pregnant again.
I’d like to tease and say, «I’m an animal.» I was 42, and she was almost 40. I’ll show the picture—this is my Amanda. So I wrote her a poem when they brought her to the room and gave her to her mom. I wrote this poem the day she was born:
«Deep in sleep in the middle of the night,
A vision of a dream, such a wonderful sight.
A dark-haired girl who calls me Dad,
I awoke! Just a dream—oh, so sad!
Days turned to years, and again you appear,
Late in the night, in a dream, you’re there.
Your name is Amanda, meaning worthy of love;
I woke and prayed to the Lord up above
That in His time, He’d make this dream come true.
Years passed; we waited for the time we’d see you.
A hand on my ankle—what is this strange sight?
And in her voice tells me, 'Now is the time.'
In October, sudden tears fill our eyes,
But winter soon passes, and our spirits now rise.
A heartbeat is heard; an image is seen—
It’s a girl in the womb—it’s Amanda we sing!
August the 2nd, excited we wait;
The time soon arrived, but the labor was great.
But the pain turned to joy when we saw your face—
Dark hair, it is you, in pink ribbons and lace!
Your mommy and brother and I are here to love
And protect you from danger and fear,
To teach you about the place where you came from—Heaven,
The angels—the land from above.
Watching you grow will be my life’s joy
Until you’re married with your own girl and boy.
I’ll be there for you when my journey is through,
And when you arrive, I’ll be waiting for you.»
Some time back from Oak Hills, California, a woman sent me a letter, and I cried like a baby for about an hour. Her son, the only child she had, had suddenly died in his 20s. She was in great grief to the point that she asked God to kill her, to take her to heaven, or please let her see her son. She couldn’t take it anymore. Exhausted, she lay on her bed and had an out-of-body experience, like the Apostle Paul talks about. She says, «I went to heaven.» The first thing I saw was my sister-in-law, who had passed away seven months before. When I saw her in heaven, I said, «Where’s my boy Levi?» She said, «I know exactly where he is,» and she said it was really odd because we could appear in one room, and we could just appear somewhere else. It’s like we could transport ourselves just by thought. She said, «There was my boy sitting in this really big chair, and he ran and grabbed me and said, 'Mommy, I love you! '» She said, «I got to embrace my son in heaven.»
She said, «We didn’t talk; this was the weirdest part. He could think; I could think. He could think; I could think.» And as fast as you could think, they knew what you were thinking. She said, «Here’s what really thrilled me: My boy, because of the medicine, always wanted to grow a beard, and he could never grow a beard. He had a prickly beard. He said, 'Mama, check this out! ' and he was rubbing her with his beard.»
She says, «This is the part that just ripped me out of the frame.» Now you’ve got to remember, this woman did not know about Pam’s miscarriage; she knew nothing. This is not the reason for my letter today. The Lord moved on my heart to write you after another heavenly experience I had yesterday. I was praying before daybreak in the very early hours of Friday, September 20, 2013. While I was praying, I either slipped off into a dream or had a vision and found myself in the waiting room of a grand assembly of God’s people in heaven. I looked down and saw a very beautiful little girl. She had light complexion, beautiful eyes, a dainty nose, and the loveliest thick black curly hair.
Now Rochelle had black hair in the dream. I’ve never told people this, but she had the wisdom of the ancients. When I sat next to her, I knew she was Pam Stone’s daughter. Nevertheless, she was not Amanda. She smiled real big. I sat down next to her, and she said, «I know who you are; you’re a godly woman.» The next thing I know, all I know is somehow you both have a gorgeous little girl in heaven who is waiting for you. Please don’t be offended in me; it’s true! I can’t tell you how, but it’s true. I heard that sometimes women miscarry, but they don’t realize—or maybe you already are aware—that your little girl is waiting for you.
She didn’t know anything about this miscarriage. She didn’t even know that we knew it was a girl. She didn’t know that Rochelle had gorgeous black hair. I never would forget the face of the child. I couldn’t get an artist to draw it because you just can’t explain. If I would have been an artist, I could have, but I remember she was holding something. I don’t know what it was; it was like a teddy bear, but Rochelle—not Amanda in this vision—was holding something. But I remember there was just a look, a beautiful child, but just a little bit of a look that I knew she wasn’t totally healthy.
Then the most amazing thing happened to me in 2014 in Griffin, Georgia. There was a lady; she’s a medical doctor, a very intelligent lady, a medical doctor who is also an artist. She didn’t even know she was an artist. Guys, hold—don’t show anything until I hold this picture up. She said, «I want to give you a picture; I’m an artist. I brought a bunch of them for you to choose and select from.» She handed me this picture. I went crazy, man! I called Robbie. I said, «Robbie, get in here as fast as you can! I’ve just seen my baby!» I said, «What do you mean?» I said, «This woman just drew this picture out! I don’t know where she got it from, but I’ll never forget my baby girl’s face!»
And I told her, «I don’t care what I have to pay for that picture; I want it in my office.» I promise you this woman has never heard me tell the story. She’s never heard me talk about a baby that’s in heaven, my wife’s miscarriage. But I’m about to show you exactly what my baby girl looks like. Go ahead and show her. It’s exactly what she looks like! I couldn’t believe it, man! I went in; I just stared at the picture. I could hardly go out and preach!
Because oddly enough, when she drew this picture—see that little whatever it is, a rabbit or something? She was holding that in her hand when Amanda said, «Daddy, this is Rochelle; this is your other little girl.»
Now I’m going to say something. When my daddy went to be with the Lord—y’all bear with me for a minute—when my dad went to be with the Lord, he looked at me and said, «Son, I don’t know if the Lord will ever let us do this.» He says, «I’m not sure.» He said, «I think—and I do believe this—that you can look sometimes and see things. He said, 'I don’t know that God is going to ever let me just come see you in a vision or dream.'» Someone said, «I don’t believe in all that.» I had some crazy preacher get on his radio program talk about Perry Stone believes in necromancy because he believes you can talk to the dead. Perry doesn’t believe you can talk to the dead—I’m going to tell you something: Moses, who was dead, was dead and talked to Jesus! So what do you do with that, preacher? Okay, if you want to be a smart aleck, I’ll be a smart aleck back.
I look back at you; some people don’t have enough sense for a knapsack to squeeze it out of their eyeballs between their heads! I’m sorry; I just had to say that. You don’t know what I’ve had to deal with with that guy. But he said to me, «You know, if the Lord ever lets me just come back in a dream or vision, I’ll come say hi to you or something.» Well, I only had one dream: My dad warned of a terrorist attack. I’m not even going to talk about that tonight.
One month after he died, I saw him in a vision. He said, «There’s going to be a terrorist attack,» and it looks like we’re headed that way, and I’m just going to leave that alone. I told my mom one day, «Mama, you had a miscarriage when you were about Pam’s age-39. My wife was 39 when she miscarried this baby.» I said, «I kind of figured out why I’ve never had Dad see Dad in a dream. He’s got two baby girls up there who didn’t know he had a grandbaby and a daughter!»
Wow! I know my dad; what he’s doing is he’s on his knees acting like a kid playing with two girls. I’m serious as I can be because what I want you to understand is the spirit is eternal. Now when that spirit of a miscarried baby goes to heaven, God lets it grow and mature to a certain point just like He would if it had a body.