Donné (Clement) Petruska: "A Word from Kim Clement's Daughter, Donné: The Almond Tree—a Promise Fulfilled"

When I was a child, I had a vision of my father playing the piano as an old man. His hair was grey and long. He played with both hands, and played extremely well, better than I had ever seen him play... now, in light of what has occurred over the past six months, it is very significant, and I see it as the first thing that God ever showed me. This is the promise that I am holding on to... (Photo above of Donne with her father, Kim Clement)

I have the honor of writing this issue of the newsletter for my daddy, as he is recovering from brain surgery. I must admit that this is an intimidating task, but I will do my best to bless you and humbly ask you to forgive me where I may be lacking in comparison with what you are used to receiving from him.

As many of you know from watching the Den broadcasts, a malignant brain tumor was found to be the cause of the brain hemorrhages my father suffered last year. It was successfully removed by an excellent surgeon on February 23rd, 2016. He was moved out of ICU and went home last week. He is doing very well and recovering at home with the help of his oncologists and rehabilitation team, and of course, my mother, who is the pinnacle of strength and optimism. Not only does she care for my father, but with the help of my sister Jacquelyn, also takes care of their five adopted children, who all have special needs. There are no words to describe her perseverance and dedication.

God has truly blessed our family with an amazing mother. As was prophesied on September 5th, 2015, through our dear friend Richard Gray, she has held up my father's right hand. All of us together as a family, not to mention the team that God gave to my father who have kept the ministry running so beautifully, are walking through the valley of the shadow of death. But we will make it through, as we keep our eyes on the promise and recognize the shadows as only that, shadows.

During the course of the past few months, I have struggled so much emotionally and spiritually as I've seen what my father has suffered and endured. I have seen him face death over and over again, and I have sensed the spirit of death so close that it suffocated me. In my darkest moment, when I angrily questioned God, He gave me a single answer—Jeremiah. (Photo: Kim Clement/via Facebook)

Now to be honest, I had not read the book of Jeremiah since I was a child and barely remembered it. But as I sat alone in the night, God spoke that one name to me so clearly and loudly that it was undeniable, and I immediately opened my Bible and turned to the first book of Jeremiah. The first thing that stood out to me was in verse five where God says to Jeremiah, "Before I formed you in the womb I knew you; Before you were born I sanctified you; I ordained you a prophet to the nations".

Immediately, I was covered with a rush of memory, and my father's voice echoed over and over again the many times I heard him quote that verse, and I wept. As I continued to read, I was intrigued by Jeremiah arguing with God, saying that he could not speak. I thought of how my father was also unable to speak. And then in verse nine it says, "Then the Lord put forth His hand and touched my mouth, and the Lord said to me: 'Behold, I have put My words in your mouth.'" Again, I wept, because I knew that God was trying to show me something. But the verse that stood out to me the most was when God asked Jeremiah, "Jeremiah, what do you see?" and he answered God and said, "I see a branch of an almond tree." And the Lord replied, "You have seen well, for I am ready to perform My word."

I began to ponder why Jeremiah seeing an almond tree would be important, so I started to look up the significance of the almond tree, and also looked up the same Scripture in different versions of the Bible. In the NIV, there was a footnote that said that the Hebrew word for "almond tree" is the same as the word for "watching", and in the NIV version the translation of what God says is, "I am watching to see that My word is fulfilled". So I contacted our dear friend Doobie in Israel, and asked him about the word in Hebrew for "almond tree" and how it is connected to the word for "watching". He explained that the word "Shaked" comes from the Hebrew root SKD, and is the same in Hebrew for the word "to watch", depending on context. (Photo: via KimClement.com)

Suddenly, I realized what God was trying to show me. He was telling me that He has not abandoned my father, but is watching over His word to be fulfilled. I felt peace because I knew then that even though things looked bad in the moment, we never know what God has planned and what could come of all of this in time. It pushed me to a place where I realized that I needed to rise above the chaos and fear and try to see from above, the greater picture, the light in the distance that only time and effort, the act of moving forward, can bring us to.

After that I went skipping off to the hospital to visit my father, eager to share with him what I had experienced. At that time, we did not know yet that he had a tumor, and it was still a mystery to us as to why he had hemorrhaged twice and what was really going on. I went into his hospital room and blurted out everything that had happened and how I had studied about the almond tree. I told him that God is watching over him and that I was quite impressed with myself and my little study, thinking I had brought some revelation to him in his time of need.

He smiled and nodded and I left feeling that I was able to give him something, which has been my goal all along. Every time I go to him, I must give him something. Not something material, although sometimes I do, but something to inspire his heart and soul in the most difficult time of his life. He is a man who has spent his entire life giving to others and I strongly feel that this is the time where he should be receiving in any and every possible way.

About a week later, I was going through archived Den broadcasts and came across a "From The Garden" recording he had done on June 10th of 2015. In that broadcast, he had done the exact same word study from Jeremiah as I had, and found the Hebrew connection between the almond tree and the word "to watch". (Photo: Kim Clement/via Facebook)

At first I felt foolish because he had politely nodded and smiled in the hospital, unable to tell me that he knew exactly what I was talking about. But at the same time, it occurred to me that this was a confirmation that I was hearing correctly, as Jeremiah had when he saw and perceived the almond tree. God asked him that because He wanted to see if Jeremiah was "seeing" correctly.

I recognized then that not only was God telling me that He is watching over everything that is happening to my father and has not abandoned him, but that I was perceiving correctly. This also must have been a comfort to my dad because he understood this concept and what was hidden in that passage of Scripture. I encourage anyone reading this to go and find that broadcast in the House of Destiny archives because it is a fantastic teaching overall.

Doobie was able to enlighten us further as to the significance of the almond tree, which he recently shared on the Den, from Israel. The almond tree is the "awake" tree, the first tree to bloom, and it blooms in winter when all the other trees are dormant. Suddenly it will produce beautiful flowers and fruit at a time you wouldn't expect, and I feel that this is what will happen with my father. Doobie explained that in the month of January, Israel has a festival called Tu B'Shevat, where they celebrate the coming spring and plant all kinds of trees. So I decided that I would plant an almond tree in my father's prayer garden, as a symbol of the promise that God gave me, and of my father's precious life. (Photo via Pixabay)

I believe that as the baby tree I planted grows and blooms, so will my dad. And years from now, as he prays there again, he will eat the fruit of that tree, the symbol of life, of planting in the spring, of strength as it was for Aaron when he used its branch for his staff. I also found a beautiful children's song that is sung in Israel during the Tu B'Shevat festival about the almond tree and thought I would share the lyrics:

The almond tree is blooming
And the golden sun is shining
Birds atop each roof
Brush (bless) the arrival of the festival

The land is crying out
The time of planting has arrived
Each person shall take a tree
We'll stride out with spades
Tu B'Shevat has arrived

On September 24th of last year, as my father lay in an induced coma in the ICU, I kept hearing in my spirit, "3 weeks, 3 months". It followed me throughout the day, over and over in my head, "good things are coming in 3's". Eventually, I was bursting to tell someone, and sent a group text to the team, telling them what God was saying to me. I also told my mother, siblings, and my husband, because I couldn't contain it. It wasn't in a whisper or a still small voice. It was loud and clear and persistent and I had to get it out. I didn't know at the time what it meant, or why I was so compelled to share it, but I couldn't help myself. When Dad left the ICU the first time, as they wheeled him out, he looked at my mother, held up three fingers and said, "Three". (Photo: Clement family at Christmas/via Facebook)

Three weeks after that day, my dad returned home from the hospital, the date was October 16th, 2015. Three months after that day, on December 24th, Christmas Eve, he returned home again after the second hemorrhage. The third time he returned home was March 11, 2016. The third month of the new year. Through this process, what my father instilled into my spirit emerged without my even thinking about it. I am not a great prophet to nations like my father, but I have been able to, in my desperation, hear from God in the way he has taught so many thousands of people to do. You don't have to be a great prophet to hear God. You just have to know how to perceive His voice, to recognize it and be obedient to it.

When I was a child, I had a vision of my father playing the piano as an old man. His hair was grey and long. He played with both hands, and played extremely well, better than I had ever seen him play. He and I spoke of that many times over the years, and at the time it seemed obvious that he would be an old man playing the piano. But now, in light of what has occurred over the past six months, it is very significant, and I see it as the first thing that God ever showed me. In my time of innocence, when my eyes were not clouded yet by life, I saw the promise. This is the promise that I am holding on to... for such a time as this. (Photo: Donné with Kim Clement)

It's a promise that not only will my father grow old, but he will be restored completely. Yes, he will bear the scars of a wounded warrior, but his boots will return to his feet, the Word of God to his mouth, and the music to his fingers.
I hope that I have been able to bless some of you who read this. As you go through your own struggles and suffering, remember that God will never abandon you. He will always watch over His word to be fulfilled in your life. I pray that you will find healing and solace through your tears, and that God will speak to your heart, as He has to mine.

I want to take this opportunity to thank you for your continued prayers and support, especially financially, as this has been a true sign to my dad—and all of us—of God's faithfulness. Would you consider taking a moment to ask the Lord how He would use you today to continue this great work that my dad has poured so much into?

Donné (Clement) Petruska
Kim Clement Center
Email: hope@kimclement.com
Website: www.kimclement.com

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