Started with a Dream and was Delivered by God

“We must release our dreams and let them be larger than ourselves or they are not from God.”

Back from the Grave by Ken Pounders

In May of 1620, 120 pilgrims crammed themselves into an 80-foot wooden ship named the Mayflower. Sixty-Six days later they finally landed at Plymouth Rock in November of 1620. Just in time for a harsh Winter. They ate stale food that was leftover from the voyage and many died. Only 4 of the 18 women that left England for the new world survived. In October of 1621, the first “Thanksgiving Feast” was celebrated by the sixty-two surviving pilgrims and the Wampanoag Indians at Plymouth.

We mark on the fourth Thursday of each November is in remembrance of a that first “Thanksgiving Feast”. We remember this as the day the pilgrims set aside to give thanks for their first harvest in the New World. Our traditions have evolved over the years, but one thing remains to be true; this holiday is a time meant to give thanks for God’s provision. A provision that made it possible for these early settlers and us to dream big dreams. Dreams so much bigger than anything we can accomplish on our own. The pilgrims had a dream of religious freedom and prosperous life in a new land. They also believed that only with God’s help would they accomplish it.

Pilgrim’s Dream

When I read the story of the pilgrims, I cannot help but think they must have been crazy. The Mayflower may have been a fine ship but who thinks it’s a good idea for 102 passengers to be isolated in a space about the size of a two-bedroom house for 66 days? Wait, that is not hard enough, let’s sail that small space across a dangerous ocean to a place you have never seen and were not sure about. Oh, by the way, let’s leave late so that it takes more than two months to get there and arrive just in time to experience Winter in New England.

The odds of surviving the trip over were not 100% and the odds of living through the first Winter were lower still; only 52 did. They knew there could be hostile people to meet them and brought heavy arms just in case. They might be diseases they had never heard of in the new world, and they could not sure the land would grow anything edible. But they left their homeland and would likely never return. Why? Because they dreamed bigger than their circumstances.

Dreaming even in Very Real and Daunting Circumstances

The pilgrims had a dream. A dream of a place where they could serve their God and live free. They came from mostly Europe and were headed to a place they had barely heard of with a charter from a company that wanted to profit from their need. They had hired a pair of ships, the Mayflower and the Speedwell to carry 120 of them to America. The Speedwell sprang a leak, so they stopped for a month for repairs in England. The ship started to leak again so they decided to put everyone on the already crowded Mayflower and sail for America. This dream was shaping up to be much bigger than they could have accomplished on their own.

I believe the 102 pilgrims that ended up on the Mayflower were hearing from God. They could hear his voice over the noise of the adversities, questions, and the mounting hardships. They had a great desire to “Love the Lord your God with all of your heart, mind and soul and all of your strength”.  Their dreams became Vision, even Prophetic Vision.

I imagine they had to often pray to God for strength. I imagine it was necessary to call out to God often. Some passengers got aboard the Mayflower as early as July of 1620, they did not go ashore in America until March of 1621. Eight months in the small quarters with a ceiling only five feet tall. They had to have had something beyond a simple goal, they had dreamed bigger than themselves to the point where only God could get them through it.

The First Thanksgiving

We celebrate the first thanksgiving in the Fall when the harvest is in and it’s time to eat the fruit of our labor. The harvest was indeed a time of great celebration for the pilgrims as well, but it was not their first thanksgiving celebration. The pilgrims had dreamed big, suffered terribly but had never given up on what God had promised. God had planted the dream and they had chosen to take him at his word. After a whole boatload of trouble, they were finally onshore in March of 1621. This first thanksgiving for actually a religious celebration. The Pilgrims set aside a season of prayer and thanksgiving to God for being with them as they walked out the dream he had planted. They were also sure He would see the dream into fruition.

These Pilgrims were not, however, the first to do this. The French celebrated a day of thanksgiving at St Augustine, Florida in 1564. The Spaniards celebrated in Texas after getting across the desert in 1598. Theirs was not even the first in New England; a spontaneous prayer meeting broke out in Jamestown in 1610 after must needed provisions arrived by ship. The early pilgrims and all the rest of the people that had come to this new land had one thing in common. They knew they had been blessed with supernatural intervention from God to get this far and that they would need His continued help to survive and thrive in this new land.

Thank God this Thanksgiving Holiday

Thank God for all that you have, all that you are but please remember to thank him in all that you will be.  Thank God for what He has done, all that He is doing and, thank him for what he is about to do. The pilgrims were thankful before the harvest AND at the harvest and were looking forward to the blessings of God in the future.

Hebrews 11:1 says, “Trusting is being confident of what we hope for, convinced about things we do not see”. Let the story of the Pilgrims be a reminder that you can trust God and be confident in what you hope for because of that trust in Him. The rest of this is often called the “Believers Hall of Fame” because it lists a great number of people that acted on dreams bigger than themselves. But then Paul starts Chapter 12 with “ So then, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us, too, put aside every impediment — that is, the sin which easily hampers our forward movement — and keep running with endurance in the contest set before us.”

God wants you to dream bigger than yourself. He has stored up provision for you already. A provision for today as well as for the future that will bring that dream to its fruition. Let me encourage you to thank Him for the harvest of today, as well as the harvest to come.

Be blessed this Thanksgiving and may God fill every need according to his glorious wealth. (Philippians 4:19)

*To order a copy of “Back from the Grave” write to Outreach Ministries of Alabama 
7352 Hwy 36 E Lacey’s Spring AL 35754