They were convinced of the rightness of their cause, they made a plan and they stuck to it through thick and thin, paying whatever personal price was asked of them. The rest is history. It was the vision which gave them the impetus to go forward, the application to make detailed plans and the courage to succeed against all odds.
Visions happen to lots of people in the bible.
Jacob is sustained in the wilderness by the angels' ladder. Moses has a vision of God on Mount Sinai as he receives the ten commandments. Isaiah has a vision of god on his throne in the year that king Uzziah died. In the New Testament, Joseph sees the vision of an angel to who tells him not to be afraid to take Mary as his wife. An ordinary chap called Ananias gets a vision telling him to minister to a rogue called Saul.