God speaks to His children through visions and dreams at times. The Scriptures record how Paul had a vision of Jesus:

«After I was back in Jerusalem and praying one day in the Temple, lost in the presence of God, I saw him, saw God’s Righteous Innocent, and heard him say to me, ‘Hurry up! Get out of here as quickly as you can. None of the Jews here in Jerusalem are going to accept what you say about me.’» Acts 22:17-18 The Message Bible

Paul’s plan was to stay in Jerusalem and preach to those who knew him. He had made up his mind on what to do for God. But in a vision, Paul learned from God that his plan was not God’s plan. As a well-known Pharisee, Paul may have thought that his profile among the Jews would allow him to use his influence to persuade them to follow Jesus. “Surely,” Paul must have thought, “this will please God.”

But that was not God’s perfect will, and only as Paul prayed for direction was God’s perfect will given. God sent Paul to the Gentiles, and the world was changed forever—he shook the known world for God, and the reverberations from His act of obedience to God’s will continue to circle the globe today.