Speaking to the Unseen With Certainty

In 1953, missionary Lester Sumrall was summoned to a Manila jail where a young woman named Clarita Villanueva was suffering repeated, unexplained bite marks that appeared on her body in front of witnesses, including the city's mayor and several physicians. No natural explanation could account for what officials had personally observed.

When Sumrall arrived, he did not enter the cell uncertain of the outcome. He read Scripture aloud, specifically the authority Jesus gave His followers in the Gospel of Mark, and spoke directly to the unseen forces tormenting the young woman, commanding them to leave in Jesus' name.

This was faith expressed with total certainty rather than cautious hope. Sumrall later explained that he did not wonder whether the name of Jesus still carried authority in that jail cell in 1953, he proceeded exactly as though it did, because Scripture had already settled the question for him.

The attacks stopped the moment he spoke. Villanueva's screaming ceased, the wounds stopped appearing, and she was permanently freed from the torment that had terrified an entire city. Government officials and members of the press who had witnessed the case confirmed the sudden change.

For Sumrall, the event became a defining picture of faith in action: not faith that hopes something might work, but faith that moves forward on the settled conviction of what Scripture has already promised.