I Peter 1:22, "Seeing ye have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit unto unfeigned love of the brethren, see that ye love one another with a pure heart fervently." We are purifying our souls by obeying the truth.
To be a Christian and to be a dry well deceiving others by your show of religion is such a sad thing. I Timothy 4:8, "For bodily exercise profiteth little: but godliness is profitable unto all things, having promise of the life that now is, and of that which is to come." Exercise yourself in godliness. Understand this. Physical exercise we like. God wants us to get into the full swing of the exercise of faith. It is a great blessing to have His abiding presence. It is wonderful. You would like to have it at any cost. One of the ways to get it is to study the Word carefully and obey it at all costs. God knows him who trembles at His Word. In your morning watch if you have trembled at His Word, the whole day the Lord watches over you. It will become a habit for you to tremble at His Word. The value of the Word to you becomes greater and greater.
Be careful about your associations. Are you associating yourselves with dry wells? What does it mean to obey the Word through the spirit? It means you read the Word with prayer for grace to understand the Word. Jesus was praying but Peter was not. Jesus could see that Satan was going to sift him as wheat. But Peter thought he could give his life for Jesus. Could Peter do that without prayer? Jesus speaks in the spirit. Nicodemus spoke to him in the flesh but Jesus spoke to him in the spirit. Jesus always spoke to him in the spirit. Jesus spoke always in the spirit but many understood him only in the flesh. When you are born of the spirit, by prayer you can rise to the level of the spirit. The more you pray, the more you will understand the Word. Great revelations will come to you. You will understand the life of Elijah. Your life will be different from those around you. Your presence will bring the presence of God into any place. Unfeigned love of the brethren will come out of you spontaneously. You are always trying to give something from heaven to your brethren. You will become an oracle of God and a well with living water. This is our privilege. Let us attain unto it. How far are we from being an oracle of God or a well of living water? Our profession must not be greater than our action.