What happens when you respond to the gifts of the Holy Spirit?

Answer 1

A:

According to St Thomas Aquinas, there are seven gifts of the Holy Spirit:

1. wisdom
2. understanding
3. knowledge
4. counsel (right judgment)
5. fortitude
6. fear of the Lord
7. reverence or piety

It is hard to know just when someone receives these gifts of the Holy Spirit, since even an atheist can have wisdom, understanding, knowledge, counsel or right judgment, and fortitude. A follower of a very different religion such as Hinduism can have all seven gifts, including fear (of a different god) and reverence or piety, but would never attribute these to the Holy Spirit. Presumably also, a Christian can have all seven gifts without ever receiving them as gifts from the Holy Spirit.

Thomas Aquinas says that the gifts of wisdom, understanding, knowledge, and counsel direct the intellect, while the gifts of fortitude, piety, and fear of the Lord direct the will toward God. But how do you know if you received gifts of the Holy Spirit, or were just endowed with these characteristics, and how do you know what happens then?

Another View:

The question has it a bit backwards. We do not 'respond' to the gifts of the Spirit, rather it is the 'fruits of the Spirit (see Galatians 5:22-23) that will 'lead' the new 'us' to reflect God's character in us and not the ways of mankind (Galatians 5:19-21) as Paul was telling us. To better realize this, one must first understand what God's Holy Spirit is.

Most all in Christianity would reply that the Godhead consists of 3 individual 'persons' and the Holy Spirit is the 3rd and separate member of said Godhead. But this is not what the Scripture states (see 2 Timothy 1:7; Zechariah 4:6; Micah 3:8; Luke 4:14 and Acts 1:8) . IMHO this was a vain attempt by men to define the Godhead as best as they could interpret it during the 4th Century A.D..

However, a close read of the Scriptures noted above will reveal that God's Holy Spirit is 'the life force and essence' of God which He uses to sustain everything and more importantly 'to beget' His future spiritual children - all of us who repent, are baptized and have the laying on of hands to receive God's Holy Spirit (see Acts 2:38; 8:15-17; 19:5-6, Hebrews 6:1-2). We then have God's Spirit (aka the Spirit of Christ) living in each of us because we have been made right with God (see Romans 8:9-10).

As it is God's desire to have us become His spiritual children (2 Corinthians 6:18) and the only way He will accept us if we become 'perfect' as He is and as Jesus lived (Matthew 5:48). He and Christ promised they would come into us to lead us in the 'truth' (see John 14:16-17; John 15:5; John 16:12; John 17:17). We will be 'lead' by the Spirit (Romans 8:14-17) and must adhere with this new inner strength to follow the perfect example of Jesus Christ (see Colossians 3:12-13).