The Holy Spirit is the best gift the Father can give us. However, because the Spirit is a person, he also loves us and he gives us gifts. This is what John said from his fullness have we all received, grace upon grace. The gift brings other gifts. What are the gifts of the Holy Spirit? Traditionally, there are seven: Wisdom, understanding, counsel, fortitude, knowledge, piety and fear of the Lord. The Baltimore Catechism says these gifts complete and perfect the virtues of those who receive them. They make the faithful docile in readily obeying divine inspiration. They are given to us so we can live our lives according to Gods will. With understanding we know more clearly the mysteries of faith. The gift of counsel helps us discern between the good and evil spirits. 1 John says we need to test all spirits because not all spirits come from God. The Holy Spirit makes us say, Jesus is Lord. If a spirit moves us to greater submission to Jesus, it is from the Holy Spirit. If it leads us to rebellion against Jesus, it is from the evil one. We will know if something is of the Spirit by the fruits. In Galatians 5, Paul says the fruit of the Spirit is: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, trustfulness, gentleness and self-control.
Notice the fruit is singular only one fruit. That means everything should be there. If there is no joy, or peace or patience, or the other attributes of the fruit, then it is not from the Spirit. A Christians life should be one of joy. This is why a sad Christian is a contradiction. We cannot be a Christian and be sad at the same time. The gift of fortitude makes us strong in obeying the will of the Lord. Knowledge is the ability to know the will of God in all things. Piety makes us love God as a Father and obey him because we love him. Charismatic Gifts
1 Corinthians 12 talks of other gifts. These are the charismatic gifts. There is however a misplaced importance given to the gift of tongues. Some people tend to give more importance to it over other gifts. But St. Paul clearly says that there are other gifts more important than the gift of tongues. He said that we should seek the higher gifts which are: faith, hope and love and the greatest of these is love. In chapter 14, he also says that the gift of prophecy is more important than the gift of tongues. These are just some of the gifts given by the Holy Spirit. All these are given for the good of the Church and for the glory of the Father.
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