Must it therefore be admitted that by the gifts I merit nothing? Surely if this be so, it would seem as though I had therefore no need for them. If their influence on my life was only to leave me no better off than before I received them, I might just as well not have had them at all. If in them God is the mover to the exclusion of myself, then it would be absurd for me to expect any reward for what has been absolutely no work of mine. This is true. I do not merit by the gifts. Yet, I must add that I can profit by them.
The Holy Spirit lights up my mind and enables me to see or refines my perception of and responsiveness to His least suggestion. That is His doing so far. Illumination and refinement are entirely His work. However, my part comes later, when I respond to the suggestions or in accordance with the vision. Then, I profit by the gifts. Suggestion and vision are from God. He opens my mind and I see Him everywhere—in a flower, in trouble, or in the soul of a sinner.
If, in consequence of seeing Him in the sinner, I turn to that sinner and speak kindly of the love that never fails or if I help him by my sympathy though I speak no word of spiritual significance, then the good that I achieve, or at least the good I try to do, becomes my way of profiting by means of the gifts. This indwelling of the Spirit of God, while it takes control of my soul from me and hands it for the moment to God, gives me something by which I can love again and be rewarded. I do not merit by the sevenfold gifts, but I do merit through them.
