"We tend to see gifts as the sign of the Spirit's work in someone. But the Bible never does. Judas and King Saul were used by the Spirit to prophesy, do miracles, and so on... but they did not have Spirit-renewed hearts. To be truly led by the Spirit is to grow "the fruit of the Spirit" (v 22). Gifts may or may not operate out of a grace-changed heart; but the fruit-growth of the Spirit can only happen in a child of God. The only test that the Spirit has really indwelled you as a child of God is the growth in the fruit of the Spirit. The first part of that fruit, which Paul mentions here is "love"; and as he says elsewhere, to a church which over-desired particular spiritual gifts: "If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong ... I am nothing ... I gain nothing" (1 Corinthians 13:1, 2, 3)."