On the Day of Pentecost Peter preaches: repent and be baptised and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. (Acts 2:38)

The word for gift used here is the word dwrea {dorea} meaning something that is given freely without any cost or charge.

This promise is for all who the Lord calls to Himself, whether Jews from Jerusalem or those from further afield. (Acts 2:38, 39)

The Jews who accompanied Peter to the house of Cornelius, a Gentile, were amazed that the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out on the Gentiles also. At this first conversion of Gentiles the evidence of the Holy Spirit was similar to that given to the Jews at Pentecost i.e. speaking with tongues and ecstatic exaltation of God. These Gentiles were then baptised. (Acts 10:44 - 48)

When Peter has to give an account as to why he went to uncircumcised men (Gentiles) he recounts the promise that Jesus had made to them that they would be baptised in the Holy Spirit, and that the same gift had been given to the Gentiles. The Jews realised that God had granted to the Gentiles also the repentance that leads to life. (Acts 11:16 - 18)

In Acts 8:20 Peter forcefully rebukes Simon the Sorcerer for trying to buy the gift of God. In this instance the gift probably refers to the ability to bestow the Holy Spirit by the laying on of hands, rather than to the Holy Spirit himself. The important lesson to learn is that God's gift cannot be bought or earned. It is given by Him freely and without charge.

Careful readers of 1 Corinthians 12 in the NASB, AV, and NKJV will note that the word gifts in v1 is in italic, indicating that it is a word inserted by the translators. The real subject of the chapter is either spiritual things or possibly, with the NRSV, spiritual people. Similarly the nine things commonly called 'gifts of the Spirit' should probably be called 'manifestations of the Spirit' (v7). However, diverse gifts (v4), services or ministries (v5), and workings (v6) are referred to. The gifts here are not dwrea {dorea} but carismata {charismata} the undeserved gifts given by God's grace. What a pity that these outpourings of grace had become a source of jealousy and division in Corinth instead of being used to build up (edify) the church.