We discover the love of God present in every moment of our lives. The gift of fear of the Lord is not a paralyzing fear, but a fear of sin which is afraid to offend the Father. Saint Thomas ties this fear to the emotions of the pleasure appetite. It is a fear that grows out of respect and love of God. We could say much more about these gifts and about how relate to God.
Nothing is precise here.
We speak in a poetical way. If we say yes, is this not a denial of faith. Since the gifts involve a movement generating a response, somehow we must recognize some movement of God. So the movement of the Holy Spirit must be reflected in some way in our spirit. We shouldn't interpret the movements of the Holy Spirit in a nominalist way, that they're divine obligations.