The Sphere effect is intended to be used on a 2D layer. In the Sphere effect, there is a "Transform From" or "Position" property intended to be pointed to a point layer. You rotate the sphere by transforming the point.

Think of it like this: the layer is a sheet of paper and Hitfilm is drawing a sphere on the paper. You have your layer in 3D space and are animating the layer--this means you're moving the paper around. Paper is flat. 

Literally what I just typed above. So, again. 

You must create a point layer and set the point layer to 3D.

In the Position controls for the Sphere Effect, you need to find the "Transform From" control and set that to your point layer.

The layer with your sphere should be 2D. Position and rotation of this layer should be set to 0. You do not move this layer. 

To move and rotate your planet, you move and rotate the point layer that you selected in the Sphere effect "Transform From" property. Rotating the point rotates your planet. 

You can try looking at this tutorial at about 3:50 for another example. Note this is a Hitfilm Express/Pro 2017 tutorial. In Hitfilm 4 Pro you will not have controls for Illumination and your Sphere will NOT react to scene lighting.