All spells require that you have the proper magical weapon equipped to use them: for sorcery you have to have a catalyst; for miracles you need a charm; for pyromancy you need the pyromancy flame. These are weapons, and so you have to decide between a melee weapon (sword, axe, spear), a ranged weapon (bow, crossbow), shield, or spell weapon (catalyst, charm, flame). If I had to guess as to why you can't use spells, it would be that you might not have known that (seeing as you're a beginning player). If you do indeed know all of this and are doing it correctly and STILL can't use your modded spells, then I wouldn't know, as it always worked for me (I think there was only one spell that I couldn't mod, and it was Logan's Crystal Dragon spell, which is nothing compared to homing crystals anyway). It might also have to do with your skill level. but I really couldn't say.
As for your stats, the game can be picky sometimes about stats. If I remember correctly, you need to mod your level to be high enough for those stats to legitimately exist in the first place, though I could be totally off my mark. One positive way to make absolute sure that your stats stick is to mod your souls instead of the stats themselves, then just level up normally (keep modding souls as needed).
For the best answer on these issues, ask the developer of the editor you used.