Is God controlling everything OR is He IN control of everything?

God eschatological plan for Time and Eternity is immutable, it will not change and what the prophets have said will surely come to pass - but - though God's Plan for Time and Eternity is fixed, the process by which that Plan comes to fruition is "fluid;" in other words, God has decreed that both His angelic and human creation possess free will so that relationship with Him can manifest with purity and authenticity; with that said, though God's eschatological Plan is immutable and He is guiding history down a particular path to a foreordained conclusion, God, in His omnipotence, allows you and me to make our own personal choices in this life and God works through and around our choices, good and evil, to accomplish His perfect will.

So yes, God is in absolute control but simultaneously allows His created beings to make their own choices concerning their eternal destiny relevant to faith in Jesus Christ as Lord and uses same to fulfill His perfect will for the Realm of Time and the Realm of the Eternal. This is God's doing as He is demonstrating to the faithful angelic creation the horrors of sin; the wickedness of Satan and the fallen angels; the necessity of obedience to God's will and the eternal value, necessity, of righteousness and love made manifest through the work of the Holy Spirit in the life of the one who believes that Jesus Christ is Lord.