How Can We Have Moral Direction If God Controls Everything?

[vulcanlogician]

Free will has nothing to do with materialism or determinism.

I'm not sure I agree with this statement in particular, although I think I see where you are coming from. My guess is that you are arguing the hard incompatibilist stance; you say that if one's choices are caused by antecedent states and events then one's will is not free will. (In which case, I agree with your position. I am a hard incompatibilist.)

But the matter is hardly settled. Libertarian free willists argue that because the universe is essentially not deterministic but --because of quantum mechanics-- choice is a wave function. And this wave function collapses when the observer becomes conscious of his choice. So, to the libertarian, the absence of determinism makes free will possible. I find the libertarian free willists' position quite implausible, but (still) this metaphysical dispute is far from being solved.

Dualism is another way that free will could occur in the universe, provided that souls do not operate under the same laws of cause and effect that material substances do. Dualism itself is a highly problematic metaphysical theory, but if it did turn out to be true, then we'd have to find some way of studying souls to determine if they were free agents of some kind. Some, like Sam Harris, disagree with me here, but I think dualistic free willists have a point.

I'm hoping not to have missed the point of your post altogether (which is quite possible). Let me know if I have.