he's as real as your conscious is...
everything you are, everything you were or will ever be, is all your thoughts.
i hope you don't confuse god with religion. God has always been there, whereas religion for me is nothing but human race's biggest and to date most successful invention.
as for your question, yes, i do believe in god,a higher power, there has to be.
but i don't believe he/she tends to control every single one of us or our thoughts (this ideology makes it too easy for us humans to blame everything on god).