Prophecy is vital to our faith, in both its past fulfillments and future hopes.  The problems come from those who try to fulfill prophecy before its time.
I certainly think faith and prophecy go together.
Past fulfilled prophecies are faith strengthening.
On the other hand faith also gives us the patience to wait. According to Hebrews 11, there many persons of faith, whom God blessed and confirmed their trust in him. Although they had tremendous faith they did not see the fulfilment of the promises, but because of the strength of their faith could see them from afar.
Over the last centuries, people have always felt that the time of the second coming was imminent. Even the apostles seemed to feel it would happen in their own lifetime from what I can see. And yes, it might lead to jaded feelings about prophecies and give some people time to dwell and say "That'll never happen", though I do disagree with you serafina, I do not think that prophecy negates freewill, if anything, it gives us a chance to make our decision to either follow or turn away and put our faith into men rather than into God, because even if it doesn't happen in our lifetimes, the promise is that it will come, and that we must prepare our souls for that time, and be ready in case it should start tomorrow. It's about keeping the faith, not giving up our freewill for that which we are afraid.
Personally I think of prophecy kinda like God leaving a note on our refrigerator to give us warning that he is coming, and to not be afraid if the world seems to be falling into chaos and anger. Maybe it's a weird way of thinking :whistle: but it's how I like to see it, lol. :thumbsup: