Does God send us modern day prophets to guide us to where we need to be...?

such as authors, preachers and these people we regard as great spiritual minds, or is that just something we say He does to make us feel better about our laziness to not sit, study, pray and figure out what God wants on our own? Where we would just rather pay someone to tell us and buy the answers and our faith. Is it not really a matter of these people are God's chosen prophets and only they know the answers, or is it that we all have to ability to understand His will and desire for us, if we just put the time and effort into it? Has the Bible over time, and through all the different translations, and the evolution of our English language alone, made it that hard to really comprehend exactly what God wanted to say through it? Where God has to instill in these people the knowledge and ability to communicate His message to us. Or did He make it, and make us so that His will would always be evident throughout the ages, without a real need of prophets, but with study, prayer, and time?