First, if you have a child, you are to raise up that child in the way that they should go. You don't beat it into that child, you don't withhold food, shelter, and love from that child until they can show they have earned it.
You love that child so you grow that child gradually into the person who will know the right way through a life of growing into adulthood. The suckling baby is not fed strong meat in the beginning. You do not withhold blessing to the child until they prove themselves worthy. You instill in the child as it grows toward adulthood The Way. So it is that God grows us as we mature in The Way, by His indwelling nature as The Holy Spirit.
Now how does God tell us He is raising up His children in the way that they should go? ... Well, by indwelling them when they are 'born again' in this life, still on this earth, in order that they can 'see the Kingdom of God'. As Jesus showed Nicodemus:
Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.Nicodemus saith unto him, How can a man be born when he is old? can he enter the second time into his mother's womb, and be born?
Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again. The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the Spirit.
Nicodemus answered and said unto him, How can these things be? (Nicodemus is asking the question you refuse to ask, regarding how it is that The Holy Spirit can indwell while we are on the earth.)
Jesus answered and said unto him, Art thou a master of Israel, and knowest not these things? Verily, verily, I say unto thee, We speak that we do know, and testify that we have seen; and ye receive not our witness. If I have told you earthly things, and ye believe not, how shall ye believe, if I tell you of heavenly things?
Jesus tells Nic how God in the Holy Spirit is to be here on Earth, so that those indwelt may then see/enter into the kingdom of God, the Heavenly things. When Paul wrote to Timothy about 'denying the power thereof, he was explicitly pointing to this indwelling, and if there is no evidence of the character of God coming out in the behavior of the man, that man is not under 'the power thereof, the guiding loving power of The indwelling Holy Spirit.
Jesus uses the present tense with Nicodemus, showing that being born again is something happening now, not 'after all that you can do. Paul tells Timothy that to deny the power thereof is to deny The Holy Spirit the right to transform in the now, a process God accomplishes at the spirit level in the here and now, preparing the believer, the born again to live in His Kingdom. That preparation is GOD raising a new born up in the Way that should go, by the daily indwelling and transforming Holy Spirit.
If a son shall ask bread of any of you that is a father, will he give him a stone? or if he ask a fish, will he for a fish give him a serpent?
Or if he shall ask an egg, will he offer him a scorpion?
If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children: how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him?
Peace be with you, be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind.
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>> “Jesus uses the present tense with Nicodemus, showing that being born again is something happening now” <<
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Not!
He did exactly the opposite.
The words of chapter 3 that you posted deny your premise.
First, no one here sees the kingdom of God. If you could see it, you could describe it.
Verse 8 makes it abundantly clear that nobody is yet “born again” in the sense that Yeshua is explaining to Nicodemus. Can you move invisibly like the wind? Can people hear you but not see where you’re going? Those that are born again will have that capacity, Yeshua said so!
Being born again into an incorruptible body will be the difference between resurrection, and remaining here on Earth to see the wrath of God of the Bowl Judgements.
Born again as Yeshua explains it, and born again as Peter did are two separate things, one we experience in our flesh and blood daily lives, and the other coming later at the day of Trumpets when we are resurrected for the wedding feast.
This is an important thing to understand. It makes the revelations of the NT writings very clear and easy to understand.
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My mind is REALLY stubborn!